Okay, so I did a bad thing... I made sure all the kids got off to school this morning and then I went to see X-Men: The Last Stand without them! I also smuggled in a venti Mocha Frappucino.
Oh, don't worry... I'll take them again later today, but I take my job as your conduit to all that is sensible in the cinema seriously, and so I needed to see it alone first to collect my thoughts.
So... X-Men 3, the straight skinny.... the good news first: it's not nearly as bad as I think most fans were expecting. The bad news: it's not that great either.By now, you've probably already read Zahra's review, and I think she hit the nail on the head, although I think I liked it a little more than she did. But then again, I've got a much longer history with the characters than she does, since she wasn't a fan of the comics.
The movie starts out promisingly enough, with a prologue at the suburban home of young Jean Grey, where a walking Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr (that's Magneto for the uninitiated) pay a visit. You'll remember that Jean is the very reason Xavier starts his school for gifted youngsters. It's a neat scene, in that we get to see Xavier and Magneto all chummy like they once were, and the visual effects used to make them look younger are very well done. I couldn't tell if it was makeup or digital trickery or both, but it works.
The scene is necessary because it sets up the premise for the "Dark Phoenix" saga that the film brings closure to. In this pseudo-reality of the X-Men film world, there are no aliens, no "Phoenix Force," etc., and so the writers had to come up with a way to explain the presence of the Phoenix in Jean early on.
It is with this scene though, that we also are introduced to the movie's biggest problem, and that is the script. If you've followed the film's troubled production history (haven't we all?), then you'll know that when previous X-Film director Bryan Singer left, he took his writers with him. Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn have stepped into the picture as screenwriters, and while they admirably try to pick up where the previous two films left off, it seems to me that they come from the CSI School of Expository Dialogue. Where the previous two films dropped you off into this world with little to no explanation, in this outing, the writers feel the need to provide exposition and reminders for every little detail.
The other side effect of this switch in writers is that the language seems a little "off." The characters don't quite seem to say things that we'd expect them to say, instead saying things that we'd expect to hear in a "typical" summer blockbuster. It's subtle, but noticeable.
But that's my only REAL problem with the script. I thought the story itself was fairly well done, trying to pack in two major plots in 97 minutes. You basically have the Dark Phoenix Saga (with some tweaks) from the "classic" X-Men era, and you have the more recent Mutant Cure Saga from the newer Joss Whedon run on Astonishing X-Men. Trying to satisfy all fans, old and new, is a tall order, but they honestly do try, and for the most part pull it off.
I've heard others complain about this, that each story could have been split into two movies. That's true, but if you think about it, it would leave out entire masses of old or new X-Fans, and so I think the right decision was made to blend the two.
We're introduced to a number of new mutants, mostly baddies, and while we don't get much more than a power and a name, again, it's enough to let us know that there's lots of them out there. And if you think about it on a comic book level, when a new mutant is introduced in the comics, that's typically all we get anyway. I don't know if this was an intentional tip of the hat to the comics (like the Chris Claremont and Stan Lee cameos) but it was a nice touch.
And as far as nice touches go, there are many of them... again evidence that the filmmakers are all basically fans and wanted this initial trilogy to go out with a bang. Not only do we get homages to the comics, but also various reminders of the previous two films, especially X2. There really did seem to be a cohesiveness and coherence to the overall story, character arcs, and the world in which the film takes place, especially with some short scenes between Logan and Rogue, where he tells her he's not her father, but her friend. Later on, Logan has a scene with Iceman where he basically gives a father's approval to Bobby of the "you're a man now" kind. It's perfectly fitting, considering his film history with both characters.
The Mutant Cure storyline is also intelligently played out, with the initial cure brought about by Warren Worthington II, trying to help his son Warren III, who has grown angel's wings. The initial scene where we meet the young Angel is tense and traumatic. We can then understand the desire of the father to want to help his son. It isn't a stretch to then see how this "cure" will ultimately be twisted into a weapon. The moral implications of the cure are not played out in a black and white fashion. Mutants and humans on both sides of the issue struggle with their decisions.
The Phoenix storyline is also handled very well, considering the amount of changes made to it. Famke has never looked better in the films, and brings a certain grace and intensity to Dark Phoenix, as well as making a killer fashion statement (I want that coat!).
As fans, we get lots of goodies... character namedropping, a danger room sequence, a sentinel, etc. We get to see the Beast in action (yes, he does some swinging butt-kicking which is very cool, but TOO SHORT!), we get more Colossus, we get to see a fully-iced Iceman, Kitty Pryde vs. Juggernaut, more of Mystique, Iceman vs. Pyro, Wolverine casually lighting up a cigar off the burning wreckage as all Hell breaks loose around him, Magneto effortlessly controlling Wolverine ("I can smell your adamantium a mile away."), Storm vs. Callisto... they even literally threw in the kitchen sink (look for it when Professor X confronts Jean).
It's all there, and yet, because of the script and the rushed production schedule, the film feels like it's missing something. I think another 15 to 20 minutes would have helped to wrap things up nicely.
There is a nice ending to the film before the end credits that should make fans happy, and then there's an ever better end to the film AFTER the end credits that should make fans ecstatic. Don't miss it.
