Excellent third (final?) installment

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2006)

I was very lucky to see this movie at the worldwide premiere that took place last Monday (May 15th) at Mexico City. I have to say that for me this was the movie to see this summer, and actually it exceeded all my expectations. I have loved the previous X Men movies, and this was not an exception.
First, the story is right in all its contents, Drama: The cure that has been developed to suppress the mutant gene has a particular resonance (curing homosexuality, anyone?); Action: The war surfacing among both sides of the mutants and the humans caught in the middle of it all that , and of course the Mystery that brings it all together: The return of one very powerful character (actually anyone that has seen X-Men: United and the marketing for this movie knows exactly who I am talking about).
The action is in the right place and in the right dose, although it does take a little to kick in, and as with the previous installments the visual effects are top-notch, including of course the new entries to the teams Angel, Juggernaut and specially Beast, he looks as good as Nightcrawler in the previous installment, despite some previous concern. Moreover, the change in director is practically non-consequential, it has the great quality that was the norm with Bryan Singer (who we hope does a great job in Returning Superman to the big screen.)
Although in the other movies the acting has not been the center stage, I believe that in this particular movie, Ian McKellen and Famke Jenssen gave very good performances, particularly towards the end of the movie in which every thing is decided, including of course "SPOILER BEGINS" who dies and who loses its mutant powers because of the cure (for a hint: In the Full Trailer for the movie an image of Rebeca Romijn  AKA Mystique- without her blue skin, can be seen). As a matter of fact despite the excellent quality of the movie, I am very surprise that 20th Century Fox decided to ended these successful series in the third installment, believe me when I say that it has ended because X-Men: The Last Stand sheds as many characters (or powers) as Beast sheds fur in the furniture (or for any TV fan, as 24 shed characters this particular season). "SPOILER ENDS"
Despite the good grade that I am giving to the movie, one particular was not that good: Some characters are a little (if not very) under used, with so many mutants returning and as many new some mutants being added to the mix, not all of them have that much screen time and that diminishes the impact of their stories (although they are not that important in the end to be true, but somehow it will be better to focus in some of the wide variety of mutants.) In the end, I believe this was a better movie than the previous two, it has it's heart in the right place, it's pace is solid and never lags an excellent story that at the end has as many repercussions as could be imagined.