X-Men 3: The Last Stand

As a former comic book collector, this franchise is close to my heart. However, since pre-production theres been a lot to make me worry about X3. From rurmors of primary cast members not reprising their role to the change of director, it was difficult to avoid the hype.

The main thing that worried me was the fact that Brett Ratner replaced Bryan Singer as director. Ratner, who directed the Rush Hour films and the Silence of the Lambs sequel Red Dragon, didn’t have any history of directing a comic book movie. Unlike Singer who directed the X-men movies from before, most fan boys were VERY VERY worried.

The majority of this film centers around the idea that a cure to mutation to has been created. To add fuel to the flame, Jean Grey returns (as hinted by the end of X2). As with the previous films, there are three sides. The X-men, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and the government. Story-wise, the plot and the pace of the film is perfect. While the movie comes in to about an 1 hour and 40 minutes. The plot and performances are so well done, you can’t help but get caught up watching.

In the first X-men movie there were only a handful of mutants, mostly at the Xavier Mansion. In X2, a few more were added to the mix. In X3, there’s a lot lot more. Aside from characters from the prior films, a handful of main characters join the team. Namely, Kitty Pride (a.k.a. Shadowcat), Juggernaut, Multiple Man, Angel and Beast. While it’s cool to see more characters added to the team, I was disappointed to see the Nightcrawler was no where to be found. One thing that should be said, the make-up for Beast was perfect.

While the title of the film and some plot points imply that this could be the last X-men movie, I have to hope that they will continue the series. As far as I’m aware a Wolverine film is in pre-pre-production, but its unknown whether it will come to fruition. I would definitely recommend seeing this movie if you enjoyed the previous films. If you haven’t seen them, while its not required, its recommend that you rent them before hand.