"No one ever talks about extermination. They just do it." (X-Men - The Last Stand (DVD))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	X-Men - The Last Stand (DVD)
Date:	31/05/06 (260 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent basic plot, some good action sequences

Disadvantages: Unfocussed, too short, glosses over interesting characters, could be loads better.

Questions were always going to raised about X-Men 3 with the departure of director Bryan Singer to the hugely anticipated "Superman Returns". In his place came (eventually) Brett Ratner someone who, from my perspective, not only had to produce something as good as Bryan Singer's previous X-Men movies, but had also to erase the travesties that were Rush Hour 1 and 2 (I cannot stand Chris Tucker).

Ignoring the somewhat pointless "20 years ago" intros, "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" starts with the announcement of a Mutant cure developed by a bio-tech firm. The firm, which has set up a research facility on Alcatraz Island, has produced this cure with the "help" of a mutant child named Leech.

The mutant population is obviously quite distressed about this cure and Magneto (Ian McKellan) is having none of it. He pulls together a mutant army from the population, including a few new faces in Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), Multiple Man and Callisto. Callisto has the ability to trace mutants, and Magneto puts this to good use to rescue his loyal companion and friend, Mystique.

Meanwhile, at Professor Xavier's school for "gifted" children, Cyclops (James Marsden) is still having a hard time coming to terms with Jean Grey's death. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has been called to fill in with the training of some of the more promising training while Cyclops mourns.

Cyclops ends up back a Alkali Lake, the scene of Jean's death, and in a fit of frustration, fires his energy sight thingy into the water. This manages to awaken something from the water, which turns out to be Jean... or so we think.

Professor Xavier's psychic abilities alert him to potential danger at Alkali Lake and he despatches Storm and Wolverine to investigate. Upon arrival, they find an unconscious Jean Grey but no sign of Cyclops save for his protective glasses. Something is definitely amiss, and it's up to Professor X and the X-Men to sort it out before Magneto starts all out war over the 'cure'.

There are quite a few differences between The Last Stand and the previous X-Men movies. While X-Men and X2 both delve heavily into Wolverine's history, The Last Stand is more about Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix and this strand interweaves with the main story thread of the mutant cure.

The issue I mainly have with the film itself is the script. As the final chapter in this particular trilogy, it almost seemed that it was in a hurry to finish. The story had potential to really explore the moral dilemma of the mutant cure and why a mutant might want to take this (the cure essentially removes the mutant part, leaving a 100% homo sapiens). The special effects were a match for any of the previous X-Men films, which is to say they were excellent.

Additionally, with so many leading characters, there is a distinct lack of character building. Some of the new characters, such as Hank McCoy aka Beast (the big blue thing for those who have briefly watched the cartoon/read the comic) has real potential to be explored, but is sadly neglected. Other characters appear for no reason whatsoever. I'm looking at you, Angel. An extra twenty minutes of running time and a slight trimming of the story to cut out superfluous characters and events wouldn't have hurt the film and could have seen an extra action sequence and plenty of plot and character development (the Rogue thread is under-developed in my view).

Apart from this (though I see this is as the film's main failing), I had no issues with the direction. The set pieces were excellent, though there weren't enough of them (and I though the 100-odd minute running time was too short) but the more human scenes were handled well. As stated above, as the end of a trilogy, it was lacking and, in my opinion, quite unsatisfactory.

It would have been nice to have seen Kelsey Grammer (Hank McCoy) flex his acting muscles a bit more and fill in a little back story, though he was actually quite good in what little he had to do. The usual suspects of Wolverine, Storm, Jean Grey etc. were all played to the normal high standards by the actors. Both Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier) and Ian McKellan were undoubtedly the stars in terms of performances, breathing life into their respective characters. None of the others really shone that much, though Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde offered something a little different.

I came out of the theatre having enjoyed myself and my companion really enjoyed herself. However, I quickly started to pick holes in the film and voice dissatisfaction in the story and running time. It's not a terrible film, just… disappointing. If I were an X-Men comic fan, I'd maybe feel a lot angrier, but as it stands, it's just disappointing.

Result: a decent enough film albeit disappointing given the previous two in the franchise although not a disaster. It could be argued that because this is a trilogy closer, it should have been more. The X-Men may well be back (there are rumours of Wolverine and Magneto spin offs) in the future on further adventures (stay until after the end credits), but hopefully to the story quality will be that of X-Men 1 and 2, not The Last Stand.

Summary: When a cure for mutancy is developed, the thread of a war becomes ever more real.