Okay, I'll admit, like many other movie fans I was a bit worried when it was announced that Brett Ratner was going to take over the X-Men franchise. It's not that I don't value the guy as a director, I really enjoy the Rush Hour movies, but I wasn't sure if he had it in him to bring that combination of action and emotion that Bryan Singer was so successful in bringing to the screen in the previous two movies. After seeing X-Men 3 I am still not sure about this, but I'm also not worried anymore. Because even though the talky moments don't pack the emotional punch they should, the action scenes are so fantastically over the top that the adrenaline will have you reeling for hours after you have left the cinema.
All is not well in Mutant-land. Jean Grey is presumed dead, her husband Cyclops is still in a state of shock, and to top things off the government has announced that they have a 'cure' for the mutant gene, which will help any willing mutant to be turned into a regular human being. Mutant leader Magneto sees this as a declaration of war, as he is sure that the humans will turn the cure into a weapon that will be used to transform even the mutants that are not anxious to lose their special powers. As usual, Professor X does not agree with him, and prefers to handle this situation in a more gentle way. Things become a bit more complicated however, when it's revealed that the cure comes from a mutant boy, whose power takes away the power of any mutant in his vicinity. Magneto knows exactly what to do with this boy, and Professor X and the X-Men will do anything they can to stop him. But, to complicate matters even more than they already were, Jean Grey turns up again, more powerful than ever. In fact, so powerful that she could destroy the world at a whim. And as becomes clear very soon, this is not the same Jean that fought so valiantly on the side of good in the previous two movies...
For movies like X-Men: The Last Stand, cinema seats should come equipped with seat belts. There are scenes in this movie that are so outrageously cool, that I could hardly control my excitement. It's a good thing I was able to grit my teeth, however, since it's not really 'done' to yell "Man did you see that???" during a press screening of a movie, especially not when more serious critics are checking their watches to see if this sillyness is over already. If you are a fan of the X-Men, I'm pretty sure you are going to love this movie. Most of the actors give great performances. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are as great as ever in their roles of mentors, while Hugh Jackman shows that there can probably never be another actor with such a good grip on the character of Wolverine.
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It's almost like Brett Ratner is a kid who gets free playing time in the movie studio of his father, and who then tries every trick possible...
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I enjoyed seeing characters like Kitty Pride and Colossus getting more screen time, while newcomers Angel and Leech are also handled well. But even though Kelsey Grammer does his best in the Beast-part, I could not help but think like Wolverine does in the movie: "Furball!" In the scenes with Famke Janssen, however, nothing else matters. She is absolutely terrific as the meaner, leaner Jean Grae and (literally) blows every other mutant, good or bad, off the screen. I've never seen such an intense and terrifying hero/baddie on the screen before and you can only hope that more roles like this will come her way, because she is perfect in capturing the intensity of the role.
Brett Ratner shows that al the criticism levelled at him is not entirely fair. He has a firm handle on the characters, knows how to show us battles between hundreds of mutants (only a handful of these being 'the goodies', so calculate those odds), and how to amaze us with shots you probably haven't seen in a movie before. It's almost like he is a kid who gets free playing time in the movie studio of his father, and who then tries every trick possible.
A shame then, that it is quite clear that he enjoyed blowing things up so much that he did not seem to care much about the more serious moments. Yeah, there is a great 'talky' scene at the beginning of the movie, when we see how Magneto and Professor X first meet Jean Grey, but other emotional moments are not given the amount of time needed to give them a real emotional punch. Too bad, because there are things happening in this movie that are dramatic and far reaching, and which could have given even the most hardened X-fan goosebumps. Oh well, maybe in the next movie then (Yeah I know this is supposed to be the last one, but you don't really believe that, do you?)...
*****
From what i've herd there is going to be another X-men film. I'm not suprised with the third films succes at the box office they were bound to make more. I enjoyed the movie alot. the story line was good and they cept the end wide open for another. I know there are suppose to be two spinnoff movie's as well one on wolverine and one on magneto. I'm looking forward to both.
Posted by: Sidney Coble | October 05, 2006 at 12:40 AM