Sunday, January 11, 2009

X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand
Directed by Brett Ratner

Price: $2.99

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Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #716 in Movie
* Released on: 2008-12-18
* Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
* Running time: 105 minutes

Customer Reviews

While the whole thing is really far-fetched, it's worth watching to see how it all ends
The first two X-Men movies were short but really great. The Last Stand unfortunately doesn't live up to the other two, but it's worth watching for those who want to see how it ends. (SPOILER WARNING) It's a pretty good movie but the whole story is based off of shaky foundations and very far-fetched ideas. Jean comes back from the dead because apparently her powers formed a cocoon of some sort. She kills Cyclops and Xavier (sad moment) and is then convinced my Magneto to help him take over the world. She was DEAD! And now we're supposed to believe her powers are the most dangerous of any ever discovered? Uh... ok.

To keep it simple, The Last Stand mainly suffers from an 'out there' storyline. Otherwise the movie is good with spectacular special effects, an excellent music score, and some more great acting. If you liked the first two films you should watch this, if not then don't bother, because you'll only like it less.

The future is rosy even if the UN Ambassador is blue
The third act of this tragedy or drama is this time bringing the fight within the mutant community. The President of the USA, with his Secretary to Mutant Affairs who is not even informed, let alone associated, to the President's decisions on such a matter, has paid for the invention or devising of a special genetic vaccine to "cure" the mutants of their mutant-ness. This gives the opportunity to the bad mutants to gather some groups and even crowds and to start some terrorist action against this cure in the name that mutant-ness is not a disease.

The final battle in order to destroy the research center that devised the "cure" and the scientist who is behind the discovery is spectacular with a bridge rotated in order to tie up San Francisco to Alcatraz by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. This time the battle will bring the bad mutants down once and for all. The leader of them, a certain Magneto, will be injected four doses of the "cure", the winged son of the President of the USA will save the scientist, and Wolverine, the man with metal bones and claws on his hands will get rid of the too famous Jean who had gone wild and evil after her resurrection from the water catastrophe in the previous film.

Then peace and safety are finally assured and men and mutants can live happily together thereafter and have many children. Such films are definitely naive as for the meaning but they are saved by the special effects and are entertaining after all. We could of course compare this trilogy with the Aliens first three films, or with the Terminator trilogy, or the two Star Wars trilogies. We would always find somewhere the belief that the future is not so grim as it may look and that good will always get over evil. Then the differences are in the surviving or winning models.

From the Genesis or Ragnarok model of Terminator, to the bi-partisan peace of this X-Men trilogy, to the never ending resurrection of the Aliens in the Aliens series, to the democratic victory of the two Star Wars trilogies, we can write volumes on the persistence and return of such ideological, supposedly religious or philosophical models, but the best novel ever written on that subject remains Stephen King's The Stand.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Logical? No. Fun? Yes!!!
This was an excellent ending to a terrific series, and worthy of all the hype it's generated so far. Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellan put forth strong performances as Wolverine and Magneto, and the rest of the performers, with the exception of the actors playing Cyclops and Rogue, are believable in spite of the roles they are playing. The time passes quickly in the movie, and it is well-worth a second viewing. There are a lot of intense scenes, and some gruesome deaths.

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