X-men: L'engagement ultime

Wow, where do I start on this fiasco of a movie. In regards to my affection for the first two movies in the series, please see my rating for them. I gave them both high marks, and had anticipated the third movie with much joy and glee. My glee turned to flee not long into this horrible flick. The only thing that remotely saves it from being a total disaster is the graphics, and the hope that you will see it develop into a good movie. If you wasted 8 buck o roonies like myself to see this in theater, well don't feel bad, because some poor jokers sat out all night to see it on opening night. This one is even debatable on rental. Let it go to the special section, or as I call it "The Last Stand."

It is safe to say that every X-Men fan, or any movie fan for that matter would have much rather seen Bryan Singer finnish out his first two X mens into a brilliant trilogy. I was very unsure that Brett Ratner, who has directed some pretty decent movies, not great, but not terrible could do a good job. Much to my chagrin Brett Ratner exceeded my expectations on how well he could direct the final chapter of this comic masterpiece.

Although I feel a comic book movie has yet to top Batman Begins, I feel that all superhero movies owe it to the X men for 'relaunching' this superhero craze that we have been blessed with, and for that we have to thank Singer.

For those who have seen the movie you can agree with me that Ratner did not give us the in depth character build up that Singer gave us. Instead, giving us a fun action packed movie, with a little character glimpse at Wolverine and a touching moment between Kitty and Bobby. However, that is not the director that Ratner is. Ratner is 'an action' director, one who focuses mainly on fight sequences and explosions mixed in with some mild humor, and that is what made this movie work.

Although Singer's genius was deeply missed in this third chapter, I do not feel we need to be ashamed at the third movie. I know we all feel that Singer could have given us a better close on his trilogy, Brett Ratner still needs to be applauded for giving us his different yet great take on the wonderful and never to be forgotten X-Men series.

I must be one of the few, it seems, who enjoyed X-Men: The Last Stand. I have been an X-fan for many years and my expectations were still met by this film. Do I think that it could have been a bit better? Certainly. The script seemed to pack too many elements into a short running time. With those issues solved I believe that it would have been fantastic. Still, I felt that X-3 was almost on the level with X-2's greatness. It has taken another viewing and some time to reach this point. At first, I felt betrayed at the many liberties taken with story elements. But after I left the theatre, I could not shake the feeling that I needed to view it again. After the second time, I came to grips with the film and now like it quite a bit.

Contrary to some critics' reviews, I do not believe that X-3 became overshadowed by action. There really is quite little of it until the finale, which feels quite epic. There are excellent character moments sprinkled throughout. The acting is generally superb across the board. More Ian McKellen is always nice, and Hugh Jackman impresses again with Wolverine. Kelsey Grammar actually does a respectable job with Beast. The other characters all do well with what they are given. There are a few poorly written one-liners that reminded me of the ones in X-Men 1, but the script is mostly intelligent with powerful themes such as the Cure. Another difficulty is that the film cannot pay the proper amount of attention to the many characters, including the new ones. But they still all seem to contribute something to the larger plot movement in the film. Ratner's only obvious difference from Singer is his frenetic pacing and energy. X-3 really moves quickly, and this does not have to be a negative. I also enjoyed the emotion that was hinted at in X-2, and came into full force during X-3. I do not think that it reached sentimentality or was melodramatic; it really felt powerful. The stakes really do seem to be high for the final chapter of this trilogy. The viewer finds this out quickly concerning Cyclops and Mystique, later with Jean and Xavier (in a particularly awe-inspiring scene), and during the finale in a nice moment with Jean and Wolverine. I think that many of the problems people are seeing in the film resulted from the pressure the entire production team was placed under in order to develop and finish the entire film in less than a year.

But all in all, I have really come to enjoy it as a satisfying film that met my high expectations. Look at it this way if you must. Try to see X-3 as not a stand-alone film but more as the third portion of one large story. The first X-Men had the difficult job of introducing a large ensemble cast of mutants and establishing a story and tone (other superhero films with one primary character have it much easier). X-2 had the most enviable position as most of the characters had already been partly developed and it did not have to conclude the entire story. It could work mostly on its own, just having to leave threads open for the next one. X-3 had the extremely difficult task of closing out the entire trilogy for good. I see it more as the third portion of one expansive tale, thus in the larger scheme it must move quickly toward a complete conclusion. In my opinion, the many actors under the abrupt switch in direction did an x-cellent job.

First of all, let me say that X3 was a great action film. If you want to have a great time at the movies, this is a fun film to watch. However, as a fan of X-Men and the film trilogy, there were some problems with the film.

There are a lot of characters that are undeveloped. It's not such a problem with the one's we already know, but it is for the one's that we don't. There's also unneeded information for certain characters that aren't really in the movie. Certain characters play big roles, but we don't get to know them. Others have minor roles, and the info is meaningless. For instance, a character is introduced in the prologue to the movie, but is barely seen in the remainder of the film. The movie was way too short. It seems like everyone's in a hurry throughout the film. If it had been 2 and a half hours, it would have been able to develop all of the characters, and the back stories would have been more relevant to certain characters. The movie is action packed and fun, but it really doesn't draw you into it the way the first two did, say for a couple of scenes.

Overall, it was worth seeing on the big screen, and I'm glad that I saw it. It is a good film. But again, you'll be a little disappointed as an X-Men fan. 7/10.

One final thing, stay after the credits for the final scene. It seems nobody saw the entire movie.

First off, X-Men: The Last Stand was by no means "drivel." In combination with the previous ventures, moviegoers and fans will receive a decent whole. The plot itself is not convoluted, but there are numerous mini-plots for just about every other character in the film. The huge number of plot lines Ratner chose to cast wound up limiting the film, removing key emotional elements. The film just was not long enough to adequately cover everyone's story. The music did not add anything to the movie either, it seemed tacky and amateur. Through length, plot numbers and music, X3 failed to properly and satisfyingly tie up the trilogy.

Problems aside, X-Men did succeed in creating a fabulous action-driven film. Ratner and Fox worked magic on the special effects side of things. I was particularly impressed with the opening scene, which found a 20 year younger Xavier and Eric (Stewart and McKellan) at the house of Jean Grey.

Despite being somewhat of a letdown, the film does bring in some interesting parallelism to the first two films. Speaking of the first films, I recommend viewing them right before or soon after seeing the third, as viewing them reminds you that you do care about the characters (being underdeveloped in X3). Most should find the third entry reasonably enjoyable and miles ahead of poorer entries into the superhero genre (Fantastic Four, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Ultraviolet, and the extraordinarily bad Batman Forever and Batman and Robin).