X-Men: The Last Stand (DVD)
The running time is 1 hr. 44 mins..
X-Men: The Last Stand picks up a short time after X2: X-Men United ended and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) is dead but mutants have made big strides in society, even to the point that a big blue furry man is now a part of the U.S. Government. However, things are never so easy, and there are always going to be people that don't like those that are "different". Here we find our story as a supposed cure for the mutant genome has been found, a vaccine that will rid humans of whatever it is inside of them that makes them different from regular human beings. Some mutants stand in line for such a cure, others frown on the idea and at the forefront of the frowning division (Brotherhood in the case of this film) is Magneto (Ian McKellen). Along with his recruits Magneto sets out to stop the production and use of this so-called "cure" and he finds a particularly intriguing ally in a once thought Jean Grey... only now she is known as the Dark Phoenix.
The storyline above sounds intriguing, and it is even fun to write about, but where this movie goes wrong is in its execution and its inability to stay focused on the task at hand. Instead of entertaining through the plotline the filmmakers decide to add more, and more, and more and then a few more characters to keep us entertained with special effects, effects that are not needed. One of the commentaries on this single-disc edition is with producers Avi Arad, Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter and as the credits begin to role they start talking about the differences between Brett Ratner and Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2, Superman Returns) and the one difference they mentioned that stood out to me was that Singer had more of a focus on the characters of the film and that Ratner liked to keep things moving. While I don't think Ratner did a great job with this movie it isn't all his fault and as far as character focus goes he had too many characters to choose from, look at Red Dragon, while that movie is flawed he certainly paid his characters more than enough attention. The box art for this DVD alone carries 14 different characters and that's not everyone. I also continue to believe that far too much attention is paid to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and the new attention paid to Storm (Halle Berry) is certainly unnecessary.
The most intriguing character in X3 is certainly Jean Grey with her resurrection as The Dark Phoenix yet so little attention is paid to this story that it almost becomes an afterthought until she plays her part in the final moments of the film.
As for the rest of the features on this single-disc edition you get a second commentary with Ratner and writers Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg, few deleted and alternate scenes (a few of which are actually good) and a new storyboard look at The Simpsons Movie and a preview of Night at the Museum.
As for recommending this movie I am not sure I will be watching it again. If I am going to watch an X-Men film it would certainly be X2 before any of the other two. However I am sure there are plenty of X-Men fans that found a lot of joy in this movie and by all means I think you should buy it. I don't think this was a horrible film, I just think it was a let down. As for future X-Men films I would not be surprised to see an X-Men 4 somewhere down the line, but I would be even less surprised if there isn't.