It remains to been if this third film will measure up to the standard set by director Bryan Singer. The first two X-Men films were his babies, after all.
It's similar to the Terminator scenario. James Cameron made the first two Terminator films, and then some other guy directed the third. T3 was interesting and had its moments, but it was nowhere near as superb as T2. Not for a second.
The difference in favor of X-Men 3 could be that its "authenticity" does not rest solely on the vision of the franchise's original director. It's not so much a question of being faithful to what Singer would have done, but being faithful to the well-established comic book characters. Whereas to make a Terminator film without the involvement of Cameron...well, they did, but ultimately it seemed a soulless exercise to me. Plenty of action, very little vision.
I predict X-Men 3 will be quite successful, even without Singer at the helm. The first two films have given the X-Men "brand" such a good name that the 3rd film would have to be disastrously bad not to do well at the box office.
Maybe a more entertaining question is, which will do better business: X-Men 3...or Superman Returns (which is directed by Singer)?
