You would die for them?

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2011)

X-Men: The Last Stand is directed by Brett Ratner and written by Simon Kinberg & Zak Penn. It's the second sequel to 2000's X-Men and the franchise is based around Uncanny X-Men that was the creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It stars Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Jansen, Kelsey Grammar, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin & Ellen Page. Dante Spinotti photographs it and the music is scored by John Howe. Plot finds mutants in danger of being wiped out due to a cure discovered at Worthington Industries. This could have desperate repercussions between Xavier's integration friendly X-Men, Magneto's human hating Brotherhood and the human race. Things are further complicated with the return from the dead of Jean Grey, who seems to not be herself and has gained some new and terrifying powers...
Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men film's, left the franchise to go and helm Superman Returns. After much toing and froing, and many offers to directors, Ratner ended up in the chair. Director of Rush Hour 1 & 2 and Red Dragon, Ratner was charged with the unenviable task of trying to follow the excellent X2. Afforded a budget of $210 million (considerably the highest of the franchise), Ratner and his team made a good enough film to get double back that budget at the Worldwide box office. Not bad considering it was met with mixed reviews from the critics and fan-boys alike. X-Men 3 is a good film, in fact it's great entertainment, what it lacks is the flow and balance of its immediate predecessor. Ratner and his team have followed what seems to be the rule of thumb for movie franchises, i.e.: cram more in and try to dazzle as often as possible. Which in a film that only runs at just over 1 hour 40 minutes doesn't leave much opportunity for character depth, coherence and a solid structure. It's a shame that the makers couldn't afford to let the film be a two hour or longer piece, for there's enough in between the set-pieces to suggest that Ratner could have crafted a deeper movie to match the pizazz.
But what pizazz it is. Magneto creates eye candy carnage via a rescue of one of his charges and a bit of bridge manoeuvring is really really cool. Then there's the sublime excitement that comes with the all out war of "the last stand", where the X-Men team go feral and showcase the best of their abilities and new tricks (oh we love Storm's new twirly spinning attack mode thingy). While Jean Grey's new powers brings breath taking rewards for the viewer. There's also plenty of little treats for fans of the source and one or two genuine surprises thrown into the mixer. But while the appearance of Beast (Grammer-great) and Kitty Pryde (Page-delightful) is most welcome, new additions that fall flat include Angel (Ben Foster-pointless) and Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones-laughable in a bad way). Which under scrutiny leaves us with a very mixed bag. But! And it's a very big but, for those looking for a slam bang popcorn piece this delivers all that's required. For those in hard with the source and those in need of X2's intelligence, however, the flaws may be just too much to bear. 7/10