X-Men: The Last Stand
The happiest news about the third (and final?) "X-Men" movie is actually quite sad: headstones.
Yes, "The Last Stand" brings the lamentable deaths of several major characters. This is a courageous move since it puts the heroes of a mighty summer blockbuster in a rare mortal position. Realism at this time of year? How unorthodox!
Tom Cruise might let Philip Seymour Hoffman smack him around for our entertainment. But is he willing to have the flesh pulled slowly from his bones, as a few folks do here?
Of course, "X-Men" has always been more than a cash-guzzling wham-bang Hollywood franchise. It has built a vast parallel universe around a group of morally uncertain, emotionally scarred wom en and men.
Based on the durable and frequently ingenious Marvel Comics title, these three movies sport philosophy, ideas, a telethon-load of causes, and a highly elastic us-versus-them allegory.
The "us," in this case, is the mutants, those born with superhuman powers. "Them" is the human American government out to exterminate mutants. In ``Last Stand," as ever, the fight for mutant-kind breaks down into two ideological camps: the pacifists and the insurgents, who are led, respectively, by the powerful telepath Professor X (Patrick Stewart), taking up the cause of non violence, and Magneto (Ian McKellen), the bellicose, metal-manipulating Holocaust survivor.
As more than one keen observer has noted, the two adhere to a stormy Martin Luther King-Malcolm X paradigm: two men with opposing means to the same end. Stewart and McKellen perform with tremendous seriousness. But they also bring great affection, tenderness, and familiarity to their dynamic. They could be brothers. They could have been lovers.
Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn wrote the hard - working and intelligent script, that has the Professor and Magneto considering how to deal with their latest affront. A billionaire biotech type (Michael Murphy ) has backed a cure which has been harvested from a little mutant (Cameron Bright ) with the ability to reverse other mutants' powers.
The billionaire has a son, Warren Worthington, whom we see in a horrible flashback trying to saw off the wings growing from his back. Naturally, as an adult, this meek, sensitive, handsome young man (Ben Foster ) is the first victim -- er, candidate -- for his father's reassignment surgery.
But in an exciting moment, he breaks free from the apparatus, his bare chest pushing heavenward, his enormous wings spread. He flies out the window and over Alcatraz (birdman that he is), resembling a liberated Rolls Royce hood ornament. It's not entirely clear where he's headed, but my guess is the nearest production of ``Angels in America."
Otherwise, ``Last Stand" continues where the second film ended: in a funk. Cyclops (James Marsden ) is a teary mess. At the end of the previous installment, `` X2: X-Men United," his ladylove Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) lay dead in a lake, having given her life to save the other X-Men. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine pines for her too. But in ``United," our parting shot appeared to be a bird rippling on the water.
Anyone familiar with the comic knew this was a delicious cliffhanger: Jean Grey would rise again as the unstable Phoenix. And anyone rooting for Janssen to get a chance to do some scintillating acting knew ``Last Stand" would be her moment.
Unfortunately, this latter development is not to be. Jean rises. She destroys. She seduces Wolverine (sadly without discovering whether he's 100-percent adamantium ). She destroys some more. Then she stands around for too much of the film in a state of catatonia, like a babe in a nuclear Robert Palmer video.
Still, you have to hand it to the movie for even going near this Phoenix business. In the comic, the story line called to mind a nutty mix of Freud, Euripides, and Sylvia Plath. ``Last Stand" takes us back to Professor X and Magneto making a house call to the boundlessly powerful young Jean. For her own good, the professor -- like human lithium -- has blocked her dark potential. Now she wants off the drug.
Meanwhile poor Rogue (Anna Paquin), who can't touch another's flesh without causing pain, may get the reassignment shot so she can kiss her boyfriend, Iceman (Shawn Ashmore ), before he runs off with the nice girl (Ellen Page ) who can walk through walls. And Kelsey Grammer , ideally cast as the erudite, furry, Ty-D Bowl blue Beast, is fighting for mutant rights as a member of the president's cabinet.
At a comparatively slender 108 minutes, the movie manages to cram in even more, without producing outrage at the short shrift some characters will get. Frankly, I wanted more Shohreh Aghdashloo , playing some doctor at Worthington labs. And why don't the filmmakers stop fussing with Halle Berry's wig and give Storm a plotline more flattering than glorified den mother?
Despite all the activity, this is uncommonly careful moviemaking, and some credit should go to director Brett Ratner. The man who brought us ``Red Dragon" and those ``Rush Hour" movies came aboard the project after Bryan Singer left the series to launch next month's ``Superman Returns." (That has to make Singer the Johnny Damon of comic-book movies.)
Those terrified that Ratner would bring to ``X-Men" the sort of hackwork that Tim Story foisted upon last summer's ``Fantastic 4" will be pleased to know that he acquits himself nobly.
Some images, such as self-loathing mutants, like Rogue, braving protesters to abort their powers, are solemn and evocative. Meanwhile, the battle sequences, always the least exciting, most obligatory feature of the first two movies, seem to have something at stake -- namely the lives of the characters. My heart goes out to heroes who believe a summer movie is worth dying for.
Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com.
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