Director Brett Ratner packs plenty of action and comic-book drama into this enjoyable summer flick, X-Men: The Last Stand, a third installment in the X-Men series about a motley group of action heroes whose DNA mutations have given them extraordinary superpowers.
Though the genetically enhanced are now more accepted than they previously were, Professor Charles Xavier, played by the ageless Patrick Stewart, still runs a private school to shelter and hone the talents of young, misunderstood mutants and exercise a team of crime-fighting heroes who step in when misguided mutants, such as the sexy and deadly shape-shifting succubus known as Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) wreck havoc on society.
Proving that you don’t always have to be pretty to be a good guy, Hank McCoy, played by the unrecognizable Kelsey Grammer, a blue-haired mutant, burly in appearance though stately in manner, (with his Founding Fathers accent he should have been called Ape Lincoln) has been named Secretary of Mutant Affairs for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to ensure that the historically embroiled mutant-nonmutant relations stay smooth.
However, even in these supposedly mutant-friendly times, prejudices linger, and a heart-wrenching scene in which a young boy, the fledgling Swan, tries desperately and secretly to hack off his own mutant wings reminds us how difficult it still is to be a mutant.
In an attempt to quiet public concern, government scientists have developed a treatment that strips mutants of their powers (or afflictions, depending on your point of view), sending ripples of controversy through the briefly serene mutant community.
Recognizing that such a “cure” would render him powerless, arch-nemesis Magneto, in an uncharacteristically lukewarm performance by Ian McKellen, rallies support from a new breed of bad-guy mutants—scrawny, androgynous punks, complete with black garb, gang-style tattoos, and facial piercings—to assist him in his quest to destroy the cure, which has been hidden in a shiny new research facility on Alcatraz.
The chance resurrection of erstwhile heroine Jean Gray, played by Famke Janssen, along with her long-squelched alter ego Phoenix, a powerful sorceress-like personality with questionable loyalties presents Magneto with the upper hand he may need to carry off the heist.
Continuing sexual tension between the ambivalent Jean Gray and rival good-guy lovers Cyclops (James Marsden) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is both steamy and dangerous. Jackman, as Wolverine, delivers yet another smoldering, manly performance as the loner rebel who’s been tamed by the good professor. However, Halle Barry, as Storm, who in this movie seems to be nothing more than a schoolmarm and lifter of pesky fogs, leaves a weak, clammy impression with only the occasional bolt of lightning. And sadly, the continuation of the compelling mutant-coming-of-age storyline for Rogue, played by Anna Paquin, is awkwardly dropped for most of the movie, and we don’t even get to see her superpowers in action.
With no time wasted on ridiculous explanations of the pseudoscience behind such fantastic events, X-Men III is a fun summer movie that entertains without straining the brain. Don’t forget to stay past the credits for a glimpse at the plot workings of a possible sequel.
[Image from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4990000/newsid_4995200/4995250.stm]
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