Boredworkers.com

I had the opportunity to catch the sneak peek for X-Men: The Last Stand last week but passed up on it. Then I received an SMS from Spyder in Indonesia telling me that the movie wasn’t good. That got the better of my curiousity and I decided to watch it with WL and Bugs yesterday at TGV Mines. After picking them up from town, it took us an hour through rush hour traffic to get there. The place used to be one of my more frequent haunts back in my Uni days. I like it because its easy to get tickets and its cheaper to boot (RM8.00 normal, RM6.00 discounted). GSC IOI Mall also falls into this category. Anyway, back to the movie.

If you’re looking for a brief history of the trilogy and a sypnosis to the plot, then you’ve got the wrong place. I suggest going through the official sites for each of the installments for a better picture of the characters and storyline. Here are some links to help you on your way.

• X-Men (2000)
  Official Site [Down]
  Wikipedia entry
• X2: X-Men United (2003)
  Official Site
  Wikipedia entry
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
  Official Site
  Wikipedia entry
• Other Links
  X-Men Movies

While I don’t fully agree with Spyder’s observation, I must say that it didn’t live up to expectations. Now most people would probably tie this down to the fact that the original director, Bryan Singer had decided to jump ship to direct Superman Returns, and Brett Ratner took over the helm. However, I think that is an unfair statement. Brett did a fairly good job in terms of direction and cinematography.

I think the problem is more to the script and the fact that there are alot more characters involved in this last installment of the X-Men trilogy. In the first two movies, the number of characters were limited and there was sufficient film for in-depth development of each of the heroes and villains. Additionally, the plot and the story were both strong enough to stand on its own. The case is not the same for The Last Stand. Each of the protagonist and antagonist in the movie is given a passing brush without really introducing and endearing them to the audience. In some instances, you didn’t even catch the name of the different characters involved.

That really detracts from the movie. It was as though the director and script writer expected the audience to already know the history of each character. Granted that a large number of people would have seen the previous movies and read some of the comics, but that doesn’t mean that they would be familiar with all the new faces (or the old ones for that matter).

The main plot is also somewhat thin with little supporting details. Most of the time is spent jumping from one point to another without really giving much to the audience to work on. Without the detail, viewers are left guessing as to what was really happening and more importantly, WHY? If I wasn’t already familiar with the storyline, I would probably have just given up on trying to understand it. To me, the story was patchy, at best. In that sense, the movie isn’t exactly suited for casual viewers who have not done at least some form of research into the movie. They’ll no doubt be lost in the plot and the mess of characters.

Having said all this, I suppose the movie isn’t that bad. It does have its moments, like when Prof X gets into trouble with Phoenix or when Logan infiltrates the enemy’s camp. I suppose the climax is the final showdown on Alcatraz and the faceoff between Wolverine and Phoenix. But again, that is marred by too many characters and too little time. Each character gets less than the proverbial 15 minutes of fame.

So all in all, its a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the movie but it didn’t really live up to expectations. Go watch it if you’re a fan or you’re just curious. Otherwise, go catch Over The Hedge or The Da Vinci Code instead. On a side note, the ending left some questions unanswered as well as some avenue for future movies. There was no real sense of closure inspite of it being the finale. If you haven’t watched the movie and you’re wondering what I mean, then you’ll just have to catch it for yourself to find out. If you do decide to go, sit through the entire credits and wait until the very end.