X-Men: The Last Stand Review [3]
Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz on 05.30.2006
Wolverine. Storm. Magento. Professor X. Mystique. And Bill Duke. How could it go wrong?
Hugh Jackman- Wolverine
Halle Berry- Storm
Patrick Stewart- Prof. Charles Xavier
Ian McKellen- Magneto
Famke Janssen- Dr. Jean Grey/Phoenix
Kelsey Grammer- Hank McCoy/Beast
Rebecca Romijn- Mystique
Anna Paquin- Rogue
James Marsden- Cyclops
Shawn Asmore- Iceman
Aaron Stanford- Pyro
Ellen Page- Kitty Pryde
Vinnie Jones- Juggernaut
Daniel Cudmore- Colossus
Ben Foster- Angel
Michael Murphy- Warren Worthington II
Josef Sommer- The President
Bill Duke- Trask
Directed by Brett Ratner
Screenplay by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language
Runtime- 104 minutes
Website: http://www.x3movie.com
"X-Men 3: The Last Stand," directed by Brett Ratner, is a surprisingly good action/sci-fi/comic book movie that manages to pack in a whole bunch of characters and story in one hour and forty some odd minutes without ever feeling incoherent. Yes, like the two previous "X-Men" installments (those flicks spearheaded by Bryan Springer) the flick necessitates more time to tell its story, but what it does have time to do it does it well. Instead of making Hugh Jackman's Logan/Wolverine character the main thrust of the story, the screenplay (credited to Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn) decides to focus on both Famke Janssen's Jean Grey character, the psychic mutant we all saw die at the end of the second flick (sorry if that's considered a "spoiler," but you probably already saw her in the trailer and myriad television commercials) and a story involving a pharmaceutical company finding a "cure" for mutants. The two threads converge, along with a whole bunch of other stuff (some more developed than others. Again, it's all about screen time) that make for flick that fits in well with the other two. Isn't that the point?
The flick starts out twenty years in the past with Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) looking much younger than they actually are going to visit the parents of a "level five" mutant named Jean Grey. It's a bizarre scene that involves both Magento and Xavier interrogating the young Grey regarding her vast powers (check out the levitating cars in the background and the creepy walking corpse/videogame cinematic look of McKellen and Stewart as they have been transformed via computer trickery). The scene shifts ten years later to a bathroom with a young boy scratching his back. Suffice to say that the scratching isn't the result of a pimple. The scene then shifts again to what the on-screen label claims is "the near future." The X-Men are in action. It's some post apocalyptic type place. Missiles and bombs and explosions abound among the vast wreckage. Storm (Hale Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Asmore), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Colussus (Daniel Cudmore), and Wolverine are in the thick of it. After some pretty dang neat special effects we find out that the carnage is the result of a fight simulator and that Storm is in the middle of teaching the younger mutants on how to work as a team. Wolverine, flippant as always, was just filling in for Cyclops (James Marsden), who is off on a big butt brood over the death of his gal Jean Grey. Some stuff happens, and Cyclops goes off on a trip by himself. He arrives at the lake Jean Grey died in and some more stuff happens. Jean Grey comes back and, well, it ain't pretty.
We then meet Dr. Hank McCoy, or "Beast," (Kelsey Grammer) a blue haired mutant working for the President of the United States (Josef Sommer). The federal government is hot on the trail of Magneto and his merry band of evil mutants. The FBI has caught Mystique (the ever luscious Rebecca Romijn) breaking into the FDA. Mystique found s file regarding a super secret drug created by Warren Worthington II (Michael Murphy) that will "cure" mutants of their powers. Suddenly, when word breaks out about the drug, mutants start to take up sides. Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants is against the whole thing, thinks it's another trick by the scum humans and isn't going to tolerate any more "discrimination). Xavier, in concert with McCoy and other mutants, is more cautious. Xavier doesn't want war with "regular" humans, but doesn't really trust that this cure stuff is going to work out.
That's basically what the story is. It's best to watch and absorb the little bits as they make for a rousing whole.
Pretty much all of the mutants are excellent. On the good guy side we have Jackman exuding the swaggering animal charisma of the Wolverine and doing a dang good job with this slightly diminished role. Halle Berry gets a little more screen time as Storm. She gets to fight more, do more cool wirework stuff. James Marsden does a good bit of sullen acting in his role as Cyclops. A little disappointing, but good. Anna Paquin as Rogue gets to hang around doing…stuff. Iceman gets to hang out with Rogue and do the teenybopper thing with Kiity Pryde. And Patrick Stewart is, as always, excellent and dignified as the head of the Xavier School. Kelsey Grammer's turn as Beast is excellent. He's just a perfect fit. The Archangel (you've likely seen his white wings in the commercials) is an interesting character that really goes nowhere. That's where the potential extra time would have helped. On the bad guy side we have the awesome McKellen as Magneto, the yummy Mystique, the punk butt Pyro (Aaron Stanford), and new bad guy Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones) doing the crazy running guy thing. There are a few other mutants (there's one female bad guy mutant that can sense mutant abilities and an Asian guy that can shoot out porcupine quills but this reviewer can't remember their names). Jean Grey, going between the sullen regular Jean Grey and the potentially evil "Phoenix," manages to straddle the line between confused dead woman walking around for some reason and a lunatic with black eyes who can turn a man's body into dust. Famke Janssen's delivery is somewhat rigid, but that's the character. Or this reviewer is just missing something.
Brett Ratner got quite a bit of crap for directing this flick. He wasn't right for the gig, he's a hack, he's not Bryan Singer, etc. Despite all of that Ratner gets the job done and makes an exciting movie. It isn't perfect, parts seem to be rushed, but the movie works. Isn't this the same thing most people said after Ratner was named to direct "Red Dragon"?
And then there's the great Bill Duke. Good ol' Mac from "Predator" works as an advisor to the President and helps work out the response to Magneto's terrorist activities (watch for the Magneto "Osama" video). He doesn't get to engage in fighting or swearing or, well, much of anything other than standing there talking, but he is Bill Duke. His mere presence makes a movie classy.
What else is there? Adamantium fury, neck breaking by feet, half naked women, explosions, a classic like from Juggernaut, a Sentinel (a head anyway), and a great trick involving crushing cars in mid air and the moving of the Golden Gate Bridge. And there's some other stuff, too.
Is this really "The Last Stand"? In one way, yeah, it is. But then this flick is likely to make a bunch of money, and it's not like the producers are going to run out of story ideas any time soon. Hang around in the theatre and wait for the end of the credits for a bit of hooey that is so obviously hackneyed when you consider what happened about an hour before, you'll smile at how such a cheap bit of movie making makes you smile.
"X-Men 3: The Last Stand" is a good movie that people should go out and see. There's no real reason not to. Oh, and if you're hoping that what you're gonna see is a verbatim translation of the comics and whatnot, well… this reviewer wishes he read more "X-Men" so he could say whether or not the flick is "faithful" to the material. But then, too. What difference would that really make? A movie is a movie. A comic book is a comic book.
The 411: “X-Men 3: The Last Stand” is the third flick in the successful “X-Men” franchise featuring some new mutant characters and a new director. It’s the shortest of the three flicks so far, and while it does need more time to more develop its many story threads, what we get is dang good. It’s a good compliment to the previous two flicks.
