X-Men: The Last Stand (Particle Man)

This recent trend of comic book movies is really hit or miss, with some of them succeeding and a few failing miserably. The Spider-Man movies were pretty good, Sin City was freakin’ brilliant, and V for Vendetta was at least thought-provoking. But then there was Daredevil, The Punisher, and Elektra, which made me wretch as much as Sin City made me cheer. So really, when you do a comic book movie, you’re playing a dangerous game. For people who actually know the source material, they’ll crucify you if you don’t follow the comic book exactly, both in content and in style. But then for the people who don’t know it, you risk alienating them. It’s a difficult tightrope to walk. Luckily, the makers of the X-Men movies satisfied both sets of people.

X-Men: The Last Stand is the best of the three X-Men movies, in my opinion. Every actor was at the peak of their skill for the character, since they had lived with each of their characters for six years. Most of the principals were excellent, with Hugh Jackman and Famke Jansen as standouts. Halle Berry, like in the previous two movies, is so-so as Storm, but massively disadvantaged by the fact that she is simply not right for the role. I know she’s an Oscar-winning actress, but there are so many others who are better than her. Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) would be a much better choice for Storm. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart continue to be absolutely stellar in their form-fitting roles, and performances of this caliber are no surprise from these Shakespearian actors. Hugh Jackman was great, but I’ll have difficulty seeing him in any other role but Wolverine. Even the newcomers are great, especially Ellen Page as Kitty (I see blockbusters and astronomical salaries in her future for sure) and Kelsey Grammer as Beast. His performance had multiple layers to it, each equally excellent. When you have an all-star ensemble cast like this, and almost all of them are great, you can expect a review to be a little bit gushing.

Cast aside, the theme of the movie was even more poignant and discussion-provoking than the previous two. Issues like homosexuality, stem-cell research, and abortion all come to light, as well as the morality of expelling or keeping those things. The movie is rich with arguable issues. Are certain behaviors really bred in the bone, and if so, can they be biologically suppressed? Is suppressing them a good thing? Is there really any such thing as “normal,” or is what’s normal just being different from everyone else? In addition to the questions it brings up, it’s very entertaining as well. The action is very involving and clever (particularly the way Kitty outsmarts Juggernaut), and it's not just "blow stuff up." The costumes are only sometimes cheesy, and the most gripping and character-driven scenes are where there’s some sort of action where one mutant’s power is matched up against another’s. This is a different director, yes, but the director is not as important as the franchise he’s directing, and in well-established pop culture items like this one, he can’t be. We learned that lesson with Harry Potter. So in the hit-or-miss world of comic book movies, X-Men: The Last Stand is definitely a hit.

Iconic lines:
“Charles always wanted to build bridges.”
“That was my last cigar!”
“They wish to cure us… and I say we are the cure.”

22 Rating: 14

Particle Man