Oh, c'mon! You know there's gonna be another one!

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2006)

After three years since Bryan Singer wowed audiences with X2: X-Men United the X-Men are finally back again on the big screen, but sadly without Singer. Nope, he's gone on to resurrect "The Man of Steel" in Superman Returns, which will be unleashed on theaters this June. Filling in for Singer on The Last Stand is Brett Ratner, whose previous films include both Rush Hour movies, The Family Man and Red Dragon. I was skeptical about Ratner being able to live up to the intensity of Singer's films, but I found myself pleasantly surprised when all was said and done. X-Men: The Last Stand looks a lot like the first two films, but with a rock'em and sock'em energy of the 90's X-Men cartoon, and that's not really such a bad thing.
The Last Stand is by and large the biggest, loudest and best piece of action to hit theaters this year, just beating out M:I:III, largely due to the film's exciting climatic finale. This episode in the series claims to be the last, but believe me, when a second sequel rakes in over a hundred and twenty million dollars at the box office in it's opening weekend, you can bet there will be at least another entry in the series. This time the X-Men face possible extermination when a possible "cure" for the mutant "problem" is discovered in a young mutant boy, who is now locked up in a laboratory on Alcatraz Island. Meanwhile Magneto, joined by his new ally, Pyro, try to rally a bunch of mutants to fight back and wipeout the discovered cure. Professor X feels a disturbance in the force and tells Storm and Wolverine to venture up to Alkaline Lake (where the last film ended), where they discover an unconscious Jean Grey. Apparently Jean was able to survive the collapse of the dam and as it turns out there's a dark and powerful force inside Jean's mind that is more destructive than any other mutant on the planet, and it's only a matter of time before her fury, known as "The Phoenix", is unleashed upon the world. Dunt, dunt, duh! All the mutants that weve come to love (and hate) are back, including Professor X, Wolverine, Magneto, Cyclops, Storm, Rouge, Pryo, Mystique and Iceman, but they aren't alone, there's a ton of new mutants that fill the screen during The Last Stand, and the X-Men have a few new recruits including Colossus, Kitty Pryde and Henry McCoy aka "Beast" or as Wolverine calls him, "Fuzzball", played well by a blue and hairy Kelsey Grammar. With all the additional mutants I must say I'm still disappointed that Gambit didn't make it into the picture, but by piling a ton of new mutants into the film is allows for some pretty fun and wildly inventive action sequences, which the film is littered with and in top form from beginning to end. And they finally show us the "Danger Room". It's about time, isn't it? Where does X3 stand in terms of the trilogy? Well, it isn't quite as well structured as the first two films, but The Last Stand is by far the most ambitious of the three, so some of it's short comings can be forgiven for trying, and for the most part succeeding, at doing something wider and crazier than the first two films. Just watch the Golden Gate Bridge sequence or the intense final battle at Alcatraz and try and tell me that that wasn't as intense or was less exciting than the climax of X2. The film certainly lives up the first two films, and in some ways even manages to surpass them. X-Men: The Last Stand is the best piece of summer entertainment so far this year and with a Superman and some more Pirates on the way, things are lookin' pretty good! And if this is in fact the last film in the series, although I seriously doubt it, at least it went out with a bang. Stay through the end credits to see an extra scene that'll leave you scratching your head and going "What the...?"