They wish to cure us... and I say WE are the cure! (X-Men III: the last Stand (DVD))

Member Name: dancomp

Product:	X-Men III: the last Stand (DVD)
Date:	31/10/06 (240 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable romp

Disadvantages: X2-lite

Introduction
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Coming to us this time courtesy of director of Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), this is arguably the last in the X-Men series. The previous two films covered intolerance, bigotry and misunderstanding as well as Halle Berry in tight lycra. How does this installment hold up in comparison to the previous two? The answer is quite well.

A pharmaceutical conglomerate, Worthington labs has done the inconcievable - they have discovered a cure for mutant genes through the method of a simple injection. News of this among the mutant fraternity has radically different receptions.

Rogue (The boring, boring Anna Panquin) is tempted by the promise of a normal life. Wolverine (The much better Hugh Jackman) could'nt give a rat's ass while Magneto (The always-watchable Ian McKellan) gathers to himself an army - the brotherhood of mutants, warning them that sooner or later the normals will use the cure forcibly and in doing so wipe out the mutant race.

Cyclops, (the dreary James Marsden) still depressed by Jean Gray's (Famke Jansen - woof!) sacrifice in X2 returns to the lake where she died only to discover that she has somehow survived. Unfortunately the highest rating mutant ever discovered has lost the carefully constructed mental blocks put in place by Professor Xavier (The charismatic Patrick Stuart) in order to contain her darker side and is now unbound.

The film
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The "usual" cast of X-men do their thing well enough, but it is left to Jansen and Jackman to carry off the most emotional scene in the movie and they do so with admirable aplomb. The special effects are very, very good with CGI meshed with live action to avoid impressions of falseness and suspend disbelief.

New characters abound in "The Last Stand" including a remarkably funny two-three seconds where a prince look-alike demolishes plastic weapons with a Michael Jackson hee-heeee stylee and a clap. Aside from this, most of the new characters are well thought out and well cast with Vinnie Jones playing Juggernaught, a nasty minded thug (or should that be the other way around?) and Kelsey supporter-of-the-bush-administration Grammar lending somewhat pompous life to Beast.

Unfortunately, Nightcrawler (Alan Cummings) does'nt make it into this movie. The only reason I can think of is that he was sacrificed to make way for the introduction of Beast and the audience deemed too stupid to deal with two blue characters at once on the good team lest their heads collectively explode with the effort of thought. John Powell's score is subtle where it needs to be and powerful when the action hots up.

Generally the director does a good job, bucking the trend of those that began in music videos (see Constantine review below). It's doubtful he will ever produce a masterwork, but the results here are more than satisfactory.

There are several deaths in this movie which I'll not expand upon except to say that if you sit through the credits, there is an additional scene that hints that things may not be as permanent as previous events dictated. At the time of writing this, several spin-offs are being considered.

Summary
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Though not the film that X2 was in terms of quality of writing nor as dark or as brooding, The Last Stand is nevertheless worth checking out.

Summary: Where's the yellow spandex?