Wednesday, June 14, 2006

X-men 3 : The Last Stand Movie Review

Having heard that Brian Singer, director of the first two X-men movies, had gone off to film the new superman returns movie, and left this in the hands of Brett Ratner, I was not expecting too much from this. Not that Ratner's previous movies (Rush hour 1 & 2, Red Dragon) are that bad, but because I enjoyed X-men 1 & 2 so much.

It opens with two flashback, one 20 years ago filling in the some of the backstory with Jean Grey, and 10 years ago introducing a new character, Angel, to the audience. One of the problems of the X-men films is that there is just so much material in the comics, where does one begin. A director has to really love the material to be able to pull this off. New mutants are introduced, Multiple Man, a lesser known character of the Marvel universe, and Juggernaut, I'm sad to say, played be Vinnie Jones, who seems to be wearing a musclebound suit. I cringed every time he opened his mouth. Nightcrawler from the second movie, is notable by his absence, although I though I glimpsed him on a church roof, but it might have been the Lizard.

This 'episode' centres on the return of Jean Grey aka Phoenix, a possible cure for the mutant gene, and tries to tie up
multiple story threads nicely together. I don't think it quite works but would happily sit through another viewing.

If someone had suggested Dr Frasier Crane to play a
muscly, furry, blue mutant I wouldn't have taken them seriously. But Kelsey Grammar does a great job (like the voice casting of David Hyde Pierce in Hellboy)playing Beast an intellectual mutant in the Cabinet. Is it a token acceptance? Mutants seem to be accepted, but ever ready to shake things up is Ian McKellen, delivering another serious but theatric performance. Like his character Magneto, I think that McKellen enjoys these over dramatic fireworks. Why transport a number of mutants on a few cars, magnetically clamped together when you can move the entire Golden Gate bridge? Less is more with some forms of art, but more is definitely more with Magneto. His (and Pyro's) particular brand of Molotov cocktails near the end of the movie amused me.

The setting of San Fransisco seems apt, as the mutantcy question has undertones of comparing it with homosexuality. Mutants are divided, some see it as a gift, while other a "corruption of healthy genes", a curse to be removed.


I first heard of the Phoenix character when reading the Secret Wars comics in my teens and the strongest image imprinted in my memory is of an a
pocalyptic kaboom in the shape of a phoenix firebird rather than a mushroom cloud. I was wondering if this would be represented in the movie, but alas, (or maybe just as well) didn't appear. Some things that work in comic books don't translate to the big screen a vice versa. Some of the costumes are better than in the comics, while others seem oddly reminiscent of Charlie's Angels.

Wait until after the credits roll until you leave the cinema because something X-tra special is waiting for you. Will this "Last Stand" be the last X-men movie, the comic fan in me hopes not.

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