The Last Stand (or X-Men 3 as it was known until pretty recently) is the latest, and possibly final entry in the X-Men film series. Although Bryan Singer was univerally praised for his first two, they always left me a little cold; perhaps because I was more a DC comics reader than Marvel. Singer, of course, has gone over to the DC universe and made Superman Returns, a trailer for which ran in front of this film. And was that John Williams’s score I heard in it? So the mythology of X-Men was not as deep-seated with me as Batman or Superman. Indeed, even Spiderman was a bigger draw for me. In fact, I only got around to watching the second film on DVD a month or so ago.
Anyway, back to The Last Stand. There’s lots of backstory revolving around the seemingly dead Jean Grey, and a businessman has developed a “cure” to mutantism.
The film has all the necessary bangs, explosions and over the top action sequences. I can’t fault the CGI, but it just feels so-so. There’s no real suspense, and I don’t especially empathise with any of the characters. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine growls, Halle Berry’s Storm does nothing very special at all, and the rest of the cast feel like they’ve stepped off the set of one of those teen soaps.
I didn’t completely lose interest, but if it weren’t for the fact that I really can’t bring myself to see The Da Vinci Code, I mightn’t have gone to this film at all. It’s really just so-so.
It’ll be curious to see if there’s a malaise in big summer releases this year. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 could be interesting, but I won’t hold my breath, and the Poseidon remake looks dreadful (and that’s just from the trailer). Only Superman Returns really appeals.