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Movies :: Exit "X-Men" The final adrenaline-pumping installment in one of the classier action/fantasy franchises of the past decade may turn out to be one of this summer's better blockbusters. X-Men: The Last Stand. MPAA Rating: PG-13. by Betsy Sherman
For the trilogy's finale, "X-Men: The Last Stand," the directorial reins were passed to Brett Ratner (after "Layer Cake" director Matthew Vaughn dropped out of the project). Ratner hit the big time with tongue-in-cheek action comedies such as "Rush Hour." While "X-Men: The Last Stand" has some good special-effects sequences and gives one character in particular some memorable moments, on the whole it's a notch below its predecessors. Ratner and his screenwriters dumb the series down by annoyingly upping the quip factor, and don't seem to care as much about the stuff that happens in between the set-pieces. The "X-Men" movies depict a world coping with the next step of evolution. Humans are giving birth to mutants, who collectively possess a wide array of superhuman powers. Their gifts make them outsiders, and therefore prey to prejudice and bigotry. The opening of "X-Men" was a flashback to Jews being herded into a Nazi concentration camp. Among them was a mutant boy, Eric, who would grow up to be the metal-manipulating villain Magneto. The mutant experience has also suggested that of blacks, the disabled, foreigners, and gays (in "X2," a teenage boy "comes out" as a mutant to his parents). Since the action of "X2," in which a military scientist played by Brian Cox was bent on destroying all mutants, the US government has apparently become more tolerant. There's now a Secretary of Mutant Affairs post that's held by a mutant -- Dr. Henry McCoy, a.k.a. Beast (Kelsey Grammer resembling a blue, hairy, clothed Jolly Green Giant). A scientific breakthrough causes immediate controversy. Pharmaceutical mogul Warren Worthington II (Michael Murphy) announces that he has a drug that will "cure" mutants and turn them into normal human beings. A flashback shows how Worthington's mutant son, Warren III, tried ten years earlier to hack off the wings that were growing on his back. Worthington sincerely means the cure to be an end to suffering. Magneto (McKellen) sees another genocide in this "cure" and sets out to capture and destroy the source of the drug. Even Magneto's more conciliatory rival, Professor Xavier (Stewart), who runs a school that teaches young mutants to control their powers, is disturbed by the implication that to be a mutant is to be diseased. One of Xavier's band of X-Men, Storm (Halle Berry), reacts to the news with simmering anger; she tells her mutant students, "There's nothing wrong with you." As in the other "X-Men" movies, the threat from without is complemented by conflict within the mutant community. This time, Xavier and Magneto fight over the soul of one mutant: Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who at the end of "X2" used her power of telekinesis to save the other X-Men, and sacrificed her life in the process. It's not a spoiler to say she comes back to life (Janssen is on the movie's poster). Jean's mutant alter ego is a whole separate personality: Phoenix. Professor X describes Phoenix as "all desire and joy and rage," far removed from Jean's usual demure, controlled self. Thank goodness for that. Jean's metamorphosis allows Janssen and Hugh Jackman, who plays the series' psychically wounded hero Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, to act on the passion that's been sizzling between their characters all along. There's a brief but satisfying clinch (Phoenix uses her mind-power to relieve Logan of his belt). Then, darn it, Logan gets all freaked out that his dream girl Jean has been crowded out of her own psyche. The relationship culminates in a frenzied, Wagnerian scene during the movie's climax. The site of the climax is Alcatraz island, where Worthington has set up his cure dispensary. Magneto, always the showman, uses his power to rip the Golden Gate Bridge from its foundation and pivot it over to connect with Alcatraz. There, he and his posse battle first the military (who are wisely armed with plastic weapons), and then with the X-Men. McKellen, this decade's blockbuster go-to guy, continues to have devilish fun with Magneto. In "The Last Stand," he gives flashes of his 1995 screen portrayal of Richard III as a fascist, when Magneto rallies his band of mutant malcontents at their forest encampment. Not all of the cast members fare as well. Janssen rises to the challenge of the film's most emotive role (and the scene in which her telekinetic powers tear up her girlhood home is an FX delight). Ratner's flippant approach robs some depth from Jackman's Logan/Wolverine: he enters the movie wisecracking like a Friars roast emcee, but eventually recovers a bit of gravitas. Halle Berry fails, for the third time, to give Storm (whose power is to manipulate the weather) a unique personality. Anna Paquin, so wonderful in "X-Men," isn't given much to do here. And with around a dozen new mutants clamoring for screen time, it's a shame that the fine actor Ben Foster doesn't get more to do as Warren III/Angel -- but he sure looks magnificent with his wings spread. Reportedly, there will be X-Men spin-off movies, which will give other filmmakers a chance to put their stamp on the franchise. "X-Men: The Last Stand" may turn out to be one of this summer's better blockbusters, but it won't, like "X-Men" and "X2," be among the best movies of the year. Visit the official website of "X-Men: The Last Stand."
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