20th Century Fox
presents a film directed by Bryan Singer. Written by Simon Kinberg from a story
by Jane Goldman & Kinberg & Matthew Vaughn. Running time: 131 min.
Rated PG-13 (for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, some
suggestive material, nudity and language).
If the latest movie in the
X-Men franchise proves anything, it’s that as long as they’re working with good
material, filmmakers can indeed keep this up forever. Through a seemingly
endless pool of superheroes to pull from, recasting roles with even more versatile
actors, using multiple timelines and just plain rewriting anything that has
come before, the equally seamlessly interchangeable filmmaking teams are quite
capable of utilizing every ounce of artistry and cleverness to put together
entertaining packages of superhero action and mythology to engage audiences for
many years to come.
Writers: Ashley Edward
Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, Sheldon Turner, Bryan Singer
Starring: James McAvoy,
Matthew Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, January Jones,
Nicholas Hoult, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till, Álex Gonzáles, Jason Flemyng,
Zoë Kravitz, Edi Gathegi, Oliver Platt, Matt Craven, Don Creech, Glenn
Morshower, James Remar, Rade Serbedzija, Michael Ironside
So, watching this movie with
a history major produces a lot of guttural reactions. Anyway, I did really like
this movie, but I’m not as enamored with it as many. To me it lacked a little
excitement. It is certainly the most interesting of the X-Men franchise, but there
is a fine line between clever development and exciting entertainment. Oh, a
liked it all right. But a movie of this nature needs a heavy helping of the
entertainment side to be as engaging as it can be.
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev
Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will.i.am, Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Kevin Durand,
Dominic Monaghan, Danny Henney, Ryan Reynolds, Tim Pocock, Julia Blake, Max
Cullen
Ok. I’m going to start by
saying that the third time around, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” didn’t bother me
as much. The key part of that phrase is “as much.” It’s still pretty stupid and
I have some major bones to pick with it. I’ll try to concentrate on different
ones this time. You can read my original review here.
Starring: Hugh Jackman,
Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, Kelsey
Grammer, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie
Jones, Ellen Page, Daniel Cudmore, Ben Foster, Michael Murphy, Dania Ramirez,
Shohreh Aghdashloo, Josef Sommer, Bill Duke, Eric Dane, Cameron Bright
So “X-Men: The Last Stand”.
If you listened to the fans, this is the most reviled X-Men movie, often called
the worst or a total mess, horrible. Of course, the truth is those descriptions
really belong to “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. It amazes me that people were able
to hang on to their hatred of “The Last Stand” once they were given “XO:W”. But
for some reason, X-Men fans just hate this movie.
Writers: Michael Dougherty,
Dan Harris, David Hayter, Zak Penn, Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman,
Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Barry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Bryan
Cox, Rebecca Romijn, Anna Paquin, Alan Cumming, Aaron Stanford, Shawn Ashmore,
Kelly Hu, Michael Reid McKay
If anything, “X2” stands up
after eleven years very well. Other than the hairdressers still forcing Hugh
Jackman to try and replicated Wolverine’s hairdo—or rather “hair don’t,” if you
know what I mean—from the comic books this could be the latest X-Men movie in
terms of keeping pace with the other movies of the cinematic comic book craze
it helped to develop. The action is solid. The effects are great, and the story
outdoes the original “X-Men” by a longshot. It builds mythology. It delves
secrets. It raises more questions than it answers, leaving the need for more
movies. But, that doesn’t stop it from answering some key questions as well.
It’s exciting and it has something to say.
Starring: Hugh Jackman,
Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Jansen, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Anna
Paquin, Tyler Mane, Ray Park, Rebecca Romijn, Bruce Davidson, Shawn Ashmore
It’s easy to forget that
“X-Men” was really the first of this current wave of comic book cinema to get
it right. The first two “Spider-Man” movies and “The Dark Knight” trilogy
really overshadowed it in the years that followed, and once “The Avengers”
Phase One movies came along “X-Men” became old news, and yet somehow has
managed to put out six installments with a seventh on the way in about a month.
“X-Men: First Class” jump started the flagging series two years ago, and it
seems Fox is determined to ride the franchise to Avengers style success, with
even a Marvel style cameo for Mystique at the end of Sony’s “The Amazing
Spider-Man 2”, opening this week. But, it was way back in 2000 that comic books
finally got past the stylistic stumblings of the original Batman franchise with
this movie.
20th Century Fox presents a film directed by Matthew Vaughn. Written by Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz and Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn and Sheldon Turner and Bryan Singer. Based on the Marvel comic books. Running time: 132 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity and language).
“Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end; then stop”
— Lewis Carroll, “Alice in Wonderland”
It seems not many people in Hollywood read much Lewis Carroll, except of course as potential blockbuster material. Here we are on the fifth “X-Men” movie, and only now are we learning “how it all began.” Unless you’re talking about Wolverine, for him it began even before this movie takes place; but never mind that. The good news is that, contrary to reports that Wolvie isn’t in this prequel, the clawed mutant is responsible for one of the best moments in this film, and he never even takes his claws out.
This “X-Men” seems like the most thought out of all the scripts. Beginning with the flashback that opened the series in the first movie of a young Eric Lehnsherr discovering the abilities that will eventually lead him to become the master mutant villain Magneto, this time we learn what happened to Eric after the Nazis took his parents away in the concentration camp. He meets a Nazi officer played by Kevin Bacon (“Mystic River”). Bacon is imposing while keeping a smile on his face at all times. He introduces Eric to Nazi coercion by shooting his mother dead in front of the boy. This unleashes Eric’s full mutant ability to move metal. This event will shape all of Eric’s actions to come.
We are introduced to two other young mutants, a boy telepath and a shape shifter. They are the first two mutants either has yet discovered. The boy comes from a wealthy family that treats him well. The girl is a runaway who has turned to crime because of her family’s rejection of her. The boy takes her in as a sister. Apparently his parents are quite absentee, such are the lives of the ridiculously rich. These mutants are Charles Xavier and Raven. They will grow up to become Professor X and Mystique.
Fast forward to 1962. Mutants are a phenomenon that is just starting to rise. Mutants are starting to reach the age of maturity where their powers fully manifest themselves. The screenwriter’s explanation of this mutant explosion is intriguing. As the world is entering the nuclear age, the fears and possibilities of a nuclear society are realized. It is suggested that this nuclear world has somehow sparked the evolutionary change that Xavier attributes to the mutations.
A rambunctious CIA agent, Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne, “Knowing”), discovers that a mutant organization called the Hellfire Club, under the leadership of a man known as Sebastian Shaw, is using their powers to influence government officials to place nuclear weapons in Afghanistan, a move that will draw the ire and retaliation of the Russians. She tracks down Xavier (James McAvoy, “Wanted”) and recruits him to head a team of mutants to work within the CIA to help address the threats of mutants using their powers against the greater good.
Meanwhile, Eric Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender, “Inglourious Basterds”) has tracked down the Nazi who took away everything he loved and created the man he’s become. That former Nazi is now going under the name of Sebastian Shaw, who appears not to have aged. Lehnsherr tries to take revenge, but hasn’t anticipated that Shaw himself may be a mutant or has gathered other mutants around him for protection. He fails in his first attempt at revenge, but is recruited by Xavier to help form the CIA mutant team.
That’s probably enough of the plot. That only scratches the surface, which explains why this “X-Men” is the longest entry yet. Another reason is that director Matthew Vaughn ("Kick-Ass") is content not to rush his super powered mutants into battle. He takes great pains to develop Eric’s journey of revenge and Xavier’s theories and attitudes about mutantism. Xavier in particular is very much allowed to be a real person. Highly intelligent, but willing to bend the rules and have fun being young. He uses his mutant theories as pick up lines in bars.
Vaughn also spends a good deal of time developing the most complex personality of the group, the torn and obviously mutant in appearance—Raven (her last name is never mentioned). She’s played by Jennifer Lawrence, last year’s great discovery for her Oscar nominated performance as a teenager trying to provide for her siblings in the ruthless backcountry of the Ozarks in “Winter’s Bone”. Raven has blue, scaly skin, but can make herself look like anyone. She is in the middle of an ideological tug of war between Xavier and Eric. Xavier believing that mutants should integrate with humans, while Eric’s beliefs run more towards embracing their mutantism at the expense of fitting in.
Another mutant, a scientist named Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult, ”A Single Man”) intrigues Raven. Hank is another mutant whose mutation has manifested itself in his appearance. His feet look and operate like hands, with opposable thumbs. After he takes a “cure” that is supposed remove surface mutant characteristics but allow him to retain powers, Hank’s mutation somehow becomes even more obvious when he grows blue hair all over his body. The two brush at a romance, but eventually Raven’s beliefs are shifted closer to Eric’s views, and she decides to embrace her true appearance.
There are a great deal more mutants introduced in this origin episode of the series, including Havok (Lucas Till, “Battle: Los Angeles”), Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones, “The Last Exorcism”), and the villainess Emma Frost (January Jones, “Mad Men”). To list them all would be pointless and require more synopsizing. Despite all these characters and plotting this “First Class” doesn’t have the overstuffed feeling of the third installment, “The Last Stand”. Vaughn’s insistence of allowing the story to develop, rather than driving it with loud and explosive action sequences gives more weight to the story’s social themes of bigotry and tolerance.
That’s not to say there aren’t some great action sequences. The final showdown set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis is fraught with the anti-authoritative tensions of the era. It exemplifies the types of events and fear that inspired the creation of such comic book characters as the X-Men. It even contains some awesome images. With all the characters and special effects and the wide range of thematic material the filmmakers try to cover, some elements get left a little underdeveloped, such as Xavier’s relationship with MacTaggert.
Some people may not take to this vision of the X-Men as readily as the previous outings. It’s more cerebral, with a much stronger focus on the characters and themes of the series. To some the ever-unfolding plot may seem to drag, but this is the X-Men as they should be presented. They’re more than just a team of super powers. Each character has always held very specific purposes in the X-Men universe, and it’s nice to see a comic book mythology represented so faithfully on screen. But, I’m beginning to wonder whether this series will ever end, since this material has been fairly well covered by this point. Could Carroll have been onto something?
Logan/Wolverine: Hugh Jackman Victor Creed/Sabertooth: Liev Schreiber General Striker: Danny Huston Kayla Silverfox: Lynn Collins Remy LeBeau/Gambit: Taylor Kitsch John Wraith: Will.i.am Frederick J. Dukes/The Blob: Kevin Durand Chris Bradley/Bolt: Dominic Monaghan David North/Agent Zero: Daniel Henney Wade Wilson/Deadpool: Ryan Reynolds
20th Century Fox presents a film directed by Gavin Hood. Written by David Benioff and Skip Woods. Based on characters from Marvel comic book publications. Running time: 107 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of action and violence and some partial nudity).
So I’m sitting in this bar in Chicago with my best friend two weeks ago trying to salvage the evening after the heartbreaking Game 2 loss of the Bulls to the Celtics. The Blackhawks are giving the bartender an even harder time in the NHL, so he says, “We’re watching something else. You guys seen ‘Wolverine’ yet? I got it. We’re watching it!”
Now, I find myself in a bit of a conundrum having just written a diatribe railing against movie piracy and the stupidity of critics who would so brazenly write a review based on one of these pirated copies. I submit my opinion that I would rather not see it at this point in time, but my friend and the only other guy in that bar are game. I’m not really sure I want to see what might happen to the heavily tattooed and elongated earlobed bartender’s mood if he’s forced to watch the Hawks blow it any longer, so I don’t protest much.
For the next hour and a half or so we proceeded to perform our own version of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” on the fourth X-Men installment. What we took such pleasure in ridiculing as we guzzled our late night High Life was not the over 400 unfinished special effects shots, the temporary score, or the unfinished color timing; it was the script and B-movie story by David Benioff (“The Kite Runner”) and Skip Woods (“Hitman”).
Of course, I couldn’t really review the movie seen under those circumstances, so I went to see it when it opened in theaters. And even with the finished special effects in their dazzling glory (properly color timed mind you), the final score, and my own sobriety, the screenplay brings the whole production crashing down. The script is spectacularly bad.
I suppose a brief synopsis is a necessity, so here it goes. Wolverine started out life as a little boy named Jimmy a long time ago and through a melodramatic event discovers that a) he has the mutant power to grow six claws from between his knuckles at will and has the power to heal himself; and b) he has an older brother Victor with similar powers (although the brother’s claws are his fingernails). The two fight every major war in American history together. This is shown through montage during the film’s credits and is the best sequence in the movie, perhaps because there is no dialogue.
After surviving the firing squad in Vietnam for killing a superior officer, the two are approached by General Striker to join a covert team with “special privileges,” which are never quite explained. Now Jimmy looks like a buff Hugh Jackman (“Australia”) and Victor looks like a scary redneck version of Liev Schreiber (“Defiance”), both sporting matching muttonchops. The group enables Victor’s violent tendencies and Jimmy leaves the team to pursue a normal life with a girlfriend (Lynn Collins, “The Number 23”) and an axe.
Six years later, someone is killing off the team and Striker (Danny Huston, “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People”) recruits Jimmy to join the Weapon X program where the unbreakable metal adamantium is fused to his skeleton creating the nearly indestructible Wolverine that we all know and love. The assassin Wolverine is assigned to hunt down is, of course, Victor.
Now, that took me longer than expected, but aside from the adamantium skeleton part, all that plot takes place in the first 15 minutes of the movie. The remaining 90 minutes of the movie is amazingly similar to the first 15 minutes replayed over and over again with different mutants thrown into the mix and a great many “secrets” that nobody is willing to divulge until Wolverine knocks them down and shoves those claws in their faces. If you don’t really know what a mutant is, well you’re out of luck, because the filmmakers show little interest in explaining the socio-political environment of the world of the X-Men beyond the fact that General Striker hates them but is willing to use them for his dirty work.
In fact, from this movie it would seem that other than Striker, just about everybody in this world is a mutant. Now, that may serve as a bit of a spoiler about Wolvie’s “normal” girlfriend, but that secret isn’t really anything that the filmmakers don’t try to beat into your head with a frying pan during a scene where she diffuses a fight between Jimmy and a big guy making a redneck cell phone call, which would involve blocking the road with your vehicle while you converse with another person from your drivers’ seats. And you know, I’ve seen it twice now, and I’m not sure when people stopped calling him Jimmy and started calling him Logan. Maybe someone can help me out there.
But details such as what names people are going by can easily be missed between eye rollings with banal lines like these to sit through:
“We didn’t sign up for this.”
“You can’t just walk away.”
“Embrace the other side.”
“You’re gonna die for what you did to her!”
“All the horrible things in your life... Your father, the wars, I can make all this go away. You can live knowing that the woman you loved was hunted down, or you can join me. I promise you will have your revenge.”
“You’re not an animal, Logan.” What is he? The Elephant Man?
And one of my favorites, “If I learned anything about life, it's this: always play the hand you’re dealt. My name is Gambit... and I play for keeps.” Now, I just can’t wait for the Gambit movie!
But the clichéd and hackneyed script isn’t the movie’s only flaw. There’s a huge cast of characters and instead of actually introducing them, director Gavin Hood (“Tsotsi”) just throws Wolverine and Victor in amongst them to do their thing, regardless of what anyone else is doing. All the other characters are just window dressing for the action scenes. With the plot to kill off the special unit the warring brothers were a part of, it would be beneficial to actually get to know some of these guys so we might actually care if someone is out to knock them off.
Ryan Reynolds’ (“Adventureland”) involvement as one of Striker’s mutant unit is completely inexplicable considering the capacity his character serves. He comes on for one action sequence in which he cracks wise a couple of times to set up a joke at the end of the film when a completely different actor is actually playing his character. Of course, they cast Reynolds so they might be able to develop a spinoff for his mutant character known as Deadpool.
Gambit (Taylor Kitsch, NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”), beyond his laughable introductory line, is another completely wasted character. The effects in his scenes are beyond dazzling, but what is the point of including such a powerful mutant character to take Wolverine to an island that Wolvie could easily have found on his own if Gambit had simply told him its name?
But I’ve gone on too long. While the special effects are good for the most part, the only real joy I derived from watching this film, I got during that initial drunken bash session of the unfinished project. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” doesn’t add anything meaningful to the X-Men mythology or to comic book-based movies in general. All it is good for is as a subject of ridicule while you’re sitting in a bar getting drunk with your friends.
Fox Mulder: David Duchovny Dana Scully: Gillian Anderson ASAC Dakota Whitney: Amanda Peet Father Joseph Crissman: Billy Connolly Agent Mosley Drummy: Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joiner
20th Century Fox presents a film directed by Chris Carter. Written by Frank Spotnitz and Carter. Based on the television series created by Carter. Running time: 100 min. Rated PG-13 (for violent and disturbing content and thematic material).
I rarely read other reviews of a movie before I tackle it myself. But I am a fan of “The X-Files”. I own every episode on DVD and recently finished watching the final three seasons. These are characters and concepts with which I am very involved and felt I needed some perspective with which to juxtapose my thoughts.
The release of the latest “X-Files” adventure “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” seems to have been met with confusion by critics. The confusion comes not from the plot but the purpose. It seems most people are basing their views of the film on their views of the television series and where the film falls in line with the series. Too many are looking at the whole picture and not this specific movie, which is a strong FBI procedural thriller that addresses many of the thematic issues of the series but abandons all of the conspiratorial concepts upon which the show was based.
Coming a long six years after the TV series’ cancelation at the end of its ninth season and a full ten years after the last big screen outing for “The X-Files”, “I Want to Believe” is a “stand alone” story in the vein of “The Silence of the Lambs” or “The Cell”. It’s not as bold as either of those films, and that’s its greatest weakness. But it is a good thriller that relies upon the wits and imaginations of its characters and the cold, dark atmosphere of its landscapes rather than on over-produced action sequences and special effects.
The movie begins with the disquieting image of a line of FBI agents crossing a field of snow in West Virginia poking the ground with sounding sticks. There is little doubt that they are searching for a victim of some type of abduction. They are lead by a man with long white hair who falls to his knees in the middle of the field and begins to dig. This daylight scene is intercut with a night scene in the same wintery area. A woman is attacked by two men. She injures one with a gardening fork before she is overcome. Back in daylight we find the white-haired man has uncovered the severed arm of the man she injured.
This opening scene masterfully sets the dark mood and basic suspense of the film. Director/co-writer Chris Carter and co-writer Frank Spotnitz prove how much they have grown as filmmakers since Carter created “The X-Files” in the early nineties. The tension and mystery they build in these initial scenes sets the picture’s tone with great efficiency. Cinematographer Bill Roe (a veteran of television shows like “The X-Files”, whose work can most recently be seen on the Fox series “Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles”) deserves a great deal of the atmospheric credit in the way he photographs the chilling winterscapes of Vancouver substituting for West Virginia.
The white-haired man is Father Joe, a convicted pedophile claiming to receive psychic visions of the woman’s abduction and others. The woman is an FBI agent he believes to still be alive. The FBI depicted here is a very different one than existed in the television series. This is a more serious FBI that has no patience or time to ponder the paranormal, let alone build intricate conspiracies to ratify or debunk such theories. ASAC Dakota Whitney does not believe Father Joe is really psychic. Rather she thinks he is more likely involved in the abductions. But he is their only lead, and thus she enlists the aid of former Special Agent Dana Scully—now an accomplished surgeon—to recruit her former partner Fox Mulder to assist in the investigation with his vast knowledge of the paranormal.
When we last saw Mulder, he was a fugitive that the FBI had used as a scapegoat to cover up an alien-based conspiracy. Considering where Mulder has been hiding in the intervening period, it is obvious the FBI hasn’t been trying too hard to find him, nor has he been too concerned about being caught. In fact, little is mentioned of Mulder’s former fate beyond the fact that the FBI is willing to forgive any prior infractions in exchange for his help on this case. Not only does this create a clean break from the trappings of the series’ mythology, but this allows his character to play a little like a more typical rouge element who is necessary to crack the case even though no one believes in him.
Scully is not so willing to return to a life of chasing ghosts and monsters, and is dealing with her own crisis of faith with a patient she is treating at a Catholic hospital. The only hope for a cure is a controversial stem cell procedure that is not backed by the administration. Her belief in the procedure against everyone else’s doubts mirrors Mulder’s belief in Father Joe.
Some fans may be pleased that the movie deals very deeply and intimately with Scully’s and Mulder’s relationship. Gillian Anderson (“Bleak House”) and David Duchovny (Showtime’s “Californication”) slip back into their former characters like falling back into their natural skins. The writing of their relationship is much improved upon from the series, where they dealt with each other as idealized opposites. Here their relationship is more rooted in reality. They fit well together, but can’t reconcile the aspects of each other’s personalities they would prefer to change. The fact they share a real relationship gives the audience the impression of joining these character’s lives already in progress rather than alienating the uninitiated by presenting a mere continuation of the relationship begun in the series.
The supporting cast also offers strong performances. Amanda Peet (NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”) is an anchoring force as the skeptical agent-in-charge Whitney. Calling on Mulder’s expertise is an act of desperation for her, but she never allows the weakness to reveal itself in the authority with which she conducts her investigation. And British comedian Billy Connolly gives an understated performance as Father Joe, who doesn’t understand his power but sees it as a possible redemption for his past sins. Only Xzibit (“Gridiron Gang”) is given too little to work with as Special Agent Drummy, representing the bureaucracy of the FBI that has no room for alternative theories of investigation.
Some fans may find “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” almost too standard to fulfill their expectations from an “X-Files” adventure. There is a slight sense that the filmmakers are playing it safe, but that could be as much from being restricted to a PG-13 rating as it is from abandoning the alien invasion premise that drove the series. Certainly the reasoning behind the abductions is disturbing and unusual. In that way “I Want to Believe” is in the same tradition of some of the best “X-Files” episodes, which had nothing to do with aliens or conspiracies. And it’s so skillfully made that anyone can enjoy it, even if they’ve never heard of “The X-Files”.
Logan/Wolverine: Hugh Jackman Prof. Charles Xavier: Patrick Stewart Magneto: Ian McKellen Ororo Munroe/Storm: Halle Berry Dr. Jean Grey/Phoenix: Famke Janssen Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast: Kelsey Grammer Marie/Rouge: Anna Paquin Mystique: Rebecca Romijn Scott Summers/Cyclops: James Marsden Bobby Drake/Iceman: Shawn Ashmore Pyro: Aaron Stanford Juggernaut: Vinnie Jones Warren Worthington III: Ben Foster Callisto: Diana Ramirez Kitty Pride/Shadowcat: Ellen Page
Twentieth Century Fox presents a film directed by Brett Ratner. Written by Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg. Running time: 104 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language).
When I went to see the third installment of the “X-Men” franchise, I fully expected to be writing about its allegorical parallels to our current political hot button issue of illegal immigrants and the necessity for societal tolerance of others. The first two “X-Men” films, like the comic book they’re based on, have delved heavily into the topics of civil rights and tolerance (or lack there of) in this “land of the free.” “X-Men: The Last Stand” is no more shy about wearing its political banner on its sleeve than its predecessors, but it’s much more concerned with just getting down to the nitty gritty of an all out brawl between mutants and man (and other mutants).
In the X-Men universe, there are some people who have “taken the next leap on the evolutionary ladder.” These “mutants” developed super-powers that as unique as personalities, ranging from the ability to heal almost instantly to the ability to control and manipulate metal. Since only a select few have developed these powers, naturally the rest of the human race fears them. The first two films explored the socio-political ramifications presented by this development. Some mutants were shown working for the good of humanity by trying to promote tolerance and harmony between the humans and mutants, while other mutants, bitter from the humans’ fear of them, were shown trying to assert their dominance over the human race.
In “The Last Stand” a medical research facility has developed a “cure” for the mutant gene. Some mutants whose mutations are a little more obvious, such as Beast (Kelsey Grammar, TV’s “Frasier”) and Angel (Ben Foster, “Hostage”), or those who might find life easier to live, like Rogue (Anna Paquin, “The Squid and the Whale”), are not sure where their feelings lie about this cure. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood of Mutants, lead by Magneto (Ian McKellen, “The DaVinci Code”), sees this so-called cure as a call to arms for their kind to take their rightful place as the masters of the human race. The group of mutant heroes known as the X-Men are all that stand between Magneto’s Brotherhood and the fall of mankind.
The X-Men find themselves at a crossroads as the story opens. With mutantism having worked its way into society’s mainstream, their school for gifted young children, founded by their leader Prof. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) as a safe haven and mentoring school for unwanted mutants, has become somewhat obsolete – especially if this cure becomes widely accepted. Some of their members are considering the normal life they’ve never been able to have before.
The group is also recovering from the loss of one of their own. In the previous film, Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, “Hide and Seek”) sacrificed herself for the rest of the team. When the two love interests of the deceased psychic, Cyclops (James Marsden, “The Notebook”) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, “Van Helsing”), begin to receive messages from her, things start heating up in some not so good ways.
“The Last Stand” is quite a prophetic title considering some of the surprises the movie has in store for fans of the series. There are some deaths of major characters. (Yes, there’s an ‘s’ at the end of that word.) 20th Century Fox has also promised it would be the final installment, but the box office receipts may rescind that order. And if you stick around for the credit cookies (I did not and had to be informed of what I had missed) it becomes apparent that nothing is final in the X-Men universe.
It is good to see some characters that have stood in the periphery of past installments take larger roles this time around. Storm (Halle Berry, “Catwoman”) takes a more prominent leadership role in Jean’s absence, which is natural considering the character’s formidable ability to control the weather. Pyro (Aaron Stanford, “The Hills Have Eyes”), who started out as a good guy in “X2”, is promoted to Magneto’s number one stooge, inviting a climatic face off with former friend Iceman (Shawn Ashmore, “Terry”). Colossus (Daniel Cudmore, “Alone in the Dark”) and Kitty Pride (Ellen Page, “Hard Candy”) have gone from cameo appearances to frontline X-Men.
As always, the casting for this series is perfect. Grammar is an inspired choice for the highly intellectual mutant Beast. It seems nobody but the former professional footballer Vinnie Jones (“Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”) could have personified Juggernaut. And Ben Foster makes for a good looking Angel even though his role is so condensed he never even gets a chance to take his mutant name and is only ever known in the film as Warren Worthington III.
I’ve always loved the “X-Men” for its blatant socio-political allegory, but probably what most people find fascinating are the mutant powers and abundance of different characters. Both of these elements are featured prominently in this “last stand.” Director Brett Ratner (“Red Dragon”) does a good job retaining the mood of the previous films and an even better job of pumping the action up to a state of near anarchy by the final battle. This installment has so much action it makes the first seem like an episode of “Masterpiece Theater”. It is very much a success in those terms but seems to lack some of the intensity of meaning of the previous films. Regardless, it remains true to the comic book and should satisfy fans and summer movie goers, as well as leaving a high bar to live up to for the makers of “Wolverine”.
XXX/Darius Stone: Ice Cube Agent Augustus Gibbons: Samuel L. Jackson General George Deckert: Willem Defoe Agent Kyle Steele: Scott Speedman President James Sanford: Peter Strauss Agent Toby Shavers: Michael Roof Zeke: Xzibit Lola Jackson: Nona Gaye
Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by Lee Tamahori. Written by Simon Kinberg. Running time: 98 min. Rated PG-13 (for sequences of intense action violence and some language).
Hello. My name is Andy Wells, and I am a movie addict. I have been watching movies since I was three years old, but I don’t think I really developed a movie-watching problem until I attended college. I mean I would go on movie binges from time to time before then, and everyone watches a stupid movie or two from time to time. A lot of the time I didn’t even know any better. But lately I fear I have been losing control of my movie watching habits. It was when I started watching movies with full knowledge that they would be harmful to my health that I knew I had to do something about my problem.
My life changing moment came the other night when I rented XXX: State of the Union starring Ice Cube (Are We There Yet?) as Darius Stone, the new XXX. The fact that he was the new XXX was one of the key indicators that my problem had become so severe that I needed to seek out help. You see, this is the second XXX movie, and I didn’t even like the first one starring Vin Diesel. I suppose if he had accepted the offer to star in this sequel his problem would have been an even bigger one than mine.
Another indication that I had lost control of my movie viewing sensibilities was my knowledge that this sequel itself was a bad movie. When XXX: SOTU opened in theaters in April, it received resoundingly negative reviews. It rates a whopping 15% on the Tomatometer at RottenTomatoes.com. Totally rotten. “Plays less like a sequel to XXX than a parody of it and the whole action genre.” -- Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly. “Succumbs to a depth of directorial incompetence not seen since the likes of Megaforce.” -- Erik Childress, Efilmcritic.com. And the coup de grace -- “A salt-lick of under-hung jackasses.” -- Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central.
XXX is supposed to be some sort of generation X James Bond, a Bond for the X-Games set, a grittier modern Bond, with all the absurdity and a hip coolness that appeals to the primary movie ticket buying demographic, the twentysomethings. At least that was what the first movie was supposed to be, with the second it has mutated into some sort of Bond in da ‘Hood with a Bond that is not suave and debonair, but moody, reclusive and disagreeable. And it is all directed by Lee Tamahori, who seems to understand the wall-to-wall action and gadgets of Bond (he directed the last Bond outing Die Another Day), but has no understanding whatsoever of the modern black gangsta flick. His use of urban setting like chop shops and a hip-hop soundtrack is a grosser example of exploitation than most films that made up the blacksploitation movement in ‘70’s cinema. Worse still neither his star nor his writer Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) has absolutely any intuition of the essential elements of the espionage/action genre. Ice Cube is like a cardboard cut out that makes no effort to draw in the audience or even other characters to achieve the illusion of a character who could accomplish half of what he does here. Kinberg writes in authority figures and political manipulation, impossible escapes and femme fatales, but shows no aptitude for putting them into logical use.
I felt sorry for poor Scott Speedman (Underworld), who by this time should have a contract out on his agent’s life. He walked through his role as the one sensible NSA agent other than the two heroes, played by Cube and Samuel L. Jackson (Coach Carter), as if he was watching his entire career flash before his eyes. And what about Jackson’s presence in this film? I believe loyalty to a role is a sign of an actor with a sense of responsibility to his fan base, the people that made him a star, but there comes a point when a script is bad enough that a good performer’s input just becomes another version of prostitution. And don’t think I’m letting Willem Defoe (Spider-Man) off as the heavy. Shame on you two!
I believe my breakthrough came as I entered the final act of the film and the climactic chase sequence that finds all our heroes and villains hurtling toward nowhere in particular at mach two in a secret Presidential escape train, because train tracks are so easy to keep out of plain sight from the general public, especially if they run along the most traveled interstate highway in the country. Even as the plot approached this abhorrent absurdity, I found my jaw slacking open from the literally mind numbing experience. Like some sort of sedative had been injected into my bloodstream, the extremities of my vision began to blur and drool started flowing unabated out of my mouth. I felt my own braindamage begin to set in.
Luckily, my meltdown was only temporary… this time. I had to think about my family. My reputation. What would people say when they found out I had even held a movie this idiotic in my hands? I imagined many people could tell just by looking at me. Did I look like a stroke victim? Was there a portion of my face that had remained in its retarded revulsion brought by this cinematic idiocy? I couldn’t risk it anymore.
After just the beginning of months -- possibly years -- of therapy, my personal film aficionado physician says I am making progress. It is slow, but I’ll make it as long as I live one film at a time. I’m on step three of my rehabilitation program. I’ve already gone into my Netflix queue and deleted potentially harmful movies like The Pacifier and Transporter 2. Next, I moved important films like Fitzcarraldo and Nashville to the top of my queue. Now, I am confronting my friends and others I may have hurt. I am sorry. I hope you haven’t looked at movies like XXX: SOTU and rented them just because I have. I am ashamed to have seen it; and I hope you can forgive me.
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