by Rhian Hibner
Daily Lobo
Magneto really outdid himself this time.
Unfortunately, it was entirely a bad thing. In the third cinematic installment of Marvel's much-loved X-Men comic, what little grip on reality the series retained in previous installments has been utterly lost.
"X-Men: The Last Stand" loses its cohesion early on. The actors are not the problem, nor is the script. It is quite clear that director Brett Ratner's inability to pace a film is rearing its ugly head again. By removing an hour from what should have been a two-and-a-half-hour film, the viewer is left with an ugly, incoherent mess. Plot lines are shortened, battered and outright abandoned midfilm.
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The only saving grace is that this is the third film in a trilogy. With the help of the previous X-Men films, "The Last Stand" just barely manages to live up to its name. It would not be a fun movie to see without prior knowledge of the earlier films.
The biggest problem with the plot is there appear to be at least two running concurrently.
In the first plot line, a supposed cure for mutants has been found. This might be interesting if it wasn't just a rehash of the second film's plot. It boils down to some random rich guy being angry about his kid turning out to be a mutant.
The second plot line is far more interesting. Dr. Jean Grey, the red-headed telekinetic from the first two films, apparently did not die when she had a lake dumped on her at the end of "X-Men 2." She survived, but now she is about 10 times as powerful and completely out of her mind. The explanation for how she survives is a particularly bad piece of movie and comic-book cheese.
However, compared with the rest of the film, it's practically Shakespeare. The second plot line, on its own, could have been crafted into a great film. Tacked on to the mutant-cure plot, it is merely confusing and distracting.
The acting is a mixed bag. Halle Berry was boring as Storm. Ian McKellen - playing Magneto - spent most of the film looking like he was trying to stay awake, and Patrick Stewart was almost absent for most of his performance as Professor Charles Xavier. On the other hand, it would appear that Hugh Jackman as Wolverine has added a few emotions to his bag of tricks since "X-Men 2." Anna Paquin was enjoyable as Rogue, though her screen time was limited. Shawn Ashmore stepped up to the plate as a major character for the franchise. His performance as Iceman was one of the few that managed to not be weighed down by the disaster of a plot.
"The Last Stand" does succeed in one respect. It is a brilliant action movie. Buildings are ripped out of the ground and levitated, while the people inside continue to beat each other senseless as pieces of American architecture are forcibly relocated.
All of this is well and good, but it's a big case of too little, too late. Without a plot, it amounts to a whole lot of sound, not much fury, and it most definitely signifies nothing.
