X-Men: The End?

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2006)

The best and most emotional movie of the trilogy. This is what the director, Brett Ratner, and the actors involved have said of X-Men: The Last Stand. This year's Revenge of the Sith? Not really: it's not as astonishing as the final Star Wars chapter (or, staying in X-Men territory, the amazing second installment), but it has the degree of spectacular that makes it count as a solid franchise epilogue (assuming it really is the last film in the series, that is).
The Last Stand's premise is based on a recent X-Men storyline written by Joss "Buffy" Whedon: we learn of the existence of a young mutant(Cameron Bright, aka the "creepy boy" from Godsend and Birth), whose very particular "gift" is to make other mutants powerless if they're too close to him. So far, though, the loss is temporary. If, however, you receive the "cure", obtained from the boy's DNA, you will become "normal". Forever.
This discovery causes three main reactions: some mutants, including Angel (Ben Foster), a winged teenager whose father financed the making of the "cure", and Rogue (Anna Paquin), who, because of her abilities, can't even kiss or touch her boyfriend, see it as a miracle; Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his students, particularly Storm (Halle Berry), think it's ridiculous, given being a mutant isn't a disease you can just get rid of; and then we have Magneto (Ian McKellen), who immediately realizes the truth: let the humans have it their way, and the mutant race will be completely and irreversibly exterminated. Which means, the ultimate war is about to begin. In addition, the X-Men have to deal with another issue: Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, at her best), back from the dead and more powerful than ever (she's a Level 5 mutant, virtually invincible, whereas Xavier and Magneto are Level 4). In fact, her personality has been replaced by a more aggressive one known as the Phoenix. Translation: the proverbial thing is going to hit the fan.
The main pre-release complaint made by fans was the departure of director Bryan Singer, who moved on to resurrecting Superman on the big screen. His replacement, Rush Hour director Brett Ratner, maintains the same tone and, like Singer, aims for something a bit more breathtaking in scale compared to the previous film. Starting with a Danger Room sequence, blatantly inspired by the famous Days of a Future Past storyline, and tying the two plot arcs (The Cure and the Dark Phoenix Saga) together in an epic confrontation as good as anything Singer would have come up with, he manages to deliver action and suspense without sacrificing the story's heart for the sake of comedy (as seen in the Rush Hours). Actually, sometimes the action overshadows parts of the story, with key subplots from previous installments - the Rogue-Iceman situation most notably - being sidestepped to make room for new characters (not that it's a bad thing, when you have someone like Kelsey Grammar playing Beast). This, paired with a running time that is, astonishingly enough, shorter than that of X2, means that while the overall result is pretty satisfying, there are some specific sections that could have used more work.
Bottom line: this might not be the last official X-Men film (the last two scenes, one of which plays after the closing credits, seem to suggest a fourth chapter is possible), but if it is, it's a worthy, if not entirely accomplished swansong. Then again, asking a new director to outdo someone else's work is a pretty big challenge, so Ratner deserves credit for accepting the challenge and delivering an intelligent, exciting summer blockbuster - an X-flick worthy of the name.