Review: 'X-Men: The Last Stand' is a worthy of a visit
Posted Friday, October 6, 2006 at 4:03 PM Central
by Tim Briscoe
In my early teen years, I was the biggest of X-Men fans. A certified Wolverine fanboy.
I grew up and moved on to other things but never lost my love for the Marvel comic. I was front and center in the theater on opening weekend when my beloved mutants made the jump to the big screen in 2000. (I distinctly remember wondering why they gave the plumb Wolverine role to some unknown named Hugh Jackman.)
Despite really liking the first film, I never bothered seeing its sequel or this summer's installment. This left me with the unique opportunity of watching X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand back-to-back on DVD.
I would get to see how two different directors -- Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner -- would interpret the comic book stories I loved from my youth.
While the first film merely set the stage, X2 provided exactly what I wanted from a X-Men feature film adaptation. It was dark. It was exciting. It tapped into some very interesting issues with the mutant versus human war. Its director, Bryan Singer, showed that an action movie could involve some serious ethical issues.
The film was anchored by three strong characters, all played brilliantly by three classically-trained actors: Patrick Stewart as X-Men leader Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as evil mutant Magneto, and Brian Cox as human military scientist William Stryker. The three personalities made the movie sizzle.
Director Bryan Singer left the X-Men family after this second film to helm Superman Returns. Brett Ratner picked up the reigns for the trilogy's finale.
While X-Men: The Last Stand is good and very worth watching, it has some serious faults. I believe it comes down to three things.
First, and possibly foremost, the movie lacks the strong third personality. (Hopefully it's not spoiling anything to tell you that Cox's character dies in X2.) The humans are lead by the President and he doesn't offer that much to the story.
Secondly, the movie packs too much in. Like the flaw of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the film squeezes two movies' worth of storyline into one just to bring the trilogy to a conclusion. The Warren Worthington/Angel subplot, the Bobby/Rogue/Kitty love triangle, and the Jimmy/Leech character could have each been explored satisfactorily had they been given the time.
Finally, the entire thing comes off as a cartoon. Some of the scenes are just too over the top (what's the point of the Golden Gate bridge) and punctuated by really bad one-liner "jokes". For instance, they really could have done away with the entire Juggernaut character and his bad dialogue.
OK, enough of the bad. There is plenty of good in this film, enough to make it worth recommending. The characters are in action like never before. The storyline of Jean Grey/Phoenix is solid and skillfully derived from the comic. The special effects are the best in the series -- especially the film's climatic battle.
On the DVD you get two audio commentaries: one from the writer and director team, the other from the producers. There are several deleted and/or extended scenes with optional writer/director commentary. There are even "alternate endings" though they don't differ much from the film's conclusion.
Rumor has it that Fox will be releasing a much more feature-packed special edition next year. That helps bring X-Men: The Last Stand down to just a rental-worthy release. (Although there is a "Stan Lee Collector's Edition" with a cool 100-page comic book with new and old material that the youngster in me is dying to own!)
