Good attempt, but some minor narks

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2006)

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!***** First of all, I'll reiterate what most people have said. This is probably the worst film of the three and Brett Ratner did nowhere NEAR as good a job as Bryan Singer.
However, that's not to say he completely failed to deliver by any means. The film is easily the darkest of the lot with some major character deaths and underlying themes.
The film revolves around two story lines, the 'cure' for mutants and the Dark Phoenix saga, I won't go into too much detail of these, as they've been plastered all over every review and synopsis anyway.
The film opened well, watching Xavier and Magneto visit a young Jean Grey at her house, before their different viewpoints tore them apart. There's a nice little fight in the Danger Room with the group fighting a Sentinel, which was very well done and a bit of a treat for the comic book fans.
After this however, and this is major nark, the film then gets a bit too fast-paced. Ratner's tried to cram too much into too short a time, rather than extend the length of the film to perhaps a 2 and a half hour, or even three hour film. The end result is that all the setting up of the plot lines feels a bit to rushed and makes somethings just seem improbable. Most notably Cyclops just upping and leaving the mansion. OK, fine, he's upset, he needs some time alone, I can handle that. So he just 'happens' to go straight to Alkali Lake, which nicely coincides with Jean rising from the waters. It just happens a bit too fast and doesn't quite seem plausible, like there's some more explanation needed.
Once things are in place, the film proceeds quite nicely with some fantastic action scenes and plot-moving moments, the stand of at Jean's house in particular is executed brilliantly. It's just a shame Ratner didn't put the same input into the pre-storyline that he did with the rest of it, otherwise this film could have been walking away with the full 10.
Directtion aside, there are some very good performances from the actors. Sir Ian MacKellan once again faithfully reprises his role as Magneto. Vinnie Jones was always going to be amusing as the Juggernaut, purely because it echos himself so much. You kind of wonder whether there actually was any acting required for him. Halle Berry takes a more pivotal role as Storm in this film, making her actually powerful, which, considering she was one of the main characters is about time. I always thought Cyclops and Storm were a bit 1-dimensional in X1, with Wolverine and Rogue stealing the show. In X3 though, it is arguably Kelsey Grammar who steals the show playing Beast to absolute perfection. I can't imagine anyone else playing this role.
Other pro points included Iceman finally realising his potential and the proper introduction of Shadowcat and Colossus. Though rant at this point: Colossus is Russian!!! NOT American!!! There was no problem keeping Nightcrawler German in X2, so why not Colossus? Final Nark: Whilst Angel was introduced right at the start, seemingly in a major role, he was hardly used at all, and the bit where he saved his dad when they threw him off the roof you could spot coming a mile off.
I don't feel I can end this comment without responding to a few of the complaints people have thrown up though (*****MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*****): 1. "Magneto got stripped of his power. It's unfaithful to the comics." Um, not really. The same thing happened at the end of the House of M storyline. In any case, you see him getting his powers back at the end.
2. "They killed off Jean." You mean you COULDN'T half guess that was going to happen considering the whole dead/alive thing that's gone on with her in the comics? 3. "They killed of Prof X." Stick around for after the credits.
4. "They killed off Cyclops." Probably a foreshadowing for X4 as someone rightly pointed out, you never actually SEE him die.
5. "Cyclops was barely in it." True, but I don't see why people are taking that out on Ratner. He was barely used in X2 either.
On the whole, I thought it was a good watch and I'd happily watch it again though. I don't think "The Last Stand" is the right title though really, as it's been quite well set up for another sequel.