06.05.06
X-Men: The Last Stand was a huge disappointment, following its brilliant and beautiful predecessors, both directed by Bryan Singer. Possibly Brett Ratner, who stepped in after Singer abandoned the X-Men franchise for the upcoming Superman, can be blamed for the loss of quality, but more than direction suffers in this poor follow-up.
One of the worst aspects of X3 is that the film attempts to push too many characters into the story, sacrificing characterization and plot while introducing (and eliminating!) characters willy-nilly. For example, the character Angel (Ben Foster), whose mutant power is to develop the wings of a bird and fly around, is introduced at the beginning of the film in a vignette symbolizing the shame of adolescent change. The young Angel attempts to cut off his beautiful wings while his father beats on the bathroom door with a phrase we've all heard before: What are you DOING in there? This heart-breaking introduction is the beginning and end of subtlety in this movie - we see Angel a couple more times, and yet he adds little to the plot and remains a static character - what a waste.
According to gossip (and imdb.com trivia, Halle Berry demanded an expansion of her character. While Storm certainly has more lines in X3, there's little extra in the way of characterization. Despite her sparse dialogue in the first two movies, Halle Barry had always done a terrific job of conveying the strength and defiance of Storm, just as Rebecca Romijn had with the laconic Mystique. Right-wing Kelsey Grammer is introduced as The Beast - a man who has no business not only on the big screen but in a what I would consider a "blue" movie. In a movie full of moronic dialogue, The Beast has perhaps the worst line: Oh my stars and garters.
With a plot structured loosely around a so-called "cure" that can turn mutants into non-mutants (an idea introduced in the comic book by Buffy the Vampire Slayer-creator Joss Weadon), the movie had the chance to expand upon the larger thematic elements of the series. The "mutant" is a poetic stand-in for individuality - that difference and diversity makes mutant and man great and yet has the potential to isolate. The "cure" offers the chance to create a norm, but only at the loss of individuality. One character's choice to accept the normative alternative not only serves as a poor and explicitly post-feminist example to the audience, but is completely out of character and and destroys the message the franchise had previously established.
While beloved characters are eliminated and simply forgotten (what happened to X2's Nightcrawler?), the film struggles to find it's own footing - ultimately penning mutants against mutants in an confusing battle. The only clear result is that surely this movie series has come to its end, once again proving that third installments offer little satisfaction. And let that be a lesson to you, Pirates of the Carribean.
