Yeah, X-3 was a proverbial blood-bath, wasn't it? But I appreciate that it goes very far towards a guarantee that this will be the last X-Men film, despite the great box office and the tag at the end ... which I will put in spoiler tags for no particular reason:
As for
Private Ryan, I'm sorry Alex did not appreciate the twist of a seeming flash-back not being a flash-back. I think it was a brilliant device to fool the audience into believing that the main character lives through his harrowing war experiences. In such a
literally blood-bath movie, I believe the audience would have otherwise been more than half
expecting Tom Hanks' to buy the farm. Since he is such an appealing character, I think his death as a surprise and shock was a worthy goal, completely justifying a bit of cinematic trickery with hokey film conventions of "the flashback."
It is noteworthy that the film did not cut from the Matt Damon's character's present-day close up to a shot of Tom Hanks. There were six or seven shots before Hanks was revealed. And since 'old man Damon' was shown staring at a tombstone when the cut to the past happened, a "flashback" of the person who died is, I believe, quite legitimate.
In light of a certain film currently out in theaters, it was bittersweet to watch yet another movie where Tom Hanks really enlivens an entire picture with his considerable presence.