X Men: The Last Stand

B

Those who say that superhero movies are in their death throes should have seen the recent entries coming. Batman Begins was superb. Fantastic 4 was watchable. I can't wait for Superman Returns. But now the series that started it all in 1997, X Men, have come to an end with trilogy's final installment. I'm not sure when the series ended as being a trilogy, but even if I couldn't say that X Men ended with a loud resounding BANG!, X Men: The Last Stand is worthy follow-up and conclusion to the series.

X3 begins right after X2 ended. The new world in the "not so distant future" had witnessed the wrath of mutants and an uneasy truce was maintained by both the humans and the mutants. It would not be for long. Magneto (Ian Mckellen) and his henchmen are scowring for fighters to wage a war against humans. All he needs is something to garner momentum for his cause. He got his chance when a "cure" is invented and used to turn mutants into normal human beings. Meanwhile, the X Men have found Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who miraculously survived her watery near-death, though Professor Xavier (Patrick Steward) voices his fears that Jean has been dominated by her dual personaily alter ego, Phoenix. Most mutants are back to fight for both sides, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), Rogue (Anna Paquin); as well as some new ones, most notably Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones).

Just like the other X Men movies, this one places more emphasis on the unfolding of the plot rather than the characters. X3 covered many grounds, the rise of Magneto's army, the arch in the government's position in dealing with mutants, Jean Grey's transformation to Phoenix, and the X Men who are stuck in the middle. In amazing how in 2 hours, we are presented with a well-developed storyline as well as a few nice characters that we can root for. Though I still think they could have fleshed out the movie even more, or maybe make it a quadrilogy instead.

Indeed, considering the rich plot of the combined story of the X Men trilogy, the overall experience pales, to a very considerable extent, in comparison to other trilogies such as The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. This might be because when the first X Men movie was made, the movie's success was questionable without mentioning the possibility of a franchise; and I think X Men was not intended to be a trilogy. Watching X3, one has the feeling that, seen as a whole, the movies do not gel so well. Furthermore, considering the intended scope of X3 - the final battle between good mutants and bad mutants - one cannot help but to feel that the payoff wasn't as climatic as could be expected. For a movie that shows the Golden Gate Bridge being ripped out, its epic fight scene is lazy.

Although this is the end of the X-Men series, most definitely it will!, there are talks for spin-offs. Wolverine is probably the one with the most potential of seeing the light of day, though I'm not too sure how good (or bad) that can get. Either way, I can savely say that Brett Ratner did a good job, taking over from X1 & X2 helmer Brian Singer, in maintaining the quality of the last of the X Men movies. It was a jolly fun ride indeed.
~