Movie Review: X-Men 3: The Last Stand

I've been a big fan of the X-Men series so far and was afraid when director Bryan Singer left (to make Superman Returns) to be replaced by Brett Ratner. I enjoyed the movie but I think it's the weakest of the trilogy.

It does have the best story of the trilogy. It's taken from recent stories in the comics by Buffy and Firefly creator Joss Whedan. A cure for the mutant gene is developed and now all mutants debate if they should take it. The enormous cast of more than 15 main characters helps to present a variety of different opinions. Some like Storm, say there is nothing wrong with them and they don't need to be cured, others wish they could be human. The Beast would like to loose his furry blue appearance to fit in and rogue would llke to be able to touch someone without killing them. The obvious solution is to let each mutant decide for themselves. But Magneto and others fear that this is the first step and that eventually they will be forced to take it. So they launch a pre-emptive strike and then we see the cure has been turned into a weapon. It's not clear if Magneto merely predicted or actually precipitated this event.

It's a good story, with many parallels to real life issues of those that don't quite fit in. The problem is it's offset by some shallowness and stupidity. They introduce Angel (one of the original x-men from the 60s), in this incarnation he's a son of a CEO who thinks his wings are a disease. We see him first as an adolecent trying to cut off his wings himself and next resisting the cure. He's not a fleshed out character as much as a plot device. This is proven in the next (and only) two scenes we see him in but I won't give it away. You'll be able to predict it yourself.

As for stupidity, there are a bunch of things. Why take a boat or fly across a bay when you can rip out a bridge and move it (ok, it looks cool). Why shoot lightening from your hands when you can fight hand-to-hand. Why send the people you're trying to save out to be killed as pawns in a battle? It just wasn't as tight as the other two movies in these kinds of details.

The movie also has another main story which is a reenvisioning of the classic 80s Dark Phoenix story that made the X-Men a phenomenon. They made a lot of changes but the basics are all there. Jean Grey becomes all powerful and absolute power corrupts absolutely and how loyal are your friends? In the comics she ate a sun, in the movie she does some bad things but destroys perhaps the area of a city block. She also spends too much time standing around looking lost.

There's a lot in there and film seems a bit cramped for time. It's about a half hour shorter than X-Men 2, but I was surprised to see it's the same length as the first movie. I appreciate that they have a lot of characters and don't waste time on origin stories. I also noticed the dialog is very economical. Early on Cylops says to Wolverine about dealing with Jean's death at the end of the last movie that "we don't all heal as fast as you". That worked both in the scene and to make sure people understood his mutant healing ability. There are lots of examples of that kind of thing and my two friends who didn't know the comics seemed to follow everything just fine. Of course if you did know the comics you could appreciate seeing a fastball special or a sentinals head and a number of other things. Speaking of Cylops, the writers must not like him. He was barely in the first film, unconscience for most of the second, and is barely in this film.

I also have a lot of respect for this film because it wasn't afraid to make major changes to major characters. And because it's based on comic books it wasn't afraid to leave in ways to undo those changes. Nevertheless, it works and it shows that the movies were conceived of as a trilogy. It's success this weekend all but guarantees there will be more films, but the word is the next one will be a Wolverine spinoff. I'll go see it.

If you do see X-Men 3, be sure to stay until after the credits.