Better After the End Credits...

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2006)

First - I want to address everyone who's already seen X-MEN: THE LAST STAND. If you left during the end credits (or even earlier, as did some viewers in the show I attended), you missed something that easily raised my vote half a star or so: the last scene of the movie.
If you haven't seen THE LAST STAND, make sure you SIT THROUGH THE CREDITS. I'm not going to give anything away, but I think it's worth the extra few minutes. It's interesting that more and more films do have something during, in the middle of, or after the end credits. Since I sit there until the house lights go up or the film runs off the reel, it feels more like a bonus feature, just for a patient moviegoer. But in this case, it's a crucial scene, left quite literally for the very end.
Director Brett Ratner has a strong action film background which includes the RUSH HOUR series, and there's some very solid action sequences here. As a kid reading The X-Men comics, it was really the fight scenes that kept me turning the pages. The film media lends itself perhaps even more to that kind of physical storytelling. THE LAST STAND does not disappoint in this area.
Personally I think this franchise needed at least one entry that was firmly planted in the action category and THE LAST STAND is it. What I hope is that it doesn't become the rule, and that more character driven sequels are in its future. There are now a wealth of superheroes (and villains) presented to us in this X-Men series, and we could stand to learn a lot more about each of them.
This time, however, story wasn't the point, as much as it was a tool to setting up the action. It's almost a Hong Kong martial arts approach; a bridge just to get you to the next fight scene. But with actors like Ian McKellan, those bridges seem much more rewarding. Honestly, he's such a solid Magneto that much of the film owes him a lot for holding things together when the plot gets flimsy. Kudos also to casting Kelsey Grammar as one of my favorite old-time X-Men, Beast. He was spot-on, in my book, and seeing Beast and Angel finally brought into the film story just made it feel complete in a way the other two movies did not.
In making movies out of other media like comic books, there's always going to be some fairly severe story compression. In that process, characters are often quite distorted from their original print versions, and I understand anyone who has objections about how Iceman or any of the other characters have been treated in this series with regard to origins, respective ages, and so on. I admit my own disappointment in the handling of Juggernaut, who could have been a plot point, not to mention a deeper character, all on his own. And I've never liked the way Cyclops has been portrayed in any of the films, though I don't believe the problem is with actor James Marsden, but rather how his character has been written.
Rather than debate those details and give anything away, I'll just say that film is not the printed word (or the well-drawn comic), and there are always concessions. This is not the most serious or character rich entry into the series, but it's a lot of fun, especially if you want to play "spot the superhero or villain". There are certainly more of them here than the other 2 films combined. And many film goers, who are unfamiliar with the comic stories, won't be bothered by any of the omissions or deviations from the comics.
So if you're expecting the kind of serious approach present in the recent BATMAN BEGINS, this isn't really in that league. If, however, you're looking for an amped up action entry and like the Marvel characters, this is probably going to be a good night out. Make sure to get there early enough to see the 20th Century Fox fanfare (with the slightly lingering "X"), and don't leave during the end credits, or you'll miss the end of the movie!