Reasonable big budget comic book superhero Hollywood blockbuster.

Rating: 5/10 (26 January 2009)

X-Men: The Last Stand starts as it is revealed that a company called Worthington Labs have developed a cure for the mutant gene that almost instantly turns a mutant into just another 'normal' person. The cure is seen by the majority of the mutant community as an attempt to eradicate them from the planet, in particular Magneto (Ian McKellan) forms a mutant army to seize control of the cure & destroy it. Meanwhile the distraught Cyclops (James Marsden) visits the lake where Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) died & is amazed to see her resurrection from the watery depths, unfortunately she kills him by accident. Unsure of who she has become Jean hides away but Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) finds her & tries to talk with her, she kills him too. Seeing her almost limitless power Magneto convinces Jean to side with him in the war against us humans & the cure, it's up to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry) & the other minor X-Men to save the day... again...
This American English co-production is also known simply as X3 & was the third film in the X-Men franchise, one of the most successful of all the Marvel comic book to screen adaptations with the original X-Men (2000) film helped kick-off the trend by Hollywood studios to plunder comic books & turn them into live-action CGI packed big budget summer blockbusters that have generally proved very popular at the box-office with paying audiences. Directed by Brett Ratner I watched X-Men: The Last Stand yesterday & while I didn't think it was brilliant I thought it was entertaining enough for what it is, having said that I generally don't like films adapted from comic books since by their very nature these sorts of character's with these sorts of special powers & silly costumes work far better in 2D on a page rather than in 3D on a cinema screen. Still, at least it's fairly short, the pace is decent, there's a few good action scenes with some impressive CGI computer effects & I would think most X-Men fans would be happy with it although I admit I have never read an X-Men comic book before so I can't really say how faithful this is to the character's origins. As a film it's alright although the first half is mostly concerned with small sub-plots like the cure, the politicians son being cured, like Jean Grey coming back to life, like Magneto finding some new henchmen & there's even a couple of minor love triangles as well. At some points it's like the makers were trying to turn the X-Men into some sort of soap opera but it does come together for the final forty odd minutes & a big budget action scene as mutant fight mutant & the X-Men inevitably save the day. Certainly worth a watch if your a fan of the X-Men character's, the franchise so far or comic book adaptations in general.
The film looks nice enough, there are some very impressive special effects sequences with the bending & moving of the Golden Gate Bridge by Magneto probably the stand-out moment. There all all sorts of mutants & X-Men character's from the comic books here but not being a fan I don't really know if they are faithful representations or not. Originally to be directed by Bryan Singer, then Matthew Vaughn who both quit for various reasons Ratner took over & the whole production was apparently quite rushed. The story for X-Men: The Last Stand is apparently a combination of two X-Men graphic novels, Gifted by Joss Whedon & The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont & John Byrne.
With a supposed budget of about $210,000,000 surely this has to be one of the most expensive films ever made, amazingly it was a success & made over $122,000,000 on it's opening memorial day weekend. Filmed largely in Vancouver in Canada. The cast do alright although many will be familiar with the character's as they return from the previous films while Vinnie Jones makes an appearance as Juggernaunt & an almost unrecognisable Kelsey Grammar makes his debut as Beast.
X-Men: The Last Stand is a decent enough big budget comic book superhero film that entertains & passes 100 odd minutes harmlessly enough, I can't say I loved it but I didn't hate it either. Certainly worth a watch especially if your a fan of the character's or the genre.