May 26, 2006
Can I shoot the scriptwriters? Please?
X-Men: The Last Stand finds the mutant world in turmoil over a "cure" which has been developed to turn mutants into ordinary human beings. I'm sure there was an underlying metaphor in the previous movies about racism or homophobia or something of the sort, but I have no idea what they're trying to say any more.
The previous instalment, X2, was much better than the first of the series. Sadly the upward trend hasn't continued. It's not that this one doesn't have clever ideas, great effects or exciting set-pieces - it has all those things - but the lumpen, clichéd script and jerky pacing drain every event of significance. Ian McKellen as Magneto is obviously painfully aware of the cheese quotient of all his lines but makes a heroic effort to invest them with gravity. Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier is also highly experienced (from his Star Trek days) at taking terrible lines and making them work against all the odds. But too many of the other actors are phoning in their parts, and the whole film has a curious sort of flatness to it which no amount of pyrotechnics will fix. More major characters meet nasty fates than in the second movie, but none of it is as emotionally affecting as the last scenes of X2.
On the plus side, there's a very satisfying kicker at the end - make sure you stay till the end of the credits! It's not bad as popcorn movies go, but don't go expecting it to be as good as the previous instalment. Alternatively, ignore the soundtrack and make up your own script. You'll probably do better.
X-Men: The Last Stand finds the mutant world in turmoil over a "cure" which has been developed to turn mutants into ordinary human beings. I'm sure there was an underlying metaphor in the previous movies about racism or homophobia or something of the sort, but I have no idea what they're trying to say any more.
The previous instalment, X2, was much better than the first of the series. Sadly the upward trend hasn't continued. It's not that this one doesn't have clever ideas, great effects or exciting set-pieces - it has all those things - but the lumpen, clichéd script and jerky pacing drain every event of significance. Ian McKellen as Magneto is obviously painfully aware of the cheese quotient of all his lines but makes a heroic effort to invest them with gravity. Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier is also highly experienced (from his Star Trek days) at taking terrible lines and making them work against all the odds. But too many of the other actors are phoning in their parts, and the whole film has a curious sort of flatness to it which no amount of pyrotechnics will fix. More major characters meet nasty fates than in the second movie, but none of it is as emotionally affecting as the last scenes of X2.
On the plus side, there's a very satisfying kicker at the end - make sure you stay till the end of the credits! It's not bad as popcorn movies go, but don't go expecting it to be as good as the previous instalment. Alternatively, ignore the soundtrack and make up your own script. You'll probably do better.