X-tremely X-ceptional movie.

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2006)

WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS After seeing/hearing several un-promising reviews of "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" I went to the cinema to see it yesterday expecting to be disappointed. I needn't have worried. It was great. I should have known. I've seen this time and again with comic book movies. They send people to review them who know nothing about comic books, so they rarely get it. Would you send a vegetarian to review a steak restaurant? A blind man to review a painting expedition? A deaf person a concert or a non-driver a car? Of course not. But they happily send people who've never read a comic book in their life (and who probably regarded them as crap) to review movies based on comic books. Crazy.
The movie turns out to be fantastic. Exciting, moving, relentless. And Vinny Jones as Juggernaut is inspired casting. As good as, if not better than the first two. The essence of X-Men and all Marvel hero titles has always been their relationships with each other and with their own psyches and the way in which they deal with their unique and unusual position in society. I thought that was well portrayed in the movie. The personal challenges that they faced in the story were at its core: all of them being offered the possibility of a "cure"; Storm being handed the responsibility, (perhaps reluctantly on her part), for the school by Professor X; Rogue facing the possibility of maybe, finally, for the first time in her life, being able to have physical contact with another person; Mystique facing betrayal by Magneto, to whom she had been so devoted; Beast dealing with the dichotomy of working for a government that was working to eradicate mutation; Angel and his father facing the problem of their relationship and the consequences of his mutation; Bobby (Iceman) and his relationships with Rogue, Pyro and Kitty; and central to all of this, Jean dealing with her relationship with her dark side - The Phoenix; the Professor facing up to The Phoenix, happy to do so though he knew the consequence; Storm facing a formidable foe in Callisto; Beast facing his natural tendency to be a diplomat when confronted by the needs of battle; Kitty, the smallest, least experienced and youngest of them all rising to the challenge and saving the day, overcoming the most formidable of foes, Juggernaut, even without her powers, by being smart and resourceful. Inspiring! And finally Wolverine having to make a dreadful choice at the end, to do the right thing, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do. It gave me goosebumps. It was beautiful. Each of them faced their demons in their own way. Not always successfully (as so often in the real world - and in the Marvel world). It's not often that a story will kill off many of its central characters. I thought that was very brave.
It was certainly different to the first two movies, but it captured the essence of an X-Men tale much more than its more superficial predecessors. This wasn't just exposition/origin stuff, this was a real X-Men story. I suppose after 40 years of reading comic books I'm in an unusual position to view this story from, but I thought it was tremendous. I'm keen to see it again. Of course it helps to be familiar with the original story, though that was changed. But Hollywood has to do that. Just like in "Judge Dredd" - in the original comics you never ever see Dredd without his helmet on - but you couldn't have a Sylvester Stallone movie and never see his face. In the original Phoenix story Jean does apparently die and returns as The Phoenix but then the Professor manages to bring her back from the brink. But these movies have changed the X-Men story from the beginning. Rogue, for example, was an older, sassy, woman - not the shy young girl of the movies (though Anna Paquin's characterisation was great). She also had extraordinary powers - flight, super-strength - that she'd taken, permanently, from Marvel Girl whom she'd put into a coma. She was also Mystique's daughter! None of that was in any of the movies, but it doesn't matter. "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" is a great movie and a suitable finale to the X-men movie series. Or is it.?