Critics' X3 Film Reviews: Master Thread

[Chris Wallace]

Why Not?

 

[Retroman]

From EMPIRE MAGAZINE (Australia):

X-Men: The Last Stand

The discovery of a cure for mutation – designed to offer a choice but also as a weapon of control – splits the mutant population. Professor Xavier urges tolerance but Magneto wants all-out war on the humans, and a reborn Jean Grey is the wild card.

23/05/2006

RELEASED May 25
RATED M
STARRING Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Jannsen
DIRECTOR Brett Ratner
SCREENWRITERS Simon Kinberg, Zak Penn
RUNNING TIME 103 mins

What would you do if you could erase your peculiarities, those traits that set you apart and yet defined you as an individual? The X-Men films have always trafficked in the plight of the outcast (superficially, anyway) – the first a metaphor for civil liberties, the second a popcorn plea for tolerance of diversity – and, in The Last Stand, the very threat to what makes us unique is the film’s somewhat blurry manifest. This “final” chapter (stick around after the credits, you’ll get the idea) never clarifies whatever point it imagines it’s trying to make; instead, it finds its footing, oddly, as a love story.

The cure for mutation looms divisively large. Xavier (Stewart) and mutant ambassador to the President, Dr McCoy (Kelsey Grammer) toil in vain for an accord, while Magneto (the ever-dignified McKellen) sees it as his justified chance for revenge on homo sapiens. In Jean Grey (Jannsen), resurrected straight from the Id as the volatile Phoenix, Magneto has his all-powerful weapon of mutant destruction. It’s hard not to empathise with the rage and purity of Magneto’s quest; villainous in the past, his tactics here feel valid – after all, you’d be upset if someone classified your individualty as a disease, too.

Against this backdrop The Last Stand emerges as a series of personal battles; of Xavier’s patience versus Magneto’s extremism; of Rogue’s (Paquin) need to love versus her inability to touch; and most potently, the tension of submerged desire that has endured between Wolverine (Jackman) and Jean Grey.

The film suggests a parable for individualism versus conformity, but the script doesn’t dig that deep, reverting to familiar action scenes, enjoyable though never spectacular, that culiminate in another tourist landmark showdown. The story feels secondary to the characters, and it’s their relationships – solidified, if not exactly escalated – that hold the film together.

The bond between rivals Xavier and Magneto is ultimately touching, while Jackman’s gruff Wolverine plays against Storm (Berry) like old siblings. Kelsey Grammer brings humour and grit to Beast, and if Vinnie Jones’s Juggernaut is basically a soccer hooligan, he at least gets one of the funniest scenes with Ellen Page’s fiesty Shadowcat. Most memorable of all, though, is Famke Jannsen, who crafts a grim and soulful performance with little more than Weta levitation and her searing raven eyes. Phoenix’s moody telekinetics give the film much of its fire, and help temper a climax that flirts precariously with sentiment.

Fanboys terrified that their nemesis, LA party boy director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), would sink this threequel can rest easy. As he proved in Red Dragon, Ratner is respectful to a franchise. True, his compositions are more generic and miss Bryan Singer’s personal quest/social critique, but he doesn’t interfere with his predecessor’s well-established material.

Taken together, the X-Men films come into their own as multiplex pop comics that question issues of conformity; though the verdict is mixed on the trilogy’s ultimate conviction. With or without Singer the franchise is at heart Marvel, and Stan Lee’s creations always seek a kind of benign acceptance by society (Spider-Man, Hulk), despite their outward grotesquerie. It’s that whiff of “why can’t we all just get along?” that grates most, and why Magneto, whose final moment is as sad as any in the series, is the most tragic figure here. Still, with so much comic-book adaptation becoming monotone serious (the tedious Batman Begins a prime offender), at least X3 retains an enjoyable and spirited sense of humour.

LUKE GOODSELL

VERDICT
A solid “end” to a fine trilogy.

Source: http://www.empireonline.com.au/incinemas_show.php?id=584

 

[Retroman]

NOTE: This is one of the biggest critics of the film.

From CHUD.COM:

REVIEW: X-MEN - THE LAST STAND (DEVIN'S TAKE)
05.23.06
By Devin Faraci


This review contains some spoilers.

X-Men: The Last Stand isn’t the worst movie of the year. Hell, it’s not even the worst film in the series. The bad news is that it’s also not the best, although the elements seem to be there; what we end up with is a movie that’s a miracle, given its production history, yet is a missed opportunity, given what the filmmakers had to work with.

The film combines two stories that are familiar to comic readers – the resurrection of Jean Grey as a powerful, crazy being known as Phoenix is an arc most X-fans grew up with. The other plot, about a cure for mutants, is of more recent vintage, coming from Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men. Either of these stories could have been a movie, but since they’re lashed together one must suffer. It ends up being the Phoenix.

I understand why Phoenix is in the film – it’s THE X-Men story, the one that in many ways continues to define the aesthetic of that universe. The problem with Phoenix, at least for the X-Men films, is the way that it doesn’t obviously fit into the thematic territory the series has staked for itself. Even losing the sci-fi alien trappings from the original Phoenix saga, that plot doesn’t lend itself immediately to the “beleaguered minority” themes of the films; Phoenix is ultimately an insular story. The mutant cure, on the other hand, is so quintessentially thematically appropriate that it’s hard to believe it took almost forty years for someone to come up with it.

The mutant cure plot is a great one because it throws into stark relief the key question anyone who is different must face – how much is my difference helping or hurting me? And if I could change my skin color, my sexual orientation, my skeleton being visible through my skin, would I? Should I? The X-Men films have been about how outsiders come together to form groups. By the time X2 hit, the X-Men were a mini-army. But the cure returns the spotlight to the individual – suddenly the new community, formed by necessity, may not be so necessary anymore.

To Magneto the cure is a new final solution. To him it’s the realization of his fears – an all-out assault on mutants, but done quietly. It’s a purge, but a polite one. And in many ways it echoes modern issues – how much freedom (of flight) do you want to give up for security (in normalcy)? What makes X-Men: The Last Stand a better movie than it perhaps has a right to be is that it doesn’t make the cure a black and white issue. The cure doesn’t come from the government, looking to eradicate mutants; it comes from billionaire Warren Worthington, who wants a cure for his son’s angelic wings. He really thinks that the cure is helping mutants. And while it’s easy to see where Magneto is coming from, it’s just as easy to see where Rogue, who has not been able to touch another human being since puberty, is coming from when she thinks that maybe this cure isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Where the film stumbles is that it introduces issues like this and then doesn’t follow through with them. Granted, it’s a 97 minute long action movie released over Memorial Day weekend, so you can’t expect lengthy debates on ethics, but there must be ways to have those debates through action. Early in the film the government weaponizes the cure, and a member of Magneto’s Brotherhood gets de-mutated (in a touch that reminds us of what it is that makes Magneto a bad guy – the same rigid adherence to black and white that our current Decider in Chief has – the master of magnetism immediately abandons the depowered, helpless character. “You’re no longer one of us,” he says. Must be against us, huh?) – Henry McCoy, aka the bouncing blue-haired Beast (truly a travesty of make-up, but more on that later) and the Secretary of Mutant Affairs, is outraged. Rightly so, perhaps – what would the Marvel Universe’s Geneva Convention have to say about that? But later in the film, when the only way to save the day seems to be to use the weaponized cure, McCoy has no problem personally delivering it. The film doesn’t give even a moment of thought to the moral aspects of this, and it’s too bad, since it’s so damn obvious. Those are the places where the movie really drops the ball.

The basic truth of the matter is that the film needs another half hour. As it is, X-Men: The Last Stand feels scooped out. There’s barely a second act here. The characters take the loss more often than not – the trend towards making these films Wolverine and His Pals The X-Men is essentially completed, which is a shame because so many characters and subplots have been already built in to the franchise. By spending too much narrative on Wolverine, everyone else gets the shaft. The other problem with focusing on Wolverine (and this is going to be spoilery) is that the entire film becomes imbalanced when it comes to the Phoenix storyline. In the original comics, Phoenix destroys an entire alien planet, killing billions. That’s her “crossing the line” moment, and it’s not one that would fit in the film universe. The movie wisely knows that while it can’t replicate that moment in scale, it can actually trump that moment in emotion – Jean kills Cyclops. The problem here is two-fold: Cyclops’ death is too perfunctory to mean anything, and by removing him from the equation the film has placed all the burden on Wolverine. While the first two movies had Wolverine and Cyclops as dark mirrors of each other and rivals for Jean’s affection, the loss of half of that equation throws everything out of whack. It’s especially annoying as the dichotomy of the two suitors is paralleled in Jean herself, who is suffering from schizophrenia – she is occasionally Jean Grey, but is mostly Phoenix, a beast of the unconscious. The storyline tames Wolverine into a sappy romantic and team-oriented do-gooder, the parts Cyclops needed to play.

Cyclops isn’t the only major death, and characters who have appeared in all three movies end up taking the cure, involuntarily or not. This is one of the great things film can do – provide closure. The X-Men have been having comic adventures for four decades, and look to keep going, but to do so they have to remain in a sort of stasis. Nothing can really change that much in the long haul. But since it seems Fox won’t be going the James Bond/Jack Ryan route with these films, recasting parts to keep the characters eternal, there is the opportunity for some stories to come to an end. It’s satisfying in a way that open-ended serial comic storytelling never will be, and if there’s anger over some of the deaths and depowerings – well, good. That means they matter, and aren’t just fodder thrown out there for faux grittiness.

Last Stand gets a bunch of things sadly wrong – Beast’s makeup makes him look like he’s in Blue Man Group. Is his mutant power that he is covered in a layer of obvious paint? - but one thing it gets very right is the almost ridiculous sense of overkill that marked the comic’s true golden years, when Chris Claremont (who has a cameo in the film) was telling stories so filled with endless subplots and Byzantine character relationships and histories that you needed a score card. For the first time in the series, I felt like this was becoming an X-Men world where Xavier could have a girlfriend who might be the queen of an alien empire. Your mileage is going to vary on this aspect – you may be partial to the thuddingly earthbound adventures in the first film. To me that movie feels like a high school production of The X-Men; not just because of tragic production values but because of the small-minded supervillainry of Magneto and the bland heroics of the good guys. The whole thing felt like one step above foiling a bank robbery. X2 opened the door on the fantastic, and in this movie that door has been flung wide open. The imagery is grand and operatic – you don’t get much more over the top than using a section of the Golden Gate Bridge as your personal flight deck. This stuff doesn’t always work, and the stagebound feel of the first film returns with a vengeance in this movie’s climactic battle, but I liked the bigness of it. The beauty of the X-Men is that they live in a world where a fight sequence could very easily include someone levitating an entire house – we finally have that here. To borrow a modern comics phrase that is in turn borrowed from the movies, Last Stand feels widescreen, while the first film felt panned and scanned.

The question I don’t want to tackle here is that of Brett Ratner. This movie looks and feels mostly in line with Bryan Singer’s efforts. There’s an anonymity to the direction, and I get the impression that most of the decisions were made in various pre-productions before Ratner came on. My guess would be that Ratner served on Last Stand as a director in a very old fashioned way, hearkening back to when a director would come to the production after the film was written and cast and left when shooting was complete. The job was to get things on film. Is that fair? I don’t know, and we won’t know for a number of years, until people are willing to write books about the whole thing. What’s important is that the direction is competent, but not distracting.

What is distracting is some of the clunkers in the script. Can we never again have someone say “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” unless we’re supposed to understand that the person is a fake intellectual dip****? Too much of the dialogue is expository and perfunctory – it almost feels like the lines came from the second to last draft of the screenplay, before someone came in and punched up the dialogue.

Setting aside fears that this movie was going to be a complete turkey, and taking it just as it is at face value, as the third film in a series, Last Stand offers fans some astonishing pleasures – the relationship between Magneto and Xavier is perfect, a scene of Wolverine having his flesh atomized as he tries to get near Phoenix, the beautiful and sad and unexpected death of a major character. But it also contains many stings of opportunities lost – essentially the whole character of Angel, who is in the movie for truly no discernable reason. I hate mediocre films, and while Last Stand may end up closer to middling than it could have, it never feels like a film that was going for middle of the road. The movie may miss as many as it hits, but it’s there swinging away nonetheless.


7.4 out of 10

Source: http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=reviews&id=6760

 

[Retroman]

Another review from that site. Devin's colleague thinks different.

From CHUD.COM:

REVIEW: X-MEN 3
05.22.06
By Dan Whitehead

NOTE: To truly discuss this movie, I need to venture into pretty major spoiler territory. For those who prefer to enter a movie unsullied, I’ll front load the review with stuff that’s safe to know – and pack all the big spoiler stuff at the end, safely contained behind a big warning.

Bad news for those who’ve been predicting that this movie will be a trainwreck of apocalyptic proportions. It’s not completely awful.

Bad news for those who’ve convinced themselves that this movie will be great, and that those nitpicky geeks are just playa hatin’. Because it ain’t that good either.

The X-Men’s last cinematic stand is a maddeningly frustrating movie – one that shows glimmers of quality, even occasional greatness, only to smother that potential before it can be realised.

Before you sharpen your knives (or home-made adamantium claws) the culprit isn’t Brett Ratner. No, Ratner does pretty much what was expected of him. He’s turned in a somewhat pedestrian but far from disgraceful piece of directorial work. The look and sound of Bryan Singer’s movies is approximated effectively enough, so that this entry doesn’t come as a jarring stylistic change. Rest assured, it’s no Batman Forever. In fact, so closely does Ratner ape the Singer style that it almost feels like a pod person replica of the previous movies – it seems the same on the surface, but there’s just something missing behind the eyes. While Singer’s movies have their flaws, there was always the sense that – through slashed budgets and truncated schedules – Singer was striving for something more than just another blockbuster. Ratner’s continuation takes the baton, but is content to walk it over the finish line rather than soar to victory. Even so, Brett Ratner is the least of the movie’s problems.

Nor can Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg be held responsible for the stumbles The Last Stand makes. Having read their revealing and honest interview on this very site, it’s clear that much of what works is down to them and their determination to maintain a through line with what came before. They do have a troubling tendency to have their characters state the blindingly obvious – openly commenting on ironic parallels that would be best left unspoken – but the major problems with the film are in its structure and pacing, and it’s clear that the writer’s aren’t to blame for this.

No, the blame for The Last Stand’s less than satisfying nature must fall at the feet of whichever genius decided that the final big screen story to be told about Xavier’s gifted youngsters needed to be crammed into a mere 97 minutes.

That’s right – the grand finale is the shortest of the trilogy.

Because of this insane running time, the movie barely has time to tie up loose ends, let alone craft a compelling story out of the dual threats of a mutant cure and Jean Grey’s transformation into Phoenix. A nicely judged flashback to Xavier and Magneto first meeting the young Jean Grey sets a misleading example at the start of the movie. Heavy on plot but low on actual story, events and fights are soon thundering past at breakneck speed, with characters reduced to squeezing their character beats into frustratingly brief scenes. Bobby and Rogue continue their troubled romance, but whereas in X2 this felt organic, here it feels like an obligation, the resolution tossed off in the closing minutes with no real closure. More importantly, there are pivotal character deaths in this movie, and some seemingly major changes to the X-Men movie universe, but the only weight they carry is due to the previous two movies, not anything on display in this one.

The truncated running time turns what should have been an epic blow out, a grand crescendo to wave off a cast of characters we give a **** about, into one of the most undercooked and nourishment-free franchises finales in living memory.

Looking forward to seeing Angel? If you’ve seen the seven-minute promo, you’ve pretty much seen him. He has maybe five additional lines, and does absolutely nothing in the story. Because of this, his contribution to the final battle is laughably lightweight, an act of cheesy (and silent) heroism utterly without context. Beast fares slightly better (and his controversial make-up varies from corny to passable) but even he proves to be little more than a convenient conduit to funnel information from the government to the X-Men so the plot can maintain its non-stop pace. When he breaks out into swinging action at the end, it’s too little too late. Grammer is a perfect match for the role, and there are some nice nods to his history with Xavier, but you could remove him from the story and things would unfold much the same.

What makes it all the more frustrating is that there are things in this movie that fans have clamoured to see for years. As well as Angel, Storm finally flies - properly. Iceman ices up for combat. There’s Dark Phoenix, of course (and I’ll discuss her thankless role in the spoiler section). There’s the Holodeck, sorry - Danger Room, and that rather pointless glimpse of a Sentinel (which plays exactly as it did on TV, by the way). We get not one, but two fastball specials. We get Moira MacTaggart and Muir Island. We get Juggernaut and Multiple Man. We get Bill Duke as a man called Trask. Beast even says “Oh my stars and garters”. But all these fan-baiting moments actually made me wish for the restraint of the Singer movies, where there’d be just a couple of sly references buried in the background for the hardcore. In this movie, such is the deluge of trinkets from the X-Men mythos that I found myself waiting for them to jet off to the Savage Land to team-up with Ka-Zar, or for the Shiar Empire to swing by for a chat. With so much wacky **** thrown around, it sometimes feels more like an adaptation of the Fox Kids animated series than a sequel to the movies that made the public take superheroes on film seriously again.

There are, of course, many who will take that as a hearty endorsement – and I won’t deny there’s a guilty fanboy thrill in seeing that stuff on-screen, but it feels incongruous, like an all you can eat geek buffet where the sheer quantity tries to compensate for the lack of overall quality. None of these characters or ideas are being used for anything of value, to move things forward in any meaningful way, but by golly – there’s a lot of them! Just shut up and stuff your face! Look! There’s Spike from X-Men Evolution! And was that Toad schlepping around on the ceiling? It was! Ooooh!

Juggernaut and Multiple Man, for instance, are basically little more than Bond gadgets. Certain scenes call for mutants who can smash through walls or provide handy decoys, and so these two are the ones Magneto conveniently finds incarcerated with Mystique. Once they’ve fulfilled their sole function, they simply vanish. This isn’t all bad, as both characters are horribly realised both in terms of FX and performance.

Of course, the same could be said of Nightcrawler – he had little bearing on the plot of X2 beyond pestering the President, but at least they made use of his powers in other ways, and made him a character worth caring about. In the maelstrom of this movie, the use-and-forget approach to new mutants soon becomes annoying.

The Last Stand coasts to success on the back of two movies worth of superior plot and character development, and some solid performances from actors who can play these roles in their sleep - and, sadly, sometimes do. It’s far from the worst comic book movie, but nor is it the final chapter this franchise deserved. X-Men fans will be pleased with some of the stuff they finally get to see, but they’ll also be pissed off by the cavalier way certain characters are removed from the action, and by the generally anaemic feeling to the whole enterprise.

You could argue that the first X-Men movie was similarly afflicted, and I’d probably agree. But at least that movie knew how to focus on what was important, to give the characters room to establish themselves, and there was always the potential of more to come. This is, supposedly, our farewell to these characters and so each misstep stings that little bit more because there’s no chance of seeing them corrected. After X-Men and X2, the stage was set for the first large scale superhero flick. For a movie in which evolution plays such a large part, the development between first and second film slips backwards with this entry, rather than leaping forward yet again and bringing us something we hadn’t seen before.

Somewhere in the mylar bag of my mind, there’s a special issue of “What If?” where the nine figure sum spent on this movie was given to Bryan Singer and he was allowed to deliver such a movie. As it is, we’ve got this. It finishes off the saga. It has some fun stuff. It does the job. It’s just not a particularly inspiring way of doing it.

Suffice to say that The Last Stand is an infuriating case of what could’ve been. If you’ve got a hate-on for this movie you can knock a point off the following score. If you’re one of those people convinced that it’ll be good, or if you don’t hold Singer’s films in terribly high regard, you can probably add a point on. Watch it in the “brain switched off” mode that Devin so hates and you’ll be amply entertained. Just don’t ask me applaud when a franchise that could have delivered so much more goes out on such an unambitious note.

6/10



YOU ARE NOW ENTERING SPOILER TERRITORY…

(Swipe if you must)The parts of the movie that suffer most from the short running time are the things that are likely to spoil the movie. If you don’t mind spoilers, or just don’t give a ****, then read on…

The first sign that The Last Stand isn’t going to deliver the gravity and emotional weight it requires is the offhand way Cyclops is crudely jettisoned from the story. After two movies of not much to do, we finally have a story – Dark Phoenix - where he can be of some use, where his character can be a vital part of what’s happening. Instead, he’s here for all of two scenes and is then simply vaporised. He doesn’t even get the dignity of a visible death, his demise coyly taking place off-screen. Obviously, his vastly reduced role is one of necessity – Marsden also had a date in Metropolis – but the nature of his removal from this franchise is nothing short of shocking, one of the most abrupt and least mourned character deaths I can remember seeing. I can’t help wondering if that was somehow meant as punishment for pulling double duty on Superman, but it’s still a ****ty way to kill off a main character.

That Xavier is also killed off (presumably Stewart is the actor with stage commitments mentioned in the Penn/Kinberg interview) is a more troubling prospect. He does at least get a decent send-off, but by having him fall foul of the Phoenix power is a tad redundant – his demise is a lot more spectacular than Cyclops (it actually happens on-screen!) but it serves mainly to emphasise yet again that Jean’s power has gone ape****. His death does impact on the story – unlike Cyclops, people actually seem bothered that he’s dead – but his departure leaves a hole in the dynamic that the film struggles to fill.

As for Dark Phoenix, never has an idea been so successfully built up only to be so underused. Understandably abandoning the alien entity concept from the comics, the alternative explanation is fudged and less than convincing, on a par with Jurassic Park’s Site B in the “shouldn’t this have been mentioned before?” stakes. When they arrive, the scenes of Jean’s wayward power are truly great – you really get the sense that she could cause massive destruction if she let rip – but once she’s helped remove Cyclops and Xavier from the story, she simply ends up standing behind Magneto and looking miserable.

It’s never entirely clear what he plans to use her for, as his masterplan involves nothing more complex than attacking the source of the cure on Alcatraz Island (after relocating the Golden Gate Bridge in an impressive – if utterly pointless – display of power) by throwing dozens of faceless mutant extras at the small military force guarding the installation. Right at the last minute, she’s given the nod to destroy everything, but by that point I was simply frustrated that such a potentially great character had been reduced to simply being The Big Threat At The End Of The Film. The way she exits the story is less than satisfying as well, a moment that strives for emotional impact but is ultimately the sort of thing that would have worked better had the story been given an extra thirty minutes to stretch its legs.

Also, given that the end of the previous two movies saw Magneto try to turn all the world leaders into mutants, William Stryker try to kill every mutant in the world, and Magneto try to kill every human in the world, the scale of the threat here just doesn’t justify the Last Stand tag. Even though there’s more mutant action than in previous movies, it still all boils down to a big punch-up in a remote location. The mutant cure is written off to make way for a faux happy ending (presumably, with the lab destroyed and Leech at the Xavier mansion, it’s no longer an issue, but this is far from clear) and Beast finds himself promoted to the United Nations, despite being openly linked to the X-Men, and party to an enormous terrorist incident on American soil.

Finally, there are two closing scenes that underline just how frustratingly The Last Stand fumbles its attempts to be the grand closing chapter in the X-Men saga. During the battle at the end, Wolverine and Beast suckerpunch Magneto and hit him with the mutant cure. There’s potential for a genuinely meaty situation there, as the arrogant terrorist becomes the very thing he’s vowed to destroy, but McKellen is saddled with some perfunctory and hammy dialogue that undersells the moment. It’s a Darth Vader “Nooooooo!” moment. Worse, mere minutes later we cut to Magneto playing chess in a park – having apparently escaped any sort of repercussions for what he’s done, and apparently unconcerned with being seen in public. He’s playing with metal chess pieces. He points at one – and it wobbles. Then the credits crash in.

If you stick around after the credits, there’s another coda to the story – and it’s one that frankly baffles the **** out of me. It’s of Moira MacTaggart tending to a bandaged patient. Yes, it’s Charles Xavier, back from the dead. Not only do these two scenes make a mockery of the idea that this is the final chapter, they also completely belittle the two main strands of the film we’ve just seen, by diminishing the permanence of both the mutant cure and the power of the Phoenix.(Stop swiping, klepto)

Source: http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=reviews&id=6748

 

[josh8]

here's trent's review from http://pinkisthenewblog.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thankfully, not all the movies I've seen recently were all bad ... I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of X-Men: The Last Stand. I have been very anxious to see this film so I jumped at the chance to see this movie ... and let me tell you -- it is an awesome movie:

Please excuse the hyperbole but this movie is the best thing I've seen in a long time. I hate that movies based on comic books get relegated by reviewers as mindless sci-fi entertainment ... I'm telling you, X-Men III is really a great movie. As with the other X-Men movies, there are metaphors coming out the ass. I'm not sure that everyone is willing to make the connection, but I have always associated the persecution of the mutants with the persecution of minorities (gays, lesbians and transgenders in particular) in our everyday lives. I genuinely hope that kids who go see this X-Men movie will consider the way they treat people who are different from themselves. ANYWAYS ... back to the movie itself -- there are so many shocking moments in this film, I cannot dare mention what they are (lest I ruin the surprises). I will say that there is a lot of death in the film. I sat in that theater with my mouth agape on more than one occasion. The plot is based on a new "cure" that suppresses the mutant X gene and reverts mutants to normal human beings. The advent of this cure raises a lot of ethical mutant questions ... and makes for a very interesting storyline. I was just impressed with the whole movie from beginning to end -- it is highly entertaining and does a great job of marrying real life events and the mythos from the comic books. My main problem with this movie was the thinness of the cast. There weren't nearly enough X-Men in this movie. When I think of X-Men I think of a whole army of heroes saving the day. I'm glad that Colossus (HOT! HOT! HOT!) was featured more heavily in this movie (and I'm glad they added Kitty Pride and Angel to the team [but I feel Angel was only added for sex appeal]) but I feel they really needed to feature more X-Men.

The action scenes were hot as hell ... the FX were used sparingly but almost perfectly. Shohreh Aghdashloo (who brilliantly played Mama Araz on the last season of 24) and Ellen Page (who stars in the movie Hard Candy) were both amazing additions to the movie. I am a huge fan of Shohreh and love seeing her in anything. Ellen Page was very cute as Kitty Pryde ... she seemed a totally different girl than the one I saw in Hard Candy.

I'm really trying not to give too much away because I think the element of surprise really adds to the enjoyment of this movie (but if you must be spoiled with too much information, check out the MTVNews review HERE) ... if you have an interest in seeing this movie then you must check it out -- you may love it as much as my friend Joe and I do:

[pic of them two]

Superman Returns has a lot to live up to ... game on, y'all! [thanks for the photo manip, Joe]

I'm not sure what is going on tonight ... I am really excited for tonight's 2-hour season finale of Lost ... Woot! That is all ... I'm out!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

if you havent seen his blog, you're missing out. so funny!

 

[Coreo]

Ok now, does Juggernaut actually say "B!tch"
I just read a review that said they cut it right before he said the word, however, other reviews say that he said it!

 

[Rac]

Ok now, does Juggernaut actually say "B!tch"
I just read a review that said they cut it right before he said the word, however, other reviews say that he said it!

He says it. At least in the print we saw in Finland. Actually I was kinda surprised of how much there were "bad language". Juggernaut saying b itch, Kitty saying dick head and Quill saying something I don't remember. It could be cut in USA. MPAA is very tight about cursing, ain't they?

 

[antariksh]

2nd review from comingsoon for X3

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=14688

Hey i don't want such a BAD ending!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Btw shouldn't rottentomatoes now put this one up as well.

 

[The Storm]

The Storm's review, contains a few spoilers. Part One (second viewing tonight)

Start of by saying I was completely blown away by this film, for me it exceeded all expectations. I was suprised at the quality and how throughly enjoyable it was. I will admit that some hardcore fans might be disappointed and I'll come to that in a moment.

Ratner knows how to direct action and IMO The Last Stand contains some of the best action sequences in the trilogy. Although its action heavy I was still able to connect with the drama unfolding as well. The visual effects in this film are simply incredible, its on a higher scale than the previous two films. the Phoenix scenes are fantastic and had me screaming at the screen! Storm also flexes her powers which is great to see. With the introduction of many new characters we get to see new powers.

The scale is much bigger, it deals with the 'mutant problem' on a national scale. There are many characters in this film which is the main problem, its hard to give each character a meaningful or significant role. Major players from the previous films are reduce to smaller roles to make way for extra characters. Cyclops, Mystique, Angel are criminally underused. Having said that some characters make it worthwhile, I was particulary impressed with Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde) and of course Kelsey Grammer, who IS Beast. A great addition to the X-Men and I was thrilled when he utters his infamous line 'Oh my stars and garters'. Famke Janssen was incredible, conveying her internal struggle, her scenes were a real highlight. I was completely terrified by her transformation, the scene at her childhood home is heartbreaking yet awe inspiring. Storm delivers, signficantly larger role which she fills and looked great of course!

I think both ROLO & JELO fans will be satisfied, the ROLO relationship was hinted at, which is what I was hoping for. Storm looks to Wolverine to support and it was enjoyable to watch Wolverine really become part of the team. The love triangle between Bobby, Kitty & Rogue is sweet, I'm sure many girls have been in Rogue's position (without the power!)

The Last Stand is lighter than X1 & X2 but still dark enough to keep the continuity. It does have a different feel to the previous films and that comes with the change of director. This film has incredible energy and I think it stems from Ratner. Hats off to him, he has done an impressive job of taking over this franchise. He directs the drama scenes well to prevent the film from becoming a simply style over substance film which could have easily happened with the amount of effects. I have to admit there were tears welling up at times, this film does tug at the heartstrings! Overall I'd give it a 4/5, I'm undecided whether it is better than X2 but it is certainly a worthy addition to the trilogy.

 

[Celestio]

Thanks for the review TheStorm!

 

[The Storm]

P.S. The movie is too damn short!

 

[RagingTempest]

Great Review, TheStorm!!!

 

[RagingTempest]

P.S. The movie is too damn short!

Uhhh, if only it were 2 hours and 24 minutes like predicted!!!

 

[The Storm]

Indeed I imagine the problem of many characters could have been solved with a longer running time. Thanks!

 

[RagingTempest]

Indeed I imagine the problem of many characters could have been solved with a longer running time. Thanks!

If the movie was longer, a lot of the problems of the movie would have been fixed easily!!!

 

[Mike059jig]

Those CHUD reviews are very analytical and point some very interesting points...I have see it for myself

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

Thanx The Storm... I think you've got me thinking of NOT leaving... ur review...had me all shook up

 

[BMM]

Entertainment Weekly


When the mighty band who made X-Men: The Last Stand strode into Cannes recently to promote the third and avowed final chapter of the Marvel Comics franchise, Hugh Jackman fluttered the hearts of Logan/Wolverine groupies everywhere by mentioning a spin-off for his rebel with adamantium claws. Clever move, that: With one throwaway comment, the star generated headlines with little more than a wink. More graceful still, he drew attention away from the diminished artistic returns of X-Men: The Last Stand, a brute-force enterprise that doesn't distinguish between cramming entertainment down our gullets like fast food (i.e., undifferentiated action, humor aimed at crotch level) and offering a good meal. And I report this both as a fan of the first two and a staunch supporter of mutant rights, especially when applied to Hugh Jackman.

Certainly something dismaying has happened in the three years since Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Cyclops, et al. fought back so heroically against discrimination, governmental invasion of privacy, and the hated Mutant Registration Act in X2: X-Men United. Because while filmmaker Bryan Singer's exciting 2003 follow-up to his own notable 2000 launch of the comic-book saga demonstrated the surprising power of a sequel when an artist is at work, The Last Stand, directed by Rush Hour industrialist Brett Ratner, exemplifies what can happen when movies are confused with sandwich shops as franchise opportunities: More items on the menu — or in this case, an even greater variety of superheroes with specialty-act powers — is not the same thing as originality of recipe.

To be sure, there's a lot on the shared plate of Jackman's Wolverine, Halle Berry's Storm, Ian McKellen's Magneto, Famke Janssen's Jean Grey, Patrick Stewart's Professor Xavier, Anna Paquin's Rogue, and the rest of the irregular regulars at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. For one thing, at the end of X2, Jean was supposedly quite dead. But it spills no secrets to note that she's insistently alive in X3 in the form of her alter ego, the voraciously destructive Phoenix, a woman even more dangerous in her out-of-control telekinetic (and, as the good doctor Freud would point out, sexual) powers than Jean was before. (In anticipation of Phoenix's rise from the ashes, writers Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn offer a charming flashback to an earlier time when the Class 5 mutant was a frightened suburban girl, and Xavier and Magneto were dapper, well-moisturized friends.)

An even bigger headline for the differently abled community, though, is the discovery of an antibody that can ''cure'' mutants and restore them to ''normalcy.'' But what is normal? ''You can't cure being a mutant — there's nothing to cure,'' insists Storm, making the allegorical connections to homosexuality about as vivid as a fictional character with the power to control the weather can, short of taping a PSA. Rogue, meanwhile, who complains bitterly that she ''can't touch [her] boyfriend without killing him,'' is an interested potential client; through her, the deaf-community debate about the implications of cochlear implants finds a voice. And as for Magneto the radical separatist (and Holocaust survivor), the government interest in such a homogenizing serum signals nothing less than a coming pogrom. ''They want to exterminate us!'' he declares to his followers, rallying his revolutionary forces to subdue all who would advocate tolerance and multi-culturalism, including Professor Xavier, as well as Henry McCoy — a.k.a. Beast — the charming, rational geneticist with the big head of blue fur, played with modesty, panache, and much peacock- colored prosthetic assistance by Kelsey Grammer.

This is interesting stuff. So why does The Last Stand feel driven to dumb itself down, as if embarrassed by its own ideas? There is no time for reflection in this overstuffed sequel — civil war, special effects involving the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge, volcanic emotions between Jean Grey and Logan, volcanic enmity between Magneto and, well, everyone. And there's no time for character charm in a production that simultaneously X-es out the old and brings on a baby-faced potential ensemble cast for X-Men: The Next Generation, including Hard Candy's compelling Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde (who can phase through solid matter) and a super-buff Ben Foster from Six Feet Under as the winged hunk Angel. There is, though, time for a kick-to-the-groin visual joke, following which Wolverine taunts a foe with ''Grow a pair of those.'' If The Last Stand were more confident, the movie wouldn't need to constantly grab 'em.

More of the same--visual but overstuffed and lacking . . . at least they were kind enough to give it a B-.

 

[LMason]

http://songsinthecity.blogspot.com/2006/05/ten-things-about-x-men-3.html

Holy crap, Brett Ratner pulled it off.

Yvette and I watched X-Men: The Last Stand at the Podium last night. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much. I mean, X-Men was pretty good and the sequel was even better, but everyone knows that Bryan Singer, the director of those two flicks, decided to run off and do Superman Returns instead of a second X-sequel. That left someone whose main claim to fame was the Rush Hour movies, starring Jackie Chan and whatsisface, to chronicle the next -- and quite literally most explosive -- chapter in the Marvel mutant saga.

And yeah, Ratner pulled it off. It's not award-winning artsy stuff, obviously, but it is a hell of a ride. Since the first two movies established all the rules, this one hits the ground running. And now here are Ten Things About X-Men 3:

1. Yes, Stan Lee has a cameo (it comes early in the flick).

2. And yes, fellow comics geeks, there is a fastball special.

3. Also, there's a scene where Rebecca Romijn is nake-- *sound of readers stampeding to movie theaters* Hello? Hello? Is anyone still out there? Oh well. I guess I'll go ahead and do the rest of the list anyway.
4. I am so glad that they got Kitty Pryde right. Growing up, reading writer Chris Claremont's run on X-Men (and yes, regarding his artistic collaborators, I prefer the Cockrum/Smith/Romita Jr. era to the Byrne stuff, and of course to the 90s stuff as well), despite the fact that to my knowledge I was never a teenaged girl genius with phasing powers, I was totally, totally into Kitty's story: the ups and downs, her triumphs and heartaches. (The issue where Colossus dumps her because he had fallen in love with some dead alien woman -- oh, man.) She was the soul of the X-Men, for me. And she may not have gotten much screen time here, but what little moments she did have were great -- particularly the one where, in time-honored X-Men comics fashion, she defeats a foe she should have absolutely no friggin' chance against. Plus, Ellen Page is such a cutie. I would have felt dirty about typing that, but a quick IMDB check confirms that she is, in fact, of legal age.

5. Storm does have much more to do here: aside from gaining a few cool new tricks in battle, she's portrayed as more essential to the team and the school. In fact, in one scene, Prof X tells her that she is the one he envisions taking over the school in the event of his passing on. It brought back nice comics memories of when Storm became the X-Men's field leader after Cyclops/Scott Summers left. Made for many many good stories by Chris Claremont, way back. However, the movies will never, ever get her hair right, ever. It may be that it's not humanly possible to get that mane of white hair right outside of the comics. Funny, because I would have thought it would be Wolverine's hair that would be impossible to portray onscreen.

6. And speaking of Wolverine -- of course he gets the best lines and the key scenes. The movie audience has spoken, and they likes 'em some Jackman (why that sounds vaguely dirty, I don't know). Even in the comics, he's by far the most popular, so there may very well be something inherent in the character that appeals to people. However, like most fans who have been reading comics since the 80s, I'm pretty sick of him getting the spotlight all the time -- but the interesting thing is, Wolverine-as-pivotal-character does work better in the movies, probably because Jackman-as-Wolverine is funnier, less angsty, and yes, more domesticated than the comics version. Also, he was established in the first movie as being the audience's POV character: the one with the irreverence to remark to the Prof, "So, she's Storm... he's Cyclops... who are you, Wheels?" Having said all that, I am amazed at how many people they depict him eviscerating onscreen. Total disregard of the usual "only kill when there is no other option" comics rule. So in a weird way, movie-Wolvie is both more candy-ass and more bad-ass.

7.And speaking of ass, Famke Janssen acts her ass off as Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix. It's almost too much, at times; but then, hey, this is super-powered soap opera we're talking about. The story calls for her to be, by turns, vulnerable, savage, detached, and ****ing scary, and she does it all convincingly. There's a certain scene where you won't know whether to be turned on, or horrified, or, God help you, both.

8. Magneto will **** your **** up. You will believe that a man pushing 70 can tear apart a city with the power of his mind (and some fancy shmancy hand gestures).

9. As you may have already gathered, there are a lot of characters here; literally dozens of them, mostly based on the comics, though you wouldn't know it to glance at them. Recognition usually comes when a character calls another character out by name ("That's Arclight?!"), or in some cases, when the end credits are rolling ("Where the heck were Psylocke and Jubilee?"). Certain characters that had major roles in the first two movies have either had their roles reduced or are completely absent this time around. Nightcrawler is nowhere to be seen; presumably he rejoined the circus. And, this may be a bit of a spoiler, but Rogue doesn't have much to do here either. Comics fans will realize that she played such an active role in the Claremont and post-Claremont stories because she had already permanently leeched off Carol Danvers' powers of flight, super-strength and near-invulnerability by the time she joined the X-Men, and thus was much more handy in a fight; that hasn't happened -- and most likely never will happen -- in the movies. Still, despite the huge cast, many members are given a chance to shine.

10. The story, despite weaving together no less than three major plotlines/themes from the comics and a whole bunch of other subplots and sub-themes, is remarkably simple and easy to follow. Motivations dovetail nicely; setpieces spring out naturally. The people who put together this movie knew what to use and what to leave out: it is, after all, possible to do the Dark Phoenix concept without involving the Shi'ar (and thank God, because Lilandra's hair is more impossible than either Storm's or Wolverine's. And can you imagine the giggles that Gladiator's space mohawk would have garnered?) There are some relationships that originated in the comics but are handled slightly differently in the movie (like the enmity between Storm and Callisto), and some that for the most part belong to the movie alone (the Iceman/Pyro rivalry); as noted, these guys knew what to leave and take and what to invent. In terms of juggling, many balls are tossed into the air, and it's amazing how many of them are caught once again by movie's end, though there are one or two that end up falling to the ground.

 

[PhoenixRisen]

More of the same--visual but overstuffed and lacking . . . at least they were kind enough to give it a B-.

From EW: "Because while filmmaker Bryan Singer's exciting 2003 follow-up to his own notable 2000 launch of the comic-book saga demonstrated the surprising power of a sequel when an artist is at work, The Last Stand, directed by Rush Hour industrialist Brett Ratner..."

Yes, more of the same...

 

[Storm22]

Damn, Rottentomatoes metre at 57% now.

 

[CapBeerCino]

Ultimately, X-Men: The Last Stand proves to be a colossal waste of time, effort and money. All they accomplish is removing certain actors from the cast list and certain storylines from the pool they can draw from if they ever choose to continue the series.

http://aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=23427

 

[Chris Wallace]

You Know, I Think It Really Speaks To Fox & Their Confidence In The Project That The Reviews Are In So Well In Advance.

 

[BMM]

From EW: "Because while filmmaker Bryan Singer's exciting 2003 follow-up to his own notable 2000 launch of the comic-book saga demonstrated the surprising power of a sequel when an artist is at work, The Last Stand, directed by Rush Hour industrialist Brett Ratner..."

Yes, more of the same...

Yep, although this point is moot, as the reviewer didn't trash the film simply because Ratner directed it. She didn't even give it a bad grade and has simply observed the same things as every other review--the same things in both the good and the bad reviews.

 

[PhoenixRisen]

Yep, although this point is moot, as the reviewer didn't trash the film simply because Ratner directed it. She didn't even give it a bad grade and has simply observed the same things as every other review--the same things in both the good and the bad reviews.

None of the "bad" reviews trashes the movie simply because Ratner directed it. But the division between Singer devotees and Ratner haters is clear when you read the reviews and each critic's bias and preconceptions come jumping out at you...