X-Men: The Last Stand

This, the third and proclaimed final chapter in the X-Men movie saga, serves as decent summer excitement, matching the first film with it's scope and breathtaking visuals, but falling short of the excellence of X2. The most obvious reason for its inferiority to its predecessor is the fact that this one was not directed by Bryan Singer of the first two X-Mens, but rather by Brett Ratner of the Rush Hour movies. This one isn't as well scripted, and some of the scenes come off cornball where they might have been more seriously handled before. This sounds like I don't like the movie, which is wrong, I liked it a great deal. The usual mutants like Wolverine, Prof. X, Storm, Magneto, and Mystique are all back and just about as good as ever. It's no surprise that Jean Grey, now The Phoenix, is back after "dying" in number 2, and this time she's wicked sweet turning crazy and messing with pretty much everything in her proximity. Angel, who was featured prominently in the trailers, winds up being pretty effeminent, and rarely on screen; oh well they can't all be awesome. The final show down between good mutants, bad mutants, and humans is pretty well staged, though as always with these movies, most everybody in the audience has abot fifty ways of going into battle that would make more sense for both the villains and the heroes. It's a pretty good movie made a half of star better by Magneto's sensational attack on Alcatraz Island, that alone is one of the most impressive sights you'll see on the big screen this summer, I guarantee it. If you disliked the first two, don't bother with this one, it doesn't outdo them. If you like the first two, see this one, it's a worthy entry in the series, though a somewhat dissatisfying finale.

B