X-Men 3 Review

Well, after flirting with moving up to a bigger and better movie website, I’ve decided to stay here where I’m the boss (read: they hired someone else, ahem). Anyway, it’s the start of my favorite time of year: summer-movie season, and I’ve just seen the first big movie that I was really looking forward to. I am of course speaking of X-Men: The Last Stand. As anyone who knows me is well aware, I am quite the comic geek. What most probably do not know, is that my level of obsession for X-Men easily dwarfs any other super-hero franchise. That’s right. That attention to detail witnessed in my Batman and Fantastic Four reviews amounts to a passing interest in comparison to my X-attachment. So where do I stand on the new film (the third and “final” installment in a series I have loved so far)? First let’s borrow a trick they’ve yet to allow in the movies and go back in time a few years. It’s summer of 2000 and I’m driving to the Midway Theater to see the first X-Men movie in the middle of a thunderstorm with bolts of lightning cracking down on the horizon. On the drive I was thinking about the irony of the storm and wondering if some African weather goddess wasn’t responsible. Turns out I had the symbolism of the storm all wrong though. It didn’t represent a character in the movie I was about to see, but rather an era in filmmaking that was beginning that night. I don’t need to tell you that X-Men became a huge hit and drove studios everywhere to scoop up every comic property they could get their hands on, turning the super-hero genre (along with “sword and sorcery”) into the defining film genre of the decade. Quite appropriate that the team that started my comic addiction would spawn the very same affliction in Hollywood. So it was a bit of odd symmetry Friday night standing outside the theater waiting to see the X-Men’s big finale while hearing light thunder off in the distance behind me. But I’ve rambled enough. How’s the movie already? Pretty damn great to be honest.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the third X-movie marks a change in director from Bryan Singer (who defected to DC with Superman Returns) to Rush Hour helmsman, Brett Ratner (or “the Rat” as he’s not-so-affectionately referred to by the internet “fan” community). There was quite a bit of doubt (to put it lightly) as to whether Ratner could make a successful sequel for our merry mutants. Fans needn’t have worried though, as Ratner preserves the established look and tone of the series while escalating the action. Oh man, does he escalate that action. Fans clamoring for mutant mayhem on a large scale have finally been given their wish. War is declared, powers rage out of control, and casualties mount. We also get to meet some new mutants along the way. First and foremost, there is Hank McCoy or the Beast, one of the most popular X-Men and a character fans having been begging for since day one. Here he’s played by Frasier’s Kelsey Grammer, who disappears under that blue fur and make-up. I was worried I was going to see a blue Frasier, since he has become such a recognizable television personality over the past 25 years or so, but my fears were unfounded. He simply is the Beast on that screen, and when you finally hear his lifelong catch-phrase, it’s one of those moments us geeks dream about. Also new is Kitty Pryde (a.k.a. Shadowcat) who had small cameos in the last two, but appears here with a fully fleshed out role for the first time. Ellen Page is yet another great casting choice in a series that has been pretty much spot-on for 3 movies now. I was initially a little worried about the love triangle they’d set up with, her, but it’s actually handled very well. Unfortunately the other new mutants do not get nearly enough screen time. Angel has a role much smaller than what I expected and Colossus basically amounts to a recurring cameo, as do the new members of the Brotherhood. I can understand this decision though. These characters do fulfill necessary roles and if these roles were given to nameless generic mutants, the fan complaints would be coming through just as loudly. Besides, the last two did the same thing, with recognizable characters introduced in small parts and expanded in subsequent movies. Anyway, it’s hard to complain about the small characters when the big ones are handled so well. Jean in particular takes a wonderfully dark turn in this installment and the depiction of her raw power at its fullest makes for 2 of the coolest moments in the series. Speaking of dark turns, is there any better actor working today than Ian McKellen? His Magneto is one of the best movie villains I can remember and as usual they give him most of the best lines in this one. And he’s earned them. I can think of no other actor who makes gesturing and pointing so dramatic. Of course, I can’t run through the villains without mentioning Mystique who while given a reduced role is still a blast to watch when she’s there (when has Rebecca Romijn ever been so good outside this particular series?). I had somewhat of a love-hate relationship though with the Juggernaut, going back and forth between thinking he looked pretty cool and finding him silly. On the heroes’ side, Storm is much better in this one than the past two, and we get to see better displays of her powers. Halle Berry is still the film’s weakest actor (unusual for an Oscar-winner), but she’s certainly more believable here than she was in the first one. Xavier is presented to be a little bit less saintly in this one, and I think it’s a good change. He’s certainly made some questionable decisions in the comics over the years, and I’d say his depiction here is consistent with that. Wolverine as you may have guessed is his usual badass self. Some have complained that we get the PG-13 sissified version of Logan here. Let’s think for a moment about the likelihood of getting a hard R version of Wolverine complete with Kill Bill style fight scenes littered in blood and severed limbs. To me this is just the complaint of those upset that the movie was not made for them specifically and I think it reflects the whining of a lot of the fans out there. Like the other two films, they got the important stuff right and made a pretty exciting movie that can be enjoyed by experts and novices alike. Quibbling over the fact that the Juggernaut isn’t given his powers from the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak is just petty at best. This isn’t to say that the film is without criticism however. I really wish they didn’t sideline Cyclops the way they did. They’ve been shrinking his part since the first movie, because most viewers seem to hate him out of some irrelevant loyalty to his rival, Wolverine. This is unfortunate though, because he really is one of the essential X-characters. There were also a few scenes where the utter ridiculousness of the situation came through with cheesy deliveries and less-than-ideal shots (particularly during the present-day scene at Jean’s childhood home). Luckily these things are kept to a minimum for the most part, so there were only a few moments where I was pulled out of the movie. Also at an hour and forty-fiveish, I wish the movie was a bit longer, giving more time to breathe in between action sequences and develop some of the characters more. However, I’m aware that I’m the kind of fan who could sit through a 4 hour X-Men movie without checking my watch once, so I can appreciate the desire to keep the film brisk and succinct for the rest of the audience. Finally, after re-watching the original X-Men movie last night, I did find that I somewhat missed the realism they had in that film, which was traded for action-movie spectacle in this one. But these are mostly small complaints. This is a very nice way to wrap up the trilogy and the principle characters all reach satisfying conclusions (now would probably be a good time to suggest staying until after the credits roll). Plus I have to admit I was totally jazzed to see an almost completely new line-up of X-Men at the film’s final battle which should nicely set up the next movie. What? You didn’t think this was gonna be the last one did you?