'X3: The Last Stand' review

Rating: *** out of ****

Some colleagues of mine and I have been in a bit of a debate: which would be the better comic-book movie of the 2006 summer? ‘X3’ or ‘Superman Returns’? I have always maintained a firm stance with Superman since he is my personal favorite superhero, however, I must admit that I have been a bit worried as to whether X3 would dominate. Now that I have seen X3, I cannot wait for Superman to bring it on.

‘X3: The Last Stand’ picks up where ‘X2: X-Men United’ left off. In the third installment, human beings have developed a ‘cure’ for the mutant gene, which is extracted (ironically enough), from a very powerful mutant boy who can eliminate a mutant’s abilities simply by touching them. “Mutants are on the verge of extinction, it seems, when US business Worthington Industries discovers a cure for mutation. This scientific breakthrough complicates and intensifies the battle - both physical and ideological - between Professor X's (Stewart) integration-friendly X-Men and the human-hating mutants let by Magneto (McKellen),” according to movie website IMDB.com. We are introduced to a slew of new mutant characters that fight in this war, most notably Beast, Juggernaut and Angel (even though he is rather ineffectual to the story). The films other major plotline involves Jean Grey who is now The Phoenix, her alter ego and now she is being taken advantage of by Magneto, as a tool to destroy the humans.

‘X3’ raises some very interesting sociological questions, especially with the current immigration debates in the United States. For that, I praise the film. It also works as a fantastic summer action film. Some of the tremendous scenes include the raising of the Golden Gate Bridge, a fight in the forest between Wolverine and some of Magneto’s mutants, and an awesome final showdown on Alcatraz Island between the X-Men and Magneto’s forces. In terms of an action spectacular, it never lets up – which is good because the action tends to distract from the holes in the film – most of all, the unnecessary elements in it, which were many.

Most distracting is the lack of necessity of the final battle on Alcatraz Island. Leading up to the scene, Magneto raises the Golden Gate Bridge and moves it into position, to allow his forces access to the island so they may find the mutant boy who produces the ‘cure’, and kill him. During the finale, I could not help but wonder, ‘If Magneto has the ability to raise the bridge above the island, why not just drop it, crushing the island, laboratory and the boy in the process? Why go through the motions of a large scale confrontation in which many mutants are lost?’ This fact just made the complete final battle seem pointless, and thus, less interesting.

Perhaps the largest problem with the film is the lack of use of The Phoenix, and the dropping of the Wolverine origin story. The focus of the first two films was Wolverine and the story of his past. That story is non-existent here (most likely because they are saving it for the ‘Wolverine’ spin-off film) and is replaced with The Phoenix story, which is completely changed from the story from the comic books and cartoons. Nevertheless, The Phoenix really does not do anything of merit in the film. We receive all this build up, and in actuality receive nothing. I sat back and thought about it after the film and it seems that if The Phoenix story was removed from the film, you could have the same film. It seems her only purpose was to kill off Professor X, which was also completely pointless to the story. Jean Grey’s death was pointless as well. Why did Wolverine need to stab her when he could have had the boy with the ‘cure’ touch her and cure her of her powers, removing The Phoenix and saving her life?

Though I enjoyed the film more than the first in the series, I believe ‘X3’ pails in comparison to its predecessor, ‘X2’ – which some may hail as one of the greatest of comic book films. Had it not been for all of the third film’s problems, it may have been of the caliber of the second. The major gossip with the film is that Bryan Singer left the franchise to make ‘Superman Returns’, and so ‘Red Dragon’ director Brett Ratner has taken the helm of ‘X3’. I am not sure if Ratner was ready to take the helm of such a major franchise, but I do feel it was a good move for Singer to leave and take over the Superman franchise. Even though the action was great in ‘X3’, the script was rather weak and since Singer has brought along his writing team of Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris (who wrote ‘X2’), I have a good feeling that my aforementioned colleagues will be eating their words about The Man of Steel.

*NOTE: ‘X-Men’ received **1/2 and ‘X2’ received ***1/2 from Jeff The Movie Guy