Movies: X-Men: The Last Stand

The latest X-Men DVD was released this week, but my review is based on what I saw on the big screen this past summer. If I remember correctly, the movie set a box office record for an opening weekend. I think Bryan Singer deserves most of the credit since he did such a great job building expectations with the first two entries of this series. The director and producers of X-Men 3 may have only contributed to the record by keeping the running time under 1:45 long, so theaters could replay it about twice as frequently as Lord of the Rings or Titanic.

The short running time + large cast + pre-requisite comic book action and effects = little room for plot or any major character development. The debate around a cure for mutant powers was kept fairly simple. The Cyclops - Jean Grey - Wolverine love triangle was replaced with a less interesting Rogue - Iceman - Kitty Pryde triangle. There's also a father-son conflict involving Angel. I suppose the producers were trying to target a younger demographic.

Outside of Magneto, Storm, and Wolverine, a bunch of other mutants just make brief appearances bordering on cameos. It reminded me of the final episode of Seinfeld where there was much hype and antipation building up to the air date. Then all they did was parade a long string of memorable characters from past seasons and somehow managed to make the whole show flat and forgettable. Otherwise, the special effects were pretty decent with nice performances by Ian McKellen (who salvaged yet another summer movie) and Rebecca Romijn with a few funny lines uttered by Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. Maybe others can tell me if the DVD version benefits from showing previously deleted scenes and alternate endings. C+

There will likely be comparisons between X-Men and NBC's new series Heroes. There may even be comparison's to USA's The 4400, a show that I've enjoyed once or twice but not enough to be addicted.

The good news: the writing and acting seems pretty good even though I sort of have to turn off some of my logic circuits to buy into the premise (but that's a given for just about every Sci-Fi series). Seemingly ordinary and mostly well drawn out characters from different walks of life discover that they are developing special powers, and have varied reactions (mostly negative for some reason) to what consequences that might have.

The bad news: compared to the premiere, the second episode seemed to move at a slower pace and lost the humor (especially from the Japanese character who was thrilled that he can bend the space-time continuum).

Heroes may have to don their capes faster for me to keep tuning in. This is funny opinion considering I just complained that X-Men: The Last Stand moved too fast...., but I sort of have my hands full trying to keep up with the mysteries and convoluted plot lines of other TV shows trying to follow the footsteps of Lost. Hopefully it will keep exploring the ice-breaker question, "If you could have a superhero power, what would it be and would you use it for good or evil?" B