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X-Men The Last Stand
The X-Men was always one of my favorite comics
growing up. There was so much depth of story in those
characters. The overall story arc was epic while the
characters had many intimate moments. There also wasn't
always a black and white, good guy bad guy situation.
Often each side was just trying to do what they thought was best
for their people. Magneto at his core feared the
non-mutants. He feared that due to the simple fact that
they outnumbered the mutants that they would someday find a way
to exterminate them. Many non-mutants feared the mutants,
feared their abilities, feared their differences, and tried
often tried to exterminate them as Magneto had always feared.
So you always had the battle between the two sides, built on
fear, and played on themes of racism. In the middle there
was Professor Charles Xavier and his school for mutants.
He believed that there had to be a way for mutants and
non-mutants to coexist peacefully and he dedicated his life to
that belief. He built his school to bring in mutants and
teach them to control their powers, to hopefully play a part in
bring mutants and non-mutants together.
The movies have of course taken this theme and
ran with it. The first two films have featured Magneto and
Professor X both doing the same thing, bringing mutants into the
fold and trying to protect them. Magneto is as in the
comics the radical, where Professor X is the more rational, but
they both have the same goal. In the third film two major
storylines from the comics are brought together. At the
end of the second film we of course had the death of Gene Grey
and the hint of the coming Dark Phoenix storyline. This
huge story is the quintessential X-Men story. I read this
lengthy story growing up and it has stayed with me over the
years, even in the time I had stopped reading comics for a while
I still remembered this storyline and looked back on it fondly.
I had already settled in to the fact that the Dark Phoenix story
would be radically different from the one in the comics after
seeing X2. There's no way they could tell that complete
story in one film, or even three films. So my hope was
that they'd tell their own version of the story but would still
get the emotional tone right. The second story focused on
in the film is the more recent Joss Wheadon X-Men series about a
cure being found for the gene that causes people to be mutants.
This story is perfect thematically and plays well cinematically.
The problem is that the film only runs 97 minutes, so one of the
two stories is going to suffer. Of course, the one that
does, is the Dark Phoenix story. She and her story, feel
unnecessary to the film. Where she should be the focus of
the story she's just a side note for much of the films running
time, often used as a plot device more than an important story.
This is an ensemble franchise, with tons of
characters to give screen time too. The biggest failure of
the first two films is the focus on Wolverine. Why focus
so much time on this one character if you aren't going to get
into the meat of his story? They did hit the high points
in X2 but like the Dark Phoenix story in this film his story was
used as more of a catalyst for action rather than a storyline
that carried weight in the film. I don't know why Anna
Paquin even bothered to participate at all in this third film.
She truly has nothing to do. In the comics the inner
conflict Rogue had with choosing sides between Magneto and the
X-Men offered some of the series best stories but here she just
sits around yearning to be able to touch someone without killing
them which you would think would add some depth top the cure
storyline but it really doesn't because she's just not in the
movie that much. That brings me to a completely useless
love triangle thing that's in the film between Rogue, Iceman,
and Kitty Pryde. Like I said earlier there's a lot of
stuff to cover in this short 97 minutes and this stuff just
feels like Dawson's Creek crap. It's a real waste of
valuable time.
There's a real slip shot feel to some of the
story telling too. There's a major event in the film that
turns it on its ear, but it's only referred to, never shown.
It almost feels like it's on the cutting room floor. I'll
just say it. How can you kill off a major character and
not show it happen? Well they did in this film.
Also, some of the dialogue is extremely poorly written. It
feels yanked right from some of those old comics. While
the comic book geek in me thinks that's kind of cool, the movie
geek realizes that it doesn't work. This is supposed to be
serious business yet there's a ton of one liners in the film,
and they mostly unfortunately fall flat.
So it's been established that I'm not a comic
book purist. I understand that often things must be
changed in the transition from comics to film to make the
stories work on the big screen. Here's another thing, I
don't hold the first two X-Men films up as being near
perfect the way other fans do. I love those films, but I
felt like the fight scenes looked like crap in the first film
and I also felt, especially in the first film, that the themes
of the comic book series were only glossed over. This film
does do some stuff right, some things even better than the
previous films.
Brett Ratner knows how to shoot and cut action
sequences. The battles in this film are the best of all
three. The special effects and choreography are finally
completely realized. These sequences also feel ripped
right from the comics and this time it's a good thing. The
only real special effects screw up is with the Beast. He
just looks a little to obviously painted. The fur looks
good but the blue paint doesn't. Speaking of special
effects I was happy to see the Dark Phoenix do some real damage.
In the comics she destroyed an entire planet, while she doesn't
do that here what she does do carries the same emotional impact.
While I've never been a fan of Halle Berry in the role of Storm
she finally looks right and she finally gets to kick some ass
here. Also, the relationship between Professor X and
Magneto is nearly perfectly executed in this film. It was
never poorly represented in the first two, but here it just
feels right. Speaking of Magneto, Ian McKellen is again
magnificent in the role of Magneto. He's bitter, he's
scared, and he's charismatic all at once. He and Patrick
Stewart were pitch perfect casting back in the first X-Men
film and they continue to show why in this third installment.
It didn't look good for this third film.
Director Bryan Singer abandoned the series in favor of the
Superman film and he tried to take a bit of the cast and crew
with him. Fox seemed to have become focused on getting
another X-Men film done in time to compete with the
Superman film even if it cost the film in its quality.
Brett Ratner was brought on board to direct. When I read
that I started tapping the nails into the coffin of the
franchise. No offense to Rush Hour fans but this
guy is all fluff and no substance. Now that I've seen the
film my biggest disappointment is the missed opportunity to make
something timely and impactful. But, what we do get is a
blast of a summer movie and in fact the second best of the
trilogy in my book. I think the writing in the second film
is still stronger but the overall experience of this film is
better than that of the first. Not too shabby from the
director of Rush Hour and the writers of xXx: State of
the Union and Last Action Hero.
7.5/10
Almost forgot, when you see this film, stay until
the credits are over. There's a final scene that is so
important it should have actually been added before the closing
credits started.
-Stephen Lackey |
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