There's been a lot of hullabaloo about X-Men III: The Last Stand. (Not as much as DaVinci Code, but that's another post). Is it the last X-Men movie? Did Brett Ratner ruin the series? If so, can it be salvaged?
Personally, I don't think this is the last film. I think it was a "filler" film, which is not a good reason to make a film, but it does what it's supposed to do: entertain.
X-Men III: Last Stand centers around the premise that a pharmaceutical company has discovered a "cure" for mutation. This cure happens to be secretions from another mutant. On one side is the ever-afraid humans, seeking to destroy (or at least control) that which they don't understand. On another side is Magneto, long time friend of Charles Xavier, long time foe of the X-Men. He and his Brotherhood, heartily oppose the cure, claiming the humans will use it as a weapon against mutantkind in order to maintain the current power structure (in this, Magneto is not wholly wrong). On a third side (or rather, caught in the middle, as usual) are the X-Men, who's goal is harmonious existence between human- and mutantkind. Led by Charles Xavier, they battle those foes who would destroy mutants for the sake of their mutation, as well as mutants who would try to destroy those humans. "Can't we all just get along?" is an implied battlecry for the muties in black.
The sub-plot is a carry-over from X-Men 2: X-Men United. In that film, Jean Grey, a powerful mentalist and student of Xavier's, has died in a sacrifice to save the rest of the team from a flood from a burst dam. Her love, Scott Summers, Cyclops, has not taken this well at all. Scott leaves the school because he thinks he's hearing Jean call him. Traveling back to Alkali Lake, he can't handle the voices and lets loose with a powerful optic blast into the lake. This burst release Jean, like the Lady in the Lake, and they are reunited... briefly.
We find out that Jean is a Class 5 mutant, the most powerful kind, and that Professor X put some heavy duty mental blocks on her when she was a child, to protect her (and the rest of the world) from her tremendous power. In the process, he created a schism, a secondary personality called the Phoenix, a personality of all passion and rage with no restraint. It was implied in X2 that events in X1 weakened those protective barriers and that the finale of X2 burst them. So when the X-Men recover Jean, she is in constant battle with Phoenix, trying desperately to keep it under control.
Ok, purists are going to see this movie and be disappointed (they always are). "That's not how Jean became Phoenix!" You know what? You're right. That's NOT how Jean became Phoenix... in the books. But this is not the books. It's the movies, and the movies have to do things very differently.
In the books, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler and Collosus were recruited by Xavier to help save Cyclops, Havoc, Iceman, Polaris, and Angel from a killer island named Krakoa. That wouldn't have worked for a movie. In the books, Jean becomes Phoenix flying a space shuttle back to Earth through a deadly solar flare. While they could have done that in a movie, it would have been expensive. In the books, Kitty Pryde is recruited in a bidding war between Xavier and Emma Frost, White Queen of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. In the movie, she was recruited, but without the drama and action that went with Kitty in the book series.
The movies are a universe unto themselves. They function well against each other, even this movie. I'm a little disturbed by how certain characters react to certain situations in this film (specifically Rogue), but by and large I feel the series is not ruined, as some opponents have decried. Brett Ratner, better known for the Rush Hour movies, has made a film that works (and I feel works well) within the framework built and established by Bryan Singer.
Some opponents are upset with the overnumber of mutants and the lack of background. They're upset by the amount of explosions and not enough explanation. To those folks I say this: IT IS A COMIC BOOK MOVIE. Most of these characters only need explanation if you haven't seen the other two movies (or haven't read the books).
There are only a couple of blatant errors that I could see on the initial viewing, and one of those errors was a book vs. movie change that I personally didn't care for regarding Juggernaught. The other is regarding Angel and flight speed. I'll just leave it at that and let you, the audience, decide if I'm being picky.
Again, I thought this was a great movie. If you go, stay for all the credits. There's a little twist after the credits roll that tells me we haven't seen the last of the X-Men on film.
Four and a half stars (out of five).
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