X-3: The Last Stand
While watching this entry, knowing the vitriol it had received, the one question that kept going thru my mind was, quite frankly, where’s the problem? This film is certainly a notch above the grossly overrated X2, with Bryan Singer and his political allegories eliminated from the big picture in place of a far more intriguing dilemma unique to the X-Men world: If given a choice, would you choose to still have mutant powers or would you rather be a “normal” human? It makes for a fascinating story, with those who are struggling with giving up their powers or keeping them (Angel, Rogue). As far as the deaths of major characters go, it kind of marks the franchise’s way of saying that this is truly the LAST of the series, but at least it gives the viewer the sense that ANYTHING can happen here, and it makes the story no-holds-barred. It was also nice to see the out-of-left-field casting of Kelsey Grammer as Beast, a noticeable improvement from the horrendous overacting that was Alan Cummings’ Nightcrawler in X2, as well as a fairly early role for Ellen Page as one of the junior members of the team, increasing her potential for being marriage material when I move to Hollywood. All is not perfect though: the film flies by a bit too quick for having such an epic story, and Ratner could have allowed for a bit more character development as a result. In addition, I found it hard to swallow the film’s theory that Jean Grey was essentially “evil” all along, and only thru certain blockages that Xavier had put on her was she able to function as a “good” mutant, and indeed much of her part in the story was sloppily handled. Fortunately the free for all nature of the last 20 minutes saves the film, making it lots of fun to see the scrubs that Magneto recruits get shot down by the cure guns. All in all, a strong way to end the trilogy…
8/10