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X-Men 3: The Last Stand: While the first X-Men movie did nothing for me, the sequel was a real blast and this third outing is just as good even though it might annoy purists of the comics because there really isn’t time to go into a lot of depth about all the different characters and there’s a hell of a lot onscreen throughout the brief 99-minute running time.
When you start up the DVD, the menu gives you a choice between “Join the Brotherhood” (i.e. Magneto’s lot) and “Take a Stand” (i.e. the good guys), and when the movie came out at the cinema the poster was tagged “Whose side are you on?”, comedian Will Smith (no, not that one, the English toff one) said on Radio 4’s panel show Banter, “I thought I was just going to watch a film, I didn’t realise you had to pick a side?!”
The movie starts “20 years ago” as a walking Xavier (Patrick Stewart) plus Magneto (Ian McKellen, who like Stewart also recently had a guest part in Ricky Gervais’ sitcom Extras) go to meet a teenage Jean Grey (with, I’m sure, Famke Janssen playing her own character’s mother – despite the credits claiming otherwise, but at this point we still don’t know the whereabouts of her from the end of the second film).
Four of the good guys…
The main storyline running throughout this film is that drugs company Worthington labs, based at Alcatraz Island, have made a mutant antibody which, in effect, is a cure. The question is – who out of all the X-Men, good or bad, would want to go back to being ‘normal’? Sure, you wouldn’t get stared at in public if it puts your appearance at a disadvantage but at the same time you lose everything that makes you ‘special’, for want of a better word.
As such, despite their being a big scrap, as usual, between the good guys – led by Xavier, and the bad guys – led by Magneto, the real stand-off here lies between the mutants and the humans who want to adminster the drug and get some kind of control working. Do you think they’ll really win? Nah! Do you think any of the mutants will turn in their powers? Well, I wouldn’t be so quick to answer that…
I’ll try to keep the spoilers few and far between here but there is one that will appear in the next couple of paragraphs so if you want to skip to the next section, look away now. The authorities feel that if they capture Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos then Magneto will come looking for her and they’ll grab him too. Well, this certainly seems like a plan but it doesn’t go quite the way anyone expect.
Also, Cyclops (James Marsden) has gone off on one in reaction to Jean’s death from the second film and it’s hit him hard. However – and here’s where the spoiler kicks in, the good news is that she’s not really dead, she was just resting (ahem!). In a quite improbable scene, she’s brought back to life and we learn she has a dormant aggressive side known as Phoenix which can cause serious damage.
Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the film plus all the extras.
Of the cast in this film, Frasier lead Kelsey Grammar appears as Dr Hank McCoy aka Beast, and he certainly looks like one in his blue get-up with a mane that looks as tough to control as that which Michael Bolton had back in the late ’80s, Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine with his big sideburns, looking like a younger Clint Eastwood in his Dirty Harry days and there’s newcomer Kitty Page aka Shadowcast (played by an exceptionally cute Ellen Page, looking like a young Jennifer Connelly).
For those who couldn’t guess – and there really can’t be anyone – the Sergeant voice in one scene came from Full Metal Jacket‘s R.Lee Ermey, telling the troops to put down their metal weapons and pick up only ‘cure’ ones. It’s a wonder that Anna Paquin bothered to put on her make-up for this movie since her character, Rogue, gets to do very little in this film. Halle Berry continues to prove that she still can’t act but she’s out done in that department as they’ve hired Shohreh Aghdashloo as Dr Kavita Rao. She’s best known for playing mother Dina Araz in season 4 of 24, forever shouting her son’s name as “Beirooooos”. Acting worthy of Eldorado(!)
If you wonder what caused the change of director, putting the movie in the hands of Rush Hour trilogy’s Brett Ratner, the reason was that Bryan Singer went off to make Superman Returns. Alan Cumming wanted to be in this third movie, back again as Nightcrawler, but with the change in director it all got forgotten about and he said in a recent interview that people came up to him thinking he *had* been in it and even congratulated him on his performance! Bizarre.
X-Men: The Last Stand is actually pretty violent for a 12-certificate but it gets away with this due to the fantasy element. There’s rather a lot of mutant variety put into this third movie with each of them showing off their talents, usually in quite a memorable way, and never does it happen to make it feel like they were just crowbarred in for the sake of it. There’s many great moments of entertainment to savour including a big set-piece at San Francisco bridge as Storm, Wolverine, Kitty, Beast, Colussus and Iceman go to sort out Magneto and co.
And although there’s a slight hint at a possible sequel just before the credits roll, there’s an even bigger one at the end of them, so all those who walked out of the cinema will have missed it.
…and three more good guys plus one baddie.
Who is it? Yes, it’s Vinnie Jones. Bit obvious, really.
I had no complaints with the sound and vision. The picture is superb in the 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision widescreen ratio with zero artifacts and a cracking transfer, bringing the life of the comic book sparking onto the big screen (well, a 32″ WS TV is a fairly big screen :) While I’m sure this would’ve looked great on the big screen, the advantage of watching it at home means you can rewind the fight scenes and check them out several times over.
For the sound, we’re given Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soudntracks. I always opt for the latter of the two options as it’s better, with great atmosphere for those moments that are just dialogue and a blistering attack on your ears all around when the action kicks in loud and proud.
Most of the extras are on disc 2, but we start off on disc 1 with:
- Coming Soon: Trailers for forthcoming Fox product – DVDs of Prison Break Season 1, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, 24 Season 5, The Omen (2006) and the January 2007 cinema release, Night in a Museum with Ben Stiller. The latter looks amusing for a kids film, but My Super Ex-Girlfriend looks like the perfect example of a trailer where you really don’t need to see the film afterwards.
- Inside Look (1:13): Allegedly this is a preview of the Simpsons Movie, due out worldwide on July 27th next year. Homer announces that the clip is a work-in-progress which certainly looks that way, but on the comedic side of it, it’s really piss-poor. I loved the show up until about the 10th season and it’s all those early shows that are on Channel 4 weekdays at 6pm, but I’ve given up watching new episodes now as it really jumped the shark and lost the heart it once had.
- Audio commentaries: There are two on this disc. The ‘Take a Stand’ menu offers one from director Brett Ratner and writers Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, while the ‘Join the Brotherhood’ menu gives one from producers Avi Arad, Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter.
- Audio descriptive track: If that kind of thing floats your boat.
- Deleted/Alternate Scenes (9:24 and 9:55): 24 of them here in anamorphic 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, all with optional commentary from Brett Ratner, Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn. Amusingly, there’s two versions of a scene with Pyro and Magneto, one with the latter clean shaven and the second with a beard. None of these are long enough to make a real difference or an improvement as they’re too short but they’re nice to have all the same. That is, apart from “Extended Fight Scene at Jean Grey’s house”.
Note that there are 12 on the ‘Join the Brotherhood’ menu with 13 on the ‘Take a Stand’ menu, but one is available on both, which I won’t divulge the name of here as it could be too much of a spoiler.
- Easter Eggs: Symbols elsewhere on some menus will, when selected, lead to bonus footage such as one on the last page of deleted scenes which shows a visual FX clip made for an early theatrical marketing campaign, at which point the climax of the film took place in Washington DC.
And then disc 2 continues with the following sections, with more subtitles options for English (hearing impaired), Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish and Swedish. All of the following is in anamorphic 16:9 with film clips in their original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, except where stated:
- Documentaries: First up is Brett Ratner’s Production Diary (41:19) which sees the director taking the cast and crew round all the locations at which they plan to film. The first thing you notice is that the sound on this is terrible with it distoring almost every time he speaks. The pre-production also includes taking publicity shots of the cast in their gear. Comments aplenty come from the cast and crew then as we go from stage to stage seeing key scenes be filmed before finally seeing the World Premiere of the movie at the Cannes Film Festival.
X-Men: Evolution of a Trilogy (43:07) sees the cast and crew talk to camera amongst scores of film clips and comic drawings about how they got to a trilogy of movies, while X3: The Excitement Continues (20:24) shows more chat and on-set footage during the filming of the third movie.
- Featurettes: First, X-Men Up Close gives more info that you could shake a stick at in many short bursts as you’re provided with info about the powers, history, extras and a gallery for Beast, Storm, Rogue, Angel, Xavier, Pyro, Colossus, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Mystique, Juggernaut, Callisto, Cyclops, Magneto, Iceman and Kitty Pryde.
Then, Anatomy of a Scene: Golden Gate Bridge (12:03) goes to town on Magneto’s powers which leads to a spectacular scene where he manipulates the bridge to rip it from its foundations and take it for a trip.
- Pre-Viz Animatic Gallery (24:40): 20 scenes of low-resolution CGI that are made prior to filming the final version so the crew can see how it should turn out. This is done for the same reason of making models to scale of certain parts of the film to see if the expected outcome is viable and after watching the film you’ll notice that a few didn’t make it in the final cut.
The aspect ratio varies during this section.
- Vignettes (25:57): Seven seemingly random short pieces going into furthe detail about the making of the film and also about X-Men in general.
- Blogs (14:14): Additional material that appears to have been placed on the internet for fans to kill time while waiting for the cinema release of the finished version.
- Galleries: Lots of pictures split into two groups – Character Stills and Conceptual Art, Storyboards & Models.
- Trailers (23 mins): Three for the film including an extended 7-minute trailer.
So, plenty for big fans of the franchise to get into and a worthy look for those with just a passing interest. There are just 24 chapters this time round, although it is a shorter film, plus subtitles for the movie in English for the hearing impaired and a menu system as previously explained.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
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| OVERALL | 9 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 99 minutes
Year: 2006
Cat no: 2998601001
Released: 2006
Chapters: 24
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 6.1 ES
Languages: English
Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
Disc Format: 2*DVD9
Director: Brett Ratner
Producers: Avi Arad, Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter
Screenplay: Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn
Music: John Powell
Cast :
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman
Storm: Halle Berry
Professor Charles Xavier/X: Patrick Stewart
Magneto: Ian McKellen
Dr. Jean Grey: Famke Janssen
Cyclops: James Marsden
Rogue: Anna Paquin
Mystique: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Pyro: Aaron Stanford
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore
Yuriko Oyama/Deathstrike: Kelly Hu
President: Josef Sommer
Dr Hank McCoy/Beast: Kelsey Grammer
Juggernaut: Vinnie Jones
Warren Worthington III/Angel: Ben Foster
Kitty Pryde/Shadowcast: Ellen Page
Warren Worthington II: Michael Murphy
Dr Kavita Rao: Shohreh Aghdashloo
Callisto: Dania Ramirez
Trask: Bill Duke
Colossus: Daniel Cudmore
Multiple Man: Eric Dane
Jubilee: Kea Wong
Jimmy: Cameron Bright
Quill: Ken Leung
Sergeant (voice): R Lee Ermey
Spike: Lance Gibson
Dr Moira Mac Taggart: Olivia Williams
Waterhose Man: Stan Lee
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
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