X-men: The Last Stand - 75%

Is this truly the last stand as the title hints? Is this the end of the X-men franchise considering that Bryan Singer has left the project? I'd say judging from the box office performance over its 1st weekend, the dead can rise from its ashes like the pheonix did. Anything is possible with the power of money :)

So what is X-men the last stand about? It is about Phoenix coming back, while Magneto tries to rally the mutants against the Humans .. while the Humans have created an anti-mutant vaccine and finally how all these culminate into an all out battle where tons of characters get killed off. So did I give away too much? Nah ..... think of it as a mutant war brewing and the movie is about how it gets there.

And man ... this one is like a rojak (mess) of X-men all rolled into one. So many mutants out there they try to feature, yet many of them were so fleeting. But they do taste pretty sweet when the scenes are right. One conflict in the movie I really liked was how they dealt with the idea that, if you're given a chance to be less unique an individual than you are, would you? And there really was no straight answer to that question, especially if your "uniqueness" does not contribute a sense of positive reflection upon yourself. For instance, if you could throw fire, you might choose to keep it, but if you couldn't touch anyone at all or you may kill them (including the ones you love), would you give up that lethal "strength" of yours? Too bad it seemed a little underexplored, and it didn't really fully developed its idea. Maybe a part 4 would deal with it more?

Then there're the campy 1-liners .... Why do they wanna dumb down the characters with all these shitty 1-liners? Who wrote those "Batman & Robin"-ish rubbish. They really do detract from an otherwise a really seriously good movie and dragging it into mediocrity territory. Luckily the good things in the movie overwhelmed the potential pitfalls.

So have a good fun time, and enjoy this crazy romp at the theaters. And please wait till the credits finish rolling. ;)