Ink Blotting - X-Men 3: The Last Stand

Posted on Sunday, June 04, 2006 at 12:00 AM

X-Men 3 - the Last Stand

I certainly hope that X3 does not become a Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier. Things like Last and Final should not take part in franchises that leave themselves open to further storylines.

There are several classifications reviews for X3 fall into. But let's start with the fun one first. The Fanboy Review. After dredging through countless forums and comementaries the fanboy is typically irate about several things in the movie. Their choral outcry of "why didn't you read the comics before you spent $25 on that hack to write the screenplay" is generally unanimous. As a fanboy myself I can comment rather at length about the non-canonical directions X3 takes. But there is no voice of soothing consolation to the fanboy out there. There isn't someone saying anything about the fact that with so many iterations of any given character that there are several easily adjusted versions of a character that still make their creation canonical. There are over 13 different x-titles on the go at any given time, no fewer than 3 of them involving the X-men themselves. The comic book has seen 5 different decades. There have been over 100 writers for the different comics let alone editors and pencilers. There have been 2 separate and completely dissimilar cartoon series. So the gem of Cyttorak isn't what gives Juggernaut his powers. Is that what makes him the Juggernaut? The 'ideal' version of Cyclops or even Wolverine is different dependant upon the fanboy's preference of which version a writing team creates. Adamantium or no-adamantium. Claws he had himself or adamantium steel claws grafted to his forearms. The integral character remains the same, however.

Closer inspection of fanboy disdain in reviews reveals that the fanboy is upset because they have their favorite characters and those favorite characters were not given enough screen time, treated different from how they expected they would be, or acted in ways against how they felt the character should act. It's funny to read the arguments rage between those who like Halle Berry and those who like Storm. Generally reviewers have lauded Halle Berry for her characterization and fanboys have lamented Halle Berry's destruction of one of the most integral X-Men characters. This reviewer doesn't believe Halle Berry is a particularly powerful actress, but her performance as Storm in X3 was the strongest of her work with the character yet. That being said, just because an actor looks the part doesn't mean they will necessarily be able to handle the part. It is my opinion that the acting was decent, if only considered along a Halle Berry scale of acting.

Those mainstream writers and reviewers seem to have 'gotten' the movie whether they liked it or disliked it. Universally the themes in the movie were appreciated and considered current and important topics. Most reviewers agree that the action is decent and the special effects are impressive. But at a running time of 104 minutes and with mutant powers exploding from the getgo right to the climax there develops some confusion. It is here that those that didn't like the movie deviate from those that did like the movie. Those that didn't like the movie felt that with the number of themes, characters or action shots the movie rushes too quickly for the general audience member to grasp or retain much of what is going on. These negative reviewers, fanboys or not, feel that lip service and only lipservice is paid to the majority of the film sans Wolverine and Storm.

Will you enjoy this film? If you are a fanboy who idolizes Storm played by Halle Berry, or a tried-and-true Wolverine addict then this movie is for you. There is enough action and the characters you love will save the day. For those of you fond for other mutants your appreciation of the film will be diminished, lessened - but in the end this third part follows closely on the heels of the other two and does bring about a natural conclusion from the vision of the first two movies. Nevertheless most fanboys have been discouraged by the movie in certain veins because, even though some of their characters have been treated well other character's decisions were, for them, lamentably un-characterlike.

If you aren't a fanboy but have seen the other two films, I conjecture you will probably enjoy yourself. The movie follows a natural course the other two films set and continues to focus on those characters the other two movies attended to.

My personal dissatisfaction with the movie comes from the fact that though I see and comprehend this movie as an X-Men movie, I cannot help but feel that it was not the X-Men movie I wanted to see. I acknowledge the impossibility of that however; as I understand that with so many incarnations of X-Men in comicdom there isn't a definitive for the characters, their relationships or their origins. Even those things that one believes are constants are, in fact, simply elements that a reader is only most familiar with.

3.5 stars out of 4

Kyle Gould is a University of Calgary Graduate in English devoutly trying to make the 25,000 dollar piece of parchment not just a glorified ink blot. Currently it would serve better as a Rorschach test. Feel free to throw some ink his way at wkkgould@hotmail.com.