Worst of the Trilogy, but still Amazing

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2006)

Like a lot of fans, when I heard that Bryan Singer had left X3 to direct Superman Returns, and that Brett Ratner was going to replace him, I felt a growing mixture of dread and anticipation as the release date for X3 approached. After viewing a midnight showing of it, I must say that Brett Ratner is no Bryan Singer. Despite, this, however, The Last Stand is rollicking good ride filled with mind blowing special effects, creative and never-boring action, solid character development, and good philosophical gravitas that people have come to expect from the X-Men series.
The film opens with a couple of flashbacks, and then we fast forward to the present day, learning that there is this young mutant from whom the government has been able to extract a way to suppress the mutant X gene. This pisses the perennially angry Magneto off, and makes Xavier slightly concerned. Of course, as if this wasn't enough, Jean Grey has come back from the dead, darker and with an evil aura about her that Xavier seems to know a little too much about.
The Last Stand thrusts us straight into the action less than 20 minutes into the story, and barely lets up at all from there. There is not a second of wasted space in this movie, and it all works to move the characters and the plot inexorably forward as they approach "the last stand." Despite the frenetic thrust into the action, and the constant pummeling of the viewer with said action, each of the characters is explored more in depth.
Different villains are introduced, as well as old ones met again. Pyro, Iceman's old menace, has now taken up with Magneto and stands by his side as his almost equally powerful sidekick. Mystique is her usual beautiful deadly self. Juggernaut, an unstoppable force of a man, aligns himself with Magneto because the government imprisoned him. Each of these people's powers work quite well in tandem with Magneto's, and they make for a show-stopping showdown.
Brett Ratner shows us he knows how to direct action. The action in this movie beats all the action in the previous movies combined. There are moments of surprise, gasps, and simply "holy crap!" Ratner's action is creative and imaginative - he is not simply satisfied with a car blowing up - he has to have Magneto throw the car into the air, and Pyro blasting with it a giant fireball. And the best thing about the action is that once it starts, it never lets up, barely giving us a chance to catch our breath before Ratner takes it away again with another mind-blowing stunt.
Now for what makes this movie less than stellar. Though there is plenty of character development, and we do go deeper into the lives of the characters we already know and love - the new ones are introduced with barely a second glance. Juggernaut, Angel, Beast, and the guy who can change into several guys at once - all of them serve only as secondary mutants. What made X2 so amazing was that each new character that was introduced was explored to their fullest potential - the lovable yet creepy Nightcrawler, the dangerously on the edge Pyro, and the sadistically evil Will Striker. The only exception being the woman who fought Wolverine with Adamantium claws. In X3 Pyro is reduced to a mere sidekick - and the only way his character is explored is in his bullying of Bobby. Nightcrawler disappears completely - though this a periodic characteristic of the comics, as well. Mystique, though still intriguingly beautiful, falls slightly flat. We do see more of the love triangle between Jean, Wolverine, and Cyclops; another love triangle develops between Bobby, Rogue, and the girl who can walk through walls. As I mentioned, Storm in particular plays a much larger role.
It seems Ratner was more concerned with the good guys than the bad in this one. Glossing over the bad guys in a quick, perfunctory manner, he stays focused on the good guys and their development much much more. Other weaknesses of this film include one of its great strengths: fast, frenetic energy. Though it is refreshing to finally see the long awaited summer blockbuster with no-holds barred action, The Last Stand gives up a little bit too much in terms of character and story. And it is precisely this that prevents The Last Stand from jumping the divide between freakin awesome and truly great.
Judged as a stand alone movie, The Last Stand is fantastically well put together - it will undoubtedly become one of the biggest blockbusters of 2006. However, being part of these legendary mutant movies, it must be held up to a higher standard, and, unfortunately, it falls short. Bryan Singer did a job on the first two X-Men films that had people blown away. Brett Ratner's work, though, takes the movie back to its comic book roots, stripping away some of the layers of drama that Singer had stamped on there, and just having some swell ass-kicking fun, with ridiculously amazing visuals. Though this film is not as good as Singer's past two were, it still works, and for that I am willing to give Brett Ratner a thumbs up. He deserves a good amount of congratulations for putting something together so well that so many people thought he would screw up. I know. I was one of them. But he didn't disappoint. I believe he did the best possible job he could, and for that, he gets an 8/10. Because, after all, he's still no Bryan Singer.