X-Men: The Last Stand By Hervé St.Louis May 28, 2006 - 11:03:00 PM

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X-Men: The Last Stand
Genres:     Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Sequel
Running Time:     1 hr. 43 min.
Release Date:     May 26th, 2006 (wide)
MPAA Rating:     PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language.
Distributors:     
20th Century Fox
Cast and Credits
Starring:     Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry
Directed by:     Brett Ratner
Produced by:     Kevin Feige, John Palermo, Stan Lee

Following on the heels of the last confrontation between humans and mutants, Magneto assembles an army to end humans’ threat against mutants once and for all. In particular, Magneto wants to destroy a new cure that reverts mutants into powerless humans. It’s up to the X-Men to stop Magneto and his army. The problem is, the X-Men are not as united as they used to be. Will there be enough of them to oppose Magneto?

Of all the X-Men films, this is the best. Everything that has built up over the first two movies just explodes here and we get to see mutant war, almost as it should be. A few things do bother me though. In all three films, there is always a doomsday weapon to either wipe all mutants or humans. These weapons always have macro effect on one faction or the other. This pattern gets tiring. Another pattern, is that Professor X is again put out of commission in this story and it’s up to his students to end the threat of Magneto.

The film touches on many interesting aspects of the comics, such as the rivalry between Storm and Callisto or the fighting tactics developed between Colossus and Wolverine. In particular, there’s the classic throw sequence from the Phoenix Saga, where Colossus launches Wolverine in the air. Several subplots begun in earlier films are resolved here, such as the relationship between Iceman and Pyro, Wolverine and Rogue. One annoying aspect of this film is that Wolverine again turns out to be the hero of the gang and the one who saves the day.

Real fans and geeks noticed in the last film that Phoenix was alive, just by seeing the fiery blur in the water. However, there are several plot holes. One of them is why does Phoenix even aligns herself with Magneto’s band. That’s never explained. Another one is how can Angel fly back and forth from one coast of the United States to the other, so fast, unless the new mansion is now on the Westcoast.

The effects on Phoenix in this film are interesting. There are not similar in imagery to the comic book, but make Jean look scarier almost like a flaming vampire. The pitch-black eye effects are groovy. One thing that annoyed me about the big fight is that the no name mutant fighters were just grunts without any visible powers who were nothing but punching bags for the X-Men.

Another thing which again defies logic is that the physical appearance of a mutant changes once he is reverted into a human. One would think that if one was born with six fingers, that the sixth one would not fall off if injected by the mutant cure. It gives more support to the idea that mutant powers are diseases instead of a genetic evolution. Yet this is the best X-Men film of the series, although it was short.

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