X-Men 3: The Last Stand Review

I went and saw the movie on Friday with Ben (right, like Ginger has any interest in seeing this). I'll try my best to make this a spoiler free review. If you're thinking of going to see this movie, then judging from the box office for the weekend, you've already seen it. If you haven't seen it and are still wondering whether it's worth it, then this is for you. If you were following the movie you at all, then you were probably worried about the switch in directors. Bryan Singer directed the first two, but he bowed out of the third to direct "Superman Returns" (opening later this summer). The new director is Brett Ratner (who you probably know as the director of Rush Hour 1 and 2). I won't lie to you, the change in directors results in a noticeable difference in onscreen presentation. And to be fair, while that difference isn't for the better, it's not as much of a drop as I was expecting.

So where do we stand. Storywise, it's nowhere near as good as the second installment, and it's not better than the first one either (but I would say it's probably close to being on par with the first). As for the visual effects / fight scenes. Again, not as good as the second installment, but much better than the first one. Although while the effects were not better than the second installment, I would say there were more effects than in the second one.

Where the movie goes wrong is it's trying too hard to do too much. I think I could point out like 6 distinct storylines running through the movie. It's simply too much and no one piece really gets the screen time it deserves. The same could be said of the individual actors I believe. Hugh Jackman gets the majority of the screen time as Wolverine, but there are a lot of characters that are introduced, and there are simply too many for any of them to have adequate screen time. In fact I would have preferred more screen time for some of the other A list characters. The Wolverine "kicks some butt" fight scenes seemed dumbed down more than they were in the second film. If you've seen the second film you'll remember the fight for the mansion with claws going through an intruder and into the refrigerator. You get nothing like that in this one. Most of the 'claw' attacks are just out of camera view or the 'victim' is facing away from the camera and you don't see result.

Having said that, there are some good things about the movie. There's some good character development with Eric (Magneto) that makes you feel he isn't completely evil (I personally like it when the bad guys are written with a justifiable point of view). There are also some nice special effects. Although I will say there's one scene in particular that I feel was done just for the special effect and when you stop and ask, "Why exactly did they do that versus this?", you really can't answer it. I think the story works better when you have special effects driven by the story rather than having the story driven by the special effects. If you're familiar with the comic stories behind this movie, then you may be disappointed with how some stuff plays out and explanations that are given. Frankly, the departures from the original story didn't bother me at all (and you had be expecting some major changes to get everything to fit into a movie).

All in all, a fun popcorn action adventure movie. Don't go in expecting Shakespeare and you won't be disappointed. Oh yea, and don't leave when the credits role. There's a small scene after the credits that you should stay and see.