It's not as good as its predecessor but still lives up to expectations

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2006)

As the ending of the second movie indicated, the third movie sees the adaptation of the Phoenix Saga, probably one of the most if not the most popular X-Men saga. Jean Grey is revived as the Phoenix, a powerful entity whose power are limitless. Well OK, the plot is good, and is truthfully directly taken from the comics, which might appeal to the comic fans. No doubt here also, X3 is very heavy in CGI. Special effects all over the place for the entire lenght of the movie, be it for good or for worse. No doubt there, X3 is an awesome action flick.
I feared a weak adaptation of the Phoenix Saga, but it was very well done. Ratner has a very different style than Singer. Although Singer had a better style at develop his character, he didn't catch the essence on the same levels as Ratner. Beast is extremely well portrayed and had just about enough screen time to understand his character. Famke Janssen's portrayal of the Phoenix is also very solid. The movie let us understand how powerful she is, which is essentially what the Phoenix saga was all about: she is the goddess of all mutants and her powers are extreme.
Unfortunately, although Ratner might understand the characters better, his technique isn't. The development of the characters is not satisfying enough. It goes too quickly and too abruptly. Another issue is that because X3 got a new scripwriter as well, he edited characters that were previously main characters that became secondary in the new movie, like Mystique and Cyclops.
Another strong point was the introduction of a many new mutants, but over the course of the very short movie (90 minutes) it becomes a weakness: how are the characters suppose to get enough time to develop if there are so many? Although I mentioned a lot of things that does not work, X-Men: The Last stand isn't a bad movie. The first two were no doubt better, Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman fans will also be pleased because they get a lot of time on the screen. All-in-all although this third installment in the trilogy is the weakest of all three, it's still very entertaining and there's no doubt any fans of the previous movies as well as the comics will enjoy this one.