Review of X Men 3 The Last Stand

Introduction

Another X-Men review requires another quick greeting to 2 very committed X-Men fans who in their student days would follow the TV series with devotion, despite the fact that it was broadcast early on Saturday mornings. Most people don`t tend to enjoy getting up early on Saturday mornings, and most students (who may have had the odd alcoholic beverage during the previous evening) even less so. But then that just shows their commitment to the X-Men. Andy & Mark, we salute you.

On with the review then. X-Men is another idea from the Marvel Comics stable and the mind of Stan Lee. If you don`t know much about them, then the basic premise is that humans are evolving once more, this time into mutants with special powers. Mutants aren`t popular with the rest of the population, but Professor Charles Xavier has created a school for mutant children, to protect and teach them. The X-Men are based at the school, a group of mutants who have harnessed their powers to protect a world that hates them from Magneto, the bad guy who wishes to wipe out the humans.

Good and evil have already battled in the first film, and the sequel picked up largely where the first left off. This is the third instalment, and now the evil Government (boo, hiss) has discovered a cure for what makes people into mutants. Bad boy Magneto is not best pleased about this, and decides to go after them, and hunt down and destroy the cure.

The cast of the first two films (Halle Berry, Famke Jannsen, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen), are augmented with some new friends this time round, including Kelsey Grammer. Oh, and Vinnie Jones.

Video

A very good 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer which brings the film to life at home. You shouldn`t really expect anything less from a big budget blockbuster, but sometimes they let you down. Not this time though, a trouble free transfer with excellent colours, lots of detail and a distinct lack of any damage to the print. It`s somehow not as good as the previous films, but it`s still a damn fine effort. Certainly nothing to complain about.

Audio

A pair of top notch soundtracks in DD5.1 EX and dts es. For me once again, the dts track was the winner, but the DD5.1 track is still a good one. Being a bit of a blockbuster, this is a film with a lot of sound to dazzle you with. From explosive action sequences to quieter, more reflective moments which then suddenly jump at you, this is another good sound mix, and ranks up alongside the previous releases.

Features

The first film was a bit of a let down in this department when released on DVD, but this situation was cashed in on with the release of X-Men 1.5, just before the sequel which improved that. X-Men 2 was packed with quality extras. So what do we get this time round?

Not a bad effort actually. First up we have a pair of commentary tracks. Track one features Brett Ratner (director), track two is a production heavy track, featuring Avi Arad. Track one is quite fun, track two has a lot of production detail, but isn`t so much fun (producers don`t tend to be...)

There are also some deleted scenes with optional commentary as well as alternate endings.

We move now to disc two, which has three substantial documentaries covering the lifespan of the film, going from pre-production through to filming and then interviews. These are Production Diary, X-Men: Evolution Of A Trilogy and X-Men: The Excitement Continues. There is some repetition across them, but they all work pretty well together, and I particularly liked the way that X-Men: Evolution Of A Trilogy tied all the three films in to each other.

There are also some smaller featurettes which feature details about the characters, one covering the "Anatomy Of A Scene" (everyone seems to be doing these nowadays), some animatics of various scenes and some other little bits and pieces.

Rounding it all out are various stills, galleries and trailers. Look out too for a little easter egg.

Conclusion

Bryan Singer has gone. The excellence of X-Men 2 has gone. All that hard work that Bryan Singer put in setting everything up during the first film, then started to use in the second film, is rather forgotten here. There are some parts which seem like they were cut and pasted from the second film`s unused scenes into this film. Once again we get a big bad battle of good mutants against bad mutants. The government are still nasty, bad people.

It`s still a fun film, and it`s still entertaining, but it just doesn`t have the quality of the previous film. That developed characters, fleshed out storylines, and moved them on. This just seems to stand still. There are still plenty of action set pieces to please the eye and ear, but there`s probably not enough here to please hardcore fans.

It`s basically an alright film with a wider appeal than just comic book fans, but having seen the first 2 films would really help your understanding of the basic goings on. It can just about stand alone, but only just.

This 2 disc DVD set is a pretty good effort, but again, not as good as its predecessor, which was an excellent 2 disc set.

Recommended for fans of the series, and the casual viewer will find enough fun here too.