Going out with a blast

When X-Men make their 'Last Stand,' the result is explosive fun

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 26, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Movies

Taken as a whole, the X-Men series stands as a commercially and artistically successful translation of a much-loved Marvel comic book into a big-screen franchise. And if the third installment tends to be uneven, it's entertaining enough to satisfy those with a tolerance for trashy, B-movie fun.

The supposed last gasp from the X-Men series - X-Men: The Last Stand - turns into a junk-strewn comic-book opera that contains flashes of humor, smart visual flourishes and some incendiary subject matter, notably a twist that turns the feared Magneto (Ian McKellen) into a kind of Osama of Mutants. He's attacking civilian targets.

Here's why: It seems Magneto sees a newly invented mutant-curing serum as a prelude to genocide. As we know, McKellen's Magneto is not one to stand by and allow Homo sapiens - disgusting creature that he is - any measure of triumph. Disdain for ordinary mortals drips off Magneto with the corrosive vehemence of acid rain.

Mutant or not, it's a strong-enough premise. But every time Rush Hour director Brett Ratner - taking over from the more talented Bryan Singer - hits a powerful note, he seems to counter with a clinker, a rancid or embarrassing line of dialogue or direction that's at best uninspired. (Singer's work will be on display this summer with Superman Returns.)

In Ratner's hands, The Last Stand amuses even though the script occasionally loses momentum and the film fails to attain the summer blowout levels that might have been expected.

Still, diminished blowout power doesn't mean the movie lacks for things to blow up. The Last Stand finds plenty of stuff to explode and includes an appropriately grandiose finale in which the Golden Gate Bridge is torn from its moorings and redirected toward Alcatraz. A sequence in which a house is lifted off its foundations isn't bad either.

The story takes place at a time when mutants should be feeling reasonably secure. Official status has arrived. The president has even appointed a mutant to his cabinet. The Beast, or Dr. Hank McCoy (Kelsey Grammer), heads the Department of Mutant Affairs. Like just about everyone else, Grammer shows up, piles on the makeup and runs around a lot.

The question of whether to abandon mutant status is not an entirely simple one. For Rogue (Anna Paquin), being a mutant has major drawbacks: Her powers prevent her from cuddling with her boyfriend, Iceman (Shawn Ashmore). Others are proud of their mutant status, having received special training at the school run by Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart).

Pride in one's identity can easily be distorted. Perhaps that's why Magneto views the new serum as part of an ongoing anti-mutant plot. And if you thought Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) vanished in a heroic splash at the end of the last edition, think again. She's back - sort of.

Actually, another part of Jean emerges: Phoenix, a woman who has powers like you wouldn't believe. She's a floating goddess of destruction, her hair streaming behind her, her blank gaze emanating from the abyss of her own vengeful soul, the special effects buzzing around her like lab-created furies.

Most of the regulars return - Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Halle Berry's Storm - but there are new additions as well. Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), who works for Magneto and smashes through walls, turns into one of the movie's least subtle attempts to accessorize. Angel (Ben Foster), a mutant with white wings, becomes a symbol of mutant triumph, but he has no real personality. His father (Michael Murphy) wants him to abandon his mutant identity.

Oh well. The X-Men series occasionally transcended its pulp origins, turning into a kind of poetry of the disaffected. I don't think anyone's going to call The Last Stand poetic, but it passes quickly and - when it counts - delivers enough of the summer-movie goods.

Robert Denerstein is the film critic. Denersteinb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5424

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News