More flying debris than character

Rating: 2/10 (10 July 2006)

What a pity that the "last stand" of the once-fine x-men franchise had to be this sorry mess. The movie starts with the promising plot device of a cure for mutants, which nicely extends the metaphor of the mutants' outsider social status. The "cure" may be analogous to the "ex-gay" movement, or to ethnic cleansing. However, this theme is not developed with any kind of sophistication or complexity, and other promising plot and character points are left unexplored. Nothing is made of the mutant boy who is himself the source of the cure, nothing is made of the winged boy's relationship with his father (the developer of the cure), and nothing is made of the potentially profound conflicts within the young woman who cannot touch her boyfriend without killing him. The young woman and her boyfriend barely even talk to each other here, let alone develop their relationship. The movie devolves into a repetitive series of cgi scenes that are all about flying debris, and only barely about character. The movie is increasingly incoherent and internally inconsistent as it continues, right down to the illogical image of the last shot. Let's hope that image does NOT signal yet another sequel. The movie comes in under 2 hours, but the action is so repetitive, so dreary, and so divorced from character, that it feels much longer. This is a sorely disappointing conclusion to a series that started beautifully. Fans of the first two movies would be advised to skip this altogether.