20th Century Fox Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen
Directed By: Brett Ratner
Rated: PG-13
20th Century Fox
Marvel has really hit its stride with superhero movie adaptations--for better or for worse. After the success of the first X-Men in 2000, they have produced a string of good (X-Men, Spider-Man, X-Men II, Spider-Man 2) and not-so-good (Elektra, Fantastic Four, Daredevil) films based on their comic franchises. After the nasty taste that Fantastic Four left in my mouth last year, I was not 100% confident that the third film in the X-Men series was going to be as good as the first two. My worries were deepened by the departure of director Bryan Singer (who was busy directing Superman Returns). Luckily, my fears were not realized. While the paid critics don't much care for X-Men: The Last Stand, I thought it was pretty darned good.
The story this time around is that a pharmaceutical company has developed what they call a "cure" for mutants. One shot of the serum, and all mutations disappear. Naturally, this is rather controversial among the mutants themselves, most of whom don't consider themselves in need of a cure. This is especially true of Magneto (McKellen), who has always felt that humans were inferior and that Mutants should take control of the planet. As Magneto prepares to wage war against the humans, Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart) and the X-Men struggle to keep Magneto and his Brotherhood of mutants at bay while also waging a less violent protest against the so-called cure. Meanwhile, both Magneto and Xavier have to deal with the reincarnated Jean Grey aka: Phoenix (Famke Janssen), who is out of control and more powerful than any mutant on either side of the war.
Although the film is quite action-packed, the story is deeper than it might appear through the smoke and explosions. What lends it much of its depth is that the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are really in agreement in principle--they don't want anyone presuming to change them against their will. Parallels to racism and to the events of the Holocaust are made obvious throughout the film.
All of this doesn't take away from the fact that this is a living comic book--and what a comic book it is! The special effects technology of today (provided here in part by Weta, who proved themselves world-class competitors on the CG scene when working on the Lord of the Rings films) truly brings the pages of the comics to life. When Magneto moves the Golden Gate bridge to create a path from the mainland to Alcatraz Island, you almost expect, on your next trip to San Francisco, to see that the bridge was really moved. The fight scenes are thrilling, and there is little to complain about in terms of things that look fake--an all-too-common thing in even high-budget films that depend heavily on computer generated effects.
The main quibbles I've heard are that the story doesn't follow any of the established X-Men story arcs presented in the comics, and that the movie is rather mean-spirited. I'm not a follower of X-Men comics, so the first point doesn't bother me at all. I think that even if I were a follower of the comics, I could forgive the filmmakers a bit of creative license. After all, I'm a fan of Smallville, Lois and Clark, and the Superman feature films (the first three, anyway), and every one of them takes liberties with the Superman legend. As for the mean-spirited nature of the film...yes, the movie is rather harsh at times--but in my opinion, that lends a touch of reality to subject matter that could easily lose its grounding in the real world without a dose of down and dirty human nature.
Me? My main gripe is probably that there are way too many characters to keep track of. It would probably have been better to concentrate on a handful of heroes and villains and give them all more to do rather than to jam as many known (and unknown) characters as possible into the film. But, without all of those characters, the climactic fight scene might not have been quite as exciting.
I highly recommend this film. If it is the last film in the X-Men series, it's a great finale. If not (and there's plenty of reason to believe that it won't be), then I anxiously await the next one.
One final note: stay through the end of the closing credits. You'll miss a good scene if you don't.
Bottom line: An action-packed, visually stunning sequel that is easily equal to the first two installments of the X-Men series.