A sloppy end to what could have been an awesome trilogy

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2006)

X-Men 3:The Last Stand was undoubtedly an entertaining film, but for all its visual marvel and its maelstrom of explosive action sequences, it fails to be brilliant for one reason; there is too much going on.
It picks up sometime (we're to assume recently) after the supposed death of psychic Jean Grey. While her friends and colleagues Wolverine and Storm are trying to cope without her, they become gripped by the news that the human government has found a way to suppress the mutant gene and is opening its doors to any mutant who wishes to relinquish their powers and achieve a normal status in society. However, right-wing mutant fundamentalist, Magneto, rejects the so called "cure" as an insult and with the help of an army of vengeful mutants, rises up against the humans who, as it turns out, are planing to enforce the cure with or without mutant consent. Meanwhile Scott (aka Cyclops) revisits the dam where he last saw his beloved wife swept away by a wall of water. She mysteriously reappears, not as the Jean he once knew, but as the ferociously powerful goddess, Phoenix...can you see how this creates a problem?
As comic book purists have already vehemently pointed out, the Phoenix saga stretches over four episodes! So it makes me wonder how any scriptwriter would believe that they could successfully crush such a huge legacy into a 100 min film, while also trying to accommodate the inevitable Magneto Vs Humans war and still have time to build tangible, three-dimensional characters along the way. How could Ratner hope to do that when his movie is half an hour shorter than the his predecessor's?
Between the X-Men, Magneto's goons, the White House officials, the US army and the malevolent Phoenix, the movie becomes a wild battle for screen time. Many of the more prominent and intriguing characters from the first two films taste barely two minutes of the running time before they are either stripped of their powers, or destroyed. It was a most unsavoury feeling for me to see characters who I had become so attached to over the course of the last two films, suddenly being recklessly obliterated. Save for the character of Beast, played excellently by Kelsey Grammar, virtually none of the new mutants introduced actually speak a word. We are told absolutely nothing about them and we must accept that they serve no purpose other than to blast energy bolts, kick people in the face and make things explode. It was a let down, almost an insult to watch this mass mistreatment of so many important characters.
The visual effects in this film are amazing, most notably the hair-raising (or should I say "house-raising") scene with Phoenix and Xavier in the Grey House, the destruction and flight of the Golden Gate Bridge and the explosive showdown between the X-men and Magneto's forces, which displayed some truly breathtaking scenes.
However, when Ratner's not directing action his inferiority to Singer shows through. X3 feels like a much more static and plainer looking film than its predecessors. This is mainly down to Ratner's camera work lacking the polished, dynamic genius of Singer's, who gave the first two films a real comic book feel. Ratner also tends to indulge in the special effects bucket all too much, unlike Singer who used a more subtle approach. There's only so much razzle-dazzle that you can throw at an audience, if yeh don't got the script or the characters...it's gonna fall flat.
The actors all do a brilliant job, even if some of the best actors are only on screen for five minutes! Famke Jackson plays the Phoenix with frightening charisma (although she was helped greatly by black contacts and pulsing thread veins). Hugh Jackman seems to fit right at home as the rustic, rippling anti-hero Wolverine. Hally Berry's role as Storm seemed strange. Apparantley after plans to leave she told writers she would stay on only if they extended her role. I can see how she was 'upgraded' to the status of leader, but she still seemed to take the back seat behind Wolverine. On a negative note, I thought the casting of Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut was just stupid. I don't remember Juggernaut ever sounding like an cockney boot boy.
X3 was indeed a loud, cheesy, epileptic romp that was, for the most part, enjoyable. It's just so unfortunate that it tried to take on too much at once and had to sacrifice so many great characters. If only they hadn't caged themselves with this trilogy idea and had dealt with the Phoenix saga and Magneto's war as two separate films.
As a movie on its own, Ratner's X3 is acceptable. However, as the conclusion to a trilogy, it is thoroughly empty and disappointing.