X-men : The Last Stand

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed watching X-men – The Last Stand. It was actually better than I’d expected it to be. Having watched the earlier 2 installments, I was curious and more than a little expecting the 3rd (could it possibly be REALLY the last installment) part to be a letdown. After all, not many shows can boast of having their “Part 2” actually being better than their original movie, not to mention “Part 3” or beyond…

Examples are aplenty. Just look at one of my all-time fav – Predator. The original movie boasted the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Bill Duke. It was simply awesome! The action, the blood, the gore, the taglines… simply awesome. Com’on, how many movies has taglines as cool as “I ain’t got no time to bleed!”. And how about “If it bleeds, then we can kill it!”. Enuff said.
Then some silly producers/director decided to rip-off audiences by doinog a silly Part 2. This time, no Arnold, no cool fights, no taglines of note. Only a clumsy looking Danny Glover in a completely unconvincing setup. Hopeless…

Another disappointment – Matrix. It is one of those films which I don’t mind watching again and again and again and again…

Quote 1 :“You think that’s air you’re breathing? Hmmm..”
Quote 2 :“And you are?” – “Smith. A Smith” – “You all look the same to me..”
Quote 3 :“Woah.. I know kung-fu!” – “Show me..”

Classic movie…

Then you look at the part 2 and 3… well, the fight scenes were decent, even arguably good. But the entire movies just didn’t live up to the expectations build up by the first and original part. No where near..

Ok, back to X-men 3.

I liked it because it didn’t really have long periods of boring conversations and lull. Most of the time, the story just hopped along pretty quickly, with one scene (and action!) leading directly to the next. I particularly liked the scene where Prof Xavier and Magneto tried to ‘talk’ to Jeane (aka Phoenix). It was a scene with everything – intense and fast action, suspense (I really didn’t know what would happen next), and even emotions. Kuja sitting beside me was noticeably distressed when Prof Xavier got atomized and I have to agree that the funeral scene that followed was rather moving…

For the sake of the franchise, I do hope this movie IS the last of the series, especially since it ends of a rather nice note – the peaceful co-existence of human and the mutants. And since Prof X is now history, and his old buddy Magneto is another old man playing chess, I think a Part 4 sequel looks fairly unlikely. Still, the last scene, which shows Magneto trying to move a chess piece (which I assume to be made of metal??!?) with his ‘powers’, appears to be a move by the producers to leave a “space”, IN CASE they are hard-up for some quick bucks from the X-men fans again, sometime in the future.