|
|
Movie: X-Men: The Last Stand
Director: Brett Ratner
Actors: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden, Vinnie Jones, Patrick Stewart
|
|
Director Brett Ratner, known for his Rush Hour flicks, switched seats with Bryan Singer. Bryan directed the first two wonderful X-Men flicks but right before he wanted to start on part three, the man got the unique opportunity to direct a Superman flick. His buddy Brett Ratner, who also took a swing at The Man of Steel but couldn't get it off the ground, got his chance to wrestle with the X-Men, whilst Bryan Singer started the mega-production of Superman Returns.
X-Men fans weren't happy with Brett, cause Brett is known for his cool-looking but shallow films.
I kinda disagree, I like Brett! The Rush Hour films were a fun ride and he delivered a suspenseful thriller with Red Dragon, so I was curious about his take on the X-Men.
Fortunately the original cast, including Hugh Jackson, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen and Halle Berry, return for X-Men: The Last Stand! The new mutants are played by an unrecognizable Kelsey "Frasier" Grammer as Beast, Ben Foster spreads his wings as Angel and Vinnie Jones breaks through walls as Juggernaut.
The story in a nutshell:
A cure has been found to change the mutants into normal humans. Professor Xavier and his X-Men still want a peaceful society, in which mutants are being accepted. Xavier seeks a solution using political sources. Magneto doesn't believe in this wonder-medicine and forms a dangerous mutant army to destroy the cure and everybody who stands in their way.
X-Men: The Last Stand is the last part of the 'trilogy'. I never thought there was a trilogy in the first place, but I bet there will be more X-films if this one becomes a Box Office hit. X3 once again looks at the mutants vs the homo sapiens issue and the political influence on the situation. The film also follows-up on the evolution of Phoenix, the 'dark side' of Jean Grey, played by Famke Janssen.
Ratner's vision is to make X3 bigger, not only with giant action settings, but also pumping a lot more drama into the story. The film does have some excellent, huge action sequences. Wolverine has a blast with his adamantium claws and the story also has its very emotional moments, cause it contains some big, very big surprises, which I won't give away.
Does Brett succeed in delivering a great sequel? Hmm... yes, X3 is a great superhero flick with cool action and a nice conclusion of the trilogy but it isn't better than Bryan Singer films. One of the problems I had with the film is that some scenes are being followed by another too fast. Ratner's flick is fast-paced but he doesn't use the breaks for the important, emotional moments, where he needed to take more time to capture it. X3 is also loaded with lots of old and new characters. Singer managed to find some balance in directing a film with many characters. X3 just got a bit too crowded with all these mutants and needed to focus more on the main plots of the story.
Some X-Men fans will probably not be satisfied at all with Brett's X-Men adventure but despite the flaws, I really did enjoy the film. X-Men: The Last Stand is a worthy sequel and a very entertaining superhero flick.
Written by Reggy 20/05/06
© fox 2006
|
|
Copyright © 2003-2006 movieXplosion.com