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Mutant mania
In X-Men: The Last Stand, Patrick Stewart (Professor X, the sage whose mentorship hones mutants at the academy) introduces his class to the responsibilities and ethics of the great X-gene power. “When an individual acquires great power, the use or misuse of that power is everything. Will it be used for the greater good or will it be used for personal or destructive ends? Now this is a question we must all ask ourselves. Why, because we are mutants.”
Kitty Pryde, a mutant who will blossom into Shadow Cat some day, reacts: “But Einstein said ethics are an exclusive human concern without any super human authority behind it.” The Professor retorts: “Einstein wasn’t a mutant, as far as we know.”
Now, whether Einstein was a mutant or not, the real question here is how far can human ethics and misdemeanours go to justify translation into a third sequel ... and is it any good? Well, ghastly, sour, unimpressive, cobbled and licentious are words I wouldn’t associate with this serviceable summer flick broadcasting huge special effect intense scenes with such flimsiness that it wholly devastates the characters’ cemented reputations from the previous two outings. Of course, uncanny, astonishing, stupendous and amazing aren’t exactly the words I would associate with this film either.
This frothy outing by Brett Ratner superficially appears to be a gallant protagonist, goading questions of ethnic discrimination and psychological complexes. In a New York Times article, Christian Moerk catharsises: “Dr Jean Grey aka Phoenix, played by Famke Janssen, has issues. And not the least of them is a controversial condition — conventionally called an Electra complex, the flip side of an Oedipal complex — in which some young women become unnaturally attached to their fathers and yet often wish to kill them in order to assume their power.”
These Byzantines are frequented in the movie when an adolescent and yet X-gene undeveloped, Jean Grey signifies her powers ad nauseam, by telekinetically raising cars and whatnots in the air, bewildering Stan Lee’s regular cameo appearance, as the gush of water from his hose showers heavenward. The two apparent guests — Professor Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr — Prof X and Magneto, two of the most powerful mutants in the known Marvel comic’s universe — are indeed impressed. This is the scene which plants the essence of the Electra complex into the minds of the avid watchers. Now some people digging through the brittle pages of X-Men know this is not how it happened, and Jean wasn’t a brat by any standards.
Flashback to X2: I was absolutely blown to oblivion by the adaptation of this multifaceted, generation spanning yarn by Bryan Singer and his writing accomplices, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter. All three understood the intricacies of the characters and how those, somehow silly, storylines would translate onto the screen. X2 was a revolution as it compounded the then-running zero tolerance storyline.
In X-Men: The Last Stand, the credence of the story lies on the rising of the Dark Phoenix, a schizoid form of Jean Grey with disobedient urges to obliterate, should she go astray. And astray she goes, or we wouldn’t have this movie. Rated PG-13, Wolverine is in the movie, too. As miffed mutants obliterate other more powerful friends into molecular blobs, folks like Hank McCoy (Angel), Professory X (Magneto), Mystique and Cyclops get scythed roles on screen for no reason.
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Second opinion This is a sad film, and it is sad for all the wrong reasons. Both the preceding movies had a profound understanding of the world of X-Men, but sadly, this one doesn’t and the result is obvious. Adding to the lack of appeal are the visual effects involving death and mayhem which fail to impress, except when the younger forms of Professor X and Magneto enter, wrinkles freshly ironed out. |
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