Title: X-Men 3: The Last Stand Director: Brett Ratner Staring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stuart Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Studio: 20th Century Fox MSRP: ??? Genre(s): Action Rated: (For intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language)

Third entries in superhero franchises tend to be mixed blessings. The first two Batman movies were awesome, but come "Batman Forever" the series flavor had changed from dark and gothic, to bright and colorful. Likewise, the first two Superman movies were excellent films, but the addition of comedian Richard Pryor proved to be a fatal mistake for "Superman III." So when news came that "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" would be replacing director Brian Singer for Brett Ratner, there were some concerns about whether or not the third installment of the series would be able to keep the franchise alive. Well, the third installment is out. Does it trash any respect the previous two movies established for the franchise, or does it revolutionize the franchise like the crew promised it would. Well, to be honest, it does neither. To start the review let's talk about the story, which, ironically, is one of the most ingenious story ideas the X-Men franchise has seen in YEARS, and this is coming from someone who reads the comics on a regular basis! The story revolves around a young boy who is a mutant. Except his mutant power is strange. Instead of having a power that the government fears, the boy has a power the government cuddles up to, because the boy's power is that mutants lose their powers when they get close to him. The government has their scientists do some tests on the boy, and to the governments pleasure, the scientists manage to create a serum that will take away any mutants powers. They call this formula "The Cure" (not to be confused with the Joseph Mazzello movie).

The cure is met with mixed reactions from mutants. Mutants like Storm and Wolverine hate the idea of The Cure, believing that there is nothing wrong with mutants the way they are. Mutants like Beast and Roque are more open to the idea, for obvious reasons (Rogue wants to touch people, and Beast doesn't like the fact that he sheds on furniture). Two men who find themselves agreeing with each other for once are Professor Xavier and Magneto. Both men oppose of The Cure, but as always, both men disagree with what they need to do about it. While Xavier opposes The Cure, he does believe that ultimately the mutant has to make the choice on whether or not he/she wants to take it. Magneto wants The Cure destroyed, and rallies up other mutants to help raid Alkatraz Island and destroy the source of The Cure. One of the mutants who sides with Magneto is Jean Grey, who you may remember died in "X-Men 2" but is now revived as The Dark Phoenix, and is no longer very friendly (though the red hair she sports now is beautiful). As you can imagine, this conflict leads to a battle between the mutants, though the stakes are now much higher. In terms of originality, "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" should be miles ahead the previous films by far. There are several conflicts that are superb, and some tough choices asked. While some of the mutants resent the idea of The Cure, thinking it's an attack on who they are, people like Rogue remind us that The Cure could actually benefit some of the mutants. The relationship between Xavier and Magneto is also brought to a whole new level, showing how there are several layers to their rivalry then what you originally thought there was.

Kelsey Grammers performance of Beast is a truly great performance, reminding us why this guy should have a real film career, instead of making movies where he looks like Grover or the Cookie Monster. On top of that, this movie has some REALLY good action sequences! That said, despite how good this all sounds, it only manages to be an entertaining movie instead of being a truly great movie. For starters, the movie is too short. At barely a few minutes over one hundred minutes, the movie flys by a little too fast. Interesting as the conflicts are, they are over far too quickly, and therefor they don't really sink in the way they should. I heard the first two X-Men movies were both three hours long, before Bryan Singer cut them down to two hours at the studios request. Now that the movies that are making the most money are two and a half to three hour films (Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Spider-Man 2, etc), the fact that "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" manages to be shorter then the previous two movies while having a story that demands a three hour film is truly sad. Like the last two X-Men movies, certain characters have been removed from the previous films (Nightcrawler is gone now), and new characters are added. Yet most of the new characters that are added to the movie do little more then take up screen time. While Beast is done quite a bit of justice in this film and given a real character to connect to, characters like Angel do absolutely nothing in this movie. I kid you not, the only things Angel ends up doing is refuse to take The Cure and catch his dad from falling to his death. By all accounts, Angel should have far more to do in this movie, seeing as how his dad is the man who created The Cure in the first place.

In fact, the true star of this movie is Ian McKellen's Magneto, who not only gets the most screen time, but also provides most of the conflict, and even provides an interesting situation where we find ourselves mostly agreeing with Magneto, but not the tactics he uses to enforce his law (like how some people feel about some of the actions most of our Presidents make). There are some stunning special effects, action sequences that dazzle us to no end, and characters we love. And yet...it just isn't enough. When "Fantastic Four" came out in theaters people hated that movie. HATED IT!!! Why? Because after "Spider-Man 2" gripped the world with it's revolutionary story that proved that superhero movies could be art as much as they were entertainment, "Fantastic Four" was a return to stupid explosions, dumb characters, and corny scripts. In other words, it was a return to marketability. "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" feels like a compromise, half marketability and half art. Neither half really blends all that well. In fact, it would be safe to say that the first half of the film is the art, and then the second half of the movie is marketability. Because hey, marketability sells toys. They want adults to recommend the film, but they can't make it too deep, because they want kids to recommend the movie too, and kids won't recommend it if there isn't tons of action in it. Ah, but I'm making it sound like I hate the movie now. I don't, I really don't. I'm just frustrated with it. While it is a good movie, and one that is easy to recommend, I can't help but feel that this was a missed opportunity. This really could have been the ultimate superhero movie. Had the movie been longer, and had time to get deep into the conflicts it sets up, then "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" could have possibly been the first superhero movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Had Academy Award winning director Bryan Singer not dumped "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" to go direct "Superman Returns" this may have been a real possibility. Instead, we get a good movie. Not a great movie, not an excellent movie, but a good movie. But with a story as intriguing as this one, being a "good" movie seems like faint praise at the end of the day.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -