CAIRO: Back in 1999, comic book fans from around the world were startled to learn that 20th Century Fox were producing the first screen adaptation of the massively popular X-Men books. The film was released in 2000 to rave reviews and a domestic box-office gross of $157 million.
I personally was not enthusiastic about the film, as I was never a loyal fan of the X-Men books. The film was directed by Bryan Singe, the young filmmaker who was behind The Usual Suspects, one of the landmark films of the nineties. Singer desired to create a serious, thought provoking film out of the poorly-regarded comic book adventures and rise above the conventions of those stories. It wasn’t until my second or third viewing of the film that I found myself satisfied by Singer s mature, refined approach.
X-Men , which took place in the near future, revolved around a new breed of humans born with special powers and known as mutants. Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) owns a school that shelters and protects young mutants from the external world that refuses to accept their differences and prosecutes them for being unordinary. At the center of the story is Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, in his breakthrough role), a brooding, mysterious drifter with no memories or aim who, with the help of Xavier, attempts to deceiver the enigmas of his past.
The film was low on action, putting the dilemmas and various conflicts of its characters at the forefront of the story instead. The mutants symbolized any minority group the viewer could relate to and that was the unique aspect about it; it was a comic book adaptation filled with substance and weighty topics. This trend continued with the sequel X2, where a special military force lead by General Stryker, conspire to exterminate all mutants after an attempt made by one of them to assassinate the president. X2 was far superior to the first film, introducing new interesting characters combined with high-octane action scenes. I admired the first film for what Singer wanted to achieve and loved the second one for being an excellent action drama produced by an artist with a distinctive vision.
The third, and allegedly final, film is now released, with Brett Ratner, director of the Rush Hour films, taking over Singer s directorial chair this time around. The film contains two plot lines; the first sees Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who sacrificed her life at the end of the second film, return from the dead as the mighty, diabolical Phoenix, whose limitless powers start to run astray to impair everyone close to her. The second and more captivating plot line revolves around the discovery of a drug, extracted from a mutant called Leech that cures mutants from their irregularities.
This cure leaves the mutant community divided into two groups: those who encourage the mutants to embrace their differences whilst giving them the choice to decide for themselves if they would like to lead a different, more common existence and those who regard the cure to be a new governmental weapon used to force the mutants into an alternative lifestyle that they might not necessary wish to adopt. As a result, the latter group s forces, lead by Magneto (Ian McKellen), decide to wage a war against the government and demolish the source of the cure.
The second plot line presents a thought-provoking argument; would anyone choose to eliminate one s own differences, no matter what those differences are, for a normal, easier living? How far can one s own idiosyncrasies affect his/her social life and would a simple cure magically solve those problems? Why can t most societies come to accept those who don t fundamentally share its traits or blindly accept their questionable norms? The film stirs up such an excellent debate but never cares to discuss it or allow its characters to develop an inner turmoil over this subject.
One of the aspects that struck doubt in my heart about The Last Stand is how the second film ended in a way where all threads of the story came together in a tight, perfectly fitting ending. The main problem of X3 is the absence of character development for the protagonists, whose sole occupation in the new film is acting in ceremonial, figurative roles.
Wolverine is not particularly interesting anymore since his secrets were unraveled in the second film and his character is saved largely by Hugh Jackman s commanding presence. Storm (Halle Berry), who has the power to control weather, is given more space to do nothing more than act as the potential new leader of the X clan. Even Rogue (Anna Paquin), the mutant who uncontrollably destroys anyone she touches, is changed from a young woman with diverse emotional arcs to a jealous, ordinary and boring teenager. Even new characters, fascinating as they are, do not fare well in trying to enrich the story with more depth while weaving new relationships and inner struggles. We see shades of characters like Beast (a hardly recognizable Kelsey Grammer of “Frasier ), the mutants representative in the government and Angel (Ben Foster), the son of a billionaire who has two big white wings, although we re never given any insights into these characters exact motives and they don t seem to function outside the action scenes.
Nevertheless, the film is thoroughly enjoyable. Brett Ratner is not a film auteur like Bryan Singer. He s a classic example of the Hollywood scriber whose resume is composed of movies he was hired to direct rather than projects he created and developed. “X3 lacks Singer s subtlety, profound characterization and those touches of sophistication. What Ratner brings to the final X-Men film, however, is eye-boggling action sequences and flamboyant, over-the-top dark imagery. Three principal characters die during the short course of the film, each one in a stunning, memorable setting that wouldn t definitely disappoint devoted fans of the books. This is Ratner s specialty and he excels in it. His action sequences are immaculately choreographed and he brings a sense of intensity that was missing from the first two films.
X-Men: The Last Stand, is a good yet flawed summer blockbuster that could have been great had it fulfilled the premise of its story and allowed its characters to grow. I enjoyed the film a lot and continued to love the characters despite all the inadequacies of the script.
Film fans will be talking about nothing this week but the winners of the Cannes Film Festival which has just ended. X-Men is, unlike the Cannes films, a movie you will not remember a couple of months from now. The film s main mission though is to entertain and, on that level alone, it succeeds.
X-Men: The Last Stand is now playing at Ramses Hilton, CityStars, Family Cinema, Galaxy, Odeon, El-Salam Concorde, Green Plaza and Amir.
