The Last Stand...thank goodness

Rating: 6/10 (28 May 2006)

When franchises switch directors, it's always a scary thing. Fortunately, this isn't Batman Forever. Unfortunately, part of me wishes it were *more* like that film: rather than being too campy, this movie was often too depressing and self-important, like most modern blockbusters.
Oh, if only Joss Whedon had been allowed to direct this. On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, major character deaths are motivated by the needs of the story. In this movie, I felt like all the deaths were motivated by contract negotiations gone awry.
James Marsden has never been happy with being in these movies, so Scott was changed from a pretty cool character in the other films (IMHO) into a complete loser who gets offed easily in the first 10 minutes. Then, apparently because Patrick Stewart wants out of the franchise, the audience has to watch as Professor X gets his very skin ripped off his body. It's painful and unnecessary. Couldn't these characters have given themselves in the final battle instead? (BTW, how do you like the Professor's strategy? "Let me go into Jean's house alone, so that she can kill me easier." Good thinking, Prof. Haven't you seen any horror movies?) And what happened to Rogue's character arc? She was the helpless victim in X1, then (if I remember right) she became more of a hero in X2. Now she's just worried about her boyfriend (whatever she claims, it was about him) and she gives up all her powers. She seems happier, which totally contradicts the whole "we don't need to be cured" theme.
Jean Grey died a very cool, sacrifical death in X2. Unfortunately, that's where it should have stayed. "Pheonix" turned out to be nothing but Famke Janssen standing there looking stoned while the special effects whirred and whizzed around her. She was just out of control; there was no motivation for anything she did. When she died the first time, I felt bad for her; when she died the second time, it was like putting a mutt out of its misery.
I really wanted to see a struggle between the two sides of Jean's personality. If she hadn't killed Scott and the Professor so early on, there could have been some suspense over whether or not she would be redeemed. Instead, it was obvious from the get-go that she needed to be killed.
While everyone else is getting smaller roles, I-won-an-Oscar-so-I've-got-a-huge-ego-now Halle Berry finally got a bigger role, as she asked for. While Storm was an interesting supporting character in previous installments, she now inexplicably takes lead for everything, including the running of the school. I was keenly aware of the writers having to pull strings every time she suddenly took charge of things.
Other things I didn't like: There was an unusual amount of gore in this film - it pushed the upper edges of PG-13, to be sure. Did we really need to see that many characters explode on screen, especially a couple that we cared about? I was ticked that the Sentinels showed up only briefly in a holographic test, rather than in the actual movie.
I missed the bit at the end, because no one warned us in advance. But I'm disgusted that the filmmakers hedged their bets after all that. I no longer want to see X4 after this.
Whew. OK. Didn't I say I like this film? I did. Here's the good stuff: Grammar was perfect as Beast. I found him totally believable in the dialogue scenes, and the audience cheered when he started kicking butt near the end. Kitty Pryde - both the action scenes and the love triangle. Juggernaut was great, scoring some of the few funny lines in the whole film. Mckellen was awesome as usual, providing the gravitas necessary to make Magneto believable. Angel was cool. And some of the fight scenes were amazing, and actually had the audience (including myself) cheering.
And it was nice to see Rebecca Romjin as a human for a change. She's one of the most gorgeous women alive, yet the filmmakers somehow managed to make her hideous for the last three films. So this was a welcome change.
So, actually...it was a decent film, but not good enough to warrant a continuation of the series.
And the dialogue and acting in this film is still better than Revenge of the Sith. In spite of all the acclaim that film received, this one is actually a better film (though I expect a larger negative lashback).