X-Men: The Last Stand - Palm Beach Post movie review

'X-Men: The Last Stand': Director change mutates things

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Whoever came up with The Last Stand as the subtitle for the third installment in the X-Men films probably had no idea that director Brett Ratner would deliver such a mind-numbing, effects-heavy movie that it would virtually kill off the series.

20th Century Fox

'X-Men: The Last Stand'

The verdict: An effects-heavy third installment, directed without inspiration by Ratner.

Director: Brett Ratner
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, James Marsden, Shawn Ashmore
Run time: 104 minutes
Release date: May 26, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language.
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Sneak peek!
Get an early look at the action with these slides of:
• The movie
• The mutants

Behind the scenes
• As a mutant, Grammer pays blue suede dues
• When the third time isn't the charm: threequels

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

Based on a classic Marvel comic book, the movies involve a squadron of mutants that roam the Earth using their super-power deformities to help the homo sapiens who fear and are repulsed by them.

Ironically, the first two films in the franchise brimmed with humanity, for we actually cared about these freaks of nature who simply wanted to live their lives with dignity. Well, as much dignity as could be mustered for those who can manipulate weather, change shape and appearance, control thoughts through telepathy, radiate intense cold, have power over any object containing metal, absorb and mimic the skills of others and on and on.

It is surely an oversimplification of complex movies like this that employ armies of technicians, crew members and stunt men to give the credit or lay the blame at the director alone. But the chief difference between the first two X-Men flicks and The Last Stand is that the talented Bryan Singer has given up the helm, replaced by the far more pedestrian Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1 and 2, Red Dragon). The results are a gain for noise and computer-generated spectacle and a loss in interest.

The problem is not that screenwriters Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and Zak Penn (Elektra) lacked an intriguing story angle. For corporate mogul Warren Worthington (Michael Murphy), whose son has sprouted embarrassing white angel wings, develops a serum to "cure" the mutations.

But the more militant mutants, led by the fiendish Magneto (Ian McKellen, fresh from his scene-stealing in The Da Vinci Code), are ready to battle the humans rather than be forced to submit to the serum. Prof. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who administers the mutant School for the Gifted, argues for moderation.

Oh, and telekinetic Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), the Class 5, all-powerful mutant who sacrificed her life for the cause in X2, now suddenly returns, occasionally possessed by an evil alter-ego known as Phoenix. With time spent introducing new characters like Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy, aka The Beast (a blue-skinned Kelsey Grammer), a Hulk-like battering ram named Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones) and a young girl called Kitty (Ellen Page) who can melt through solid walls, many of the long-standing mutants get precious little screen time.

X-Men: The Last Stand is bound to attract the hard-core comics fans, but even they are likely to admit that this is the least of the three films in the series. Still, you can't keep a good mutant down. Already in the works is a spinoff feature for hunky Hugh Jackman as mutton-chopped, retractable metal-clawed Wolverine. The crucial question is who will get the assignment to direct it.