X-Men: The Last Stand

Rating

Director

Brett Ratner

Screenplay

Simon Kinberg, Zak Penn

Length

104 min.

Starring

Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie Jones, Patrick Stewart, Ben Foster, Dania Ramirez, Josef Sommer, Ellen Page, Michael Murphy, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Bill Duke, Daniel Cudmore, Eric Dane, Haley Ramm, Cameron Bright

MPAA Rating

PG-13 (For intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language)

Review

The franchise that dared to be different. Instead of picking a single super hero and one or two super villains, the X-Men franchise instead focuses on an array of characters as both heroes and villains. It’s what ensemble directors like Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson might have created, except with a popcorn edge.

Bryan Singer was the perfect director for such an effort. His first two efforts were among the super hero genres’ best films. However, when he quit to work on Superman Returns,a new director took over the project. A director whose flair for visuals is strong but whose ability to blend stories is weak. The Last Stand survives mainly on its cast of characters and not for any outstanding plot that supports it.

While nothing could be considered standard about a plot involving a mutant whose powers have exceeded her ability to control them, there are still reminiscent scenes of patriarchal defeat and noble sacrifice. Still, for all its detriments, X-Men 3 is still a satisfactory conclusion to an otherwise stellar trilogy.

When Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) supposedly died at the end of X-Men United, comic book fans were left with a special closing treat, that of a fire bird soaring under the water of the lake that took Grey’s life. They knew the Phoenix would rise from the ashes and so she has. As a fictionalized pre-tale scene of friends Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Eric Lensherr (Ian McKellen), whose identities are Professor X and Magneto respectively, arrive at young Grey’s house to persuade her to join Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters, they know then that she has powers she cannot control.

Throughout the film, we learn more about Jean’s marvelous powers and how, under immense feelings, she can’t stop from doing things she might later regret. She goes so far as to join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, run by Magneto, who pledges to not control her. However, as evil is wont to do, they do use her for their own purposes though her presence is more of a liability than a benefit as the Brotherhood finds out in a climactic battle that is emotionally charged and visually stunning.

Janssen’s performance, far removed from her breakthrough role in Bond film Golden Eye, isn’t one of intensity nor temerity. It’s a mannered caricature of a woman troubled, not one that would easily win praise. Fellow evil mutant Pyro (Aaron Stanford) is an equally unimpressive character thanks to Stanford’s simplistic angry teen turn.

Though a superhero film can’t be considered a haven for fantastic performances, some great actors do up the stakes. Stewart and McKellen are renowned thesps who know how to turn a phrase for dramatic effect and though they don’t reach the peaks of X-Men: United, they nonetheless provide great services. Likewise, Hugh Jackman as the blood-letting beast Wolverine brings a nuance to a character that, in the comic books, is nothing but a brash malcontent. Jackman, whose own fame has magnified over the last 10 years, receives the bulk of the film’s screen time as the only remaining lover in Jean Grey’s life and the one person who might be able to save her from herself if he can do it in time.

There are few trilogies that succeed in a combined whole. Even The Godfather trilogy couldn’t hold up with its third part. However, the X-Men trilogy at least surpasses recent third-part disappointments like The Matrix: Revolutions and Scream 3. The Last Stand never fails to deliver surprises and for that, we can be grateful. The shocks are intended to take the viewer’s mind off of other flaws. While it accomplishes such a feat, one can’t help but wonder how the film could have soared had Superman not gotten in the way.

Review Written

September 13, 2006