the last stand, indeed

If we can expect a sequel after the funeral pyre that was X-Men: The Last Stand, it can be considered a turning point for the series. Similar to what happened to Batman with Batman Forever, the previous two films by the same director had successfully established a universe (despite its liberties with the comic books), created characters out of familiar icons and weaved an adequate storyline that can be enjoyed by comic purists and casual moviegoers alike. With the third installment, we have a new director who clearly wanted to make his mark on the series and added his own "creative vision" to the franchise. The work had already been done for him up to this point, and yet coming on to a project of such popularity and magnitude would probably feel overwhelming for someone still trying to make a name for themselves. Joel Schumacher at least had a track record before picking up the Batman franchise with Batman Forever. He selected two popular actors at the time to play the villains (to this day I have no idea why each Batman film requires two villains - at least Batman Begins handled this tactfully) threw a few cans of neon paint at Tim Burton's world of perpetual darkness and called it a day. Three Batman actors and two directors later, the series seems to be back on track after the serious, grounded-in-reality Batman Begins.

Assuming the X-Men can continue their momentum after the latest installment, can we presume the same treatment of the series?

The reasons are obvious for directorial duties changing hands – Singer took the offer to work on Superman Returns (ironically, it was originally Brett Ratner's project). The change in the tone and pacing of the film from its predecessors is immediately noticeable. Ratner does the origin of Jean Grey and introduces a completely new character in the first 10 minutes of the film in scenes that are completely unrelated. These two characters, who we are led to believe are important through these flashbacks, are only touched upon in the movie that follows. While Jean Grey is a key figure in the story, the reasons behind her apparent madness are never fully explored. She merely became another one of Magneto's hired hands, despite her ability to annihilate the entire universe. I kept waiting for her to spread her flaming wings and actually destroy something, but instead we were treated to the killing of Professor X in an anticlimactic scene that only results in the destruction of her childhood home. In a story arc that is widely accepted as a classic, and absolutely brimming with material, the Dark Phoenix Saga was largely ignored in favour of explaining Jean's newfound powers as some kind of psychological problem.

Angel was one of the original members of the X-Men team, and yet he was relegated to the role of pouty benefactor to his father's estate. His father being the man who invented a "cure" for the mutant gene and the premise behind the conflict for the film. Angel was infuriatingly underused, because with such an obvious mutation he could have significantly benefited the mutant cause given his position in society. It would have dovetailed nicely with Beast's post in the U.S. Government as liaison for Mutant Affairs. Instead, we are given an eye-rolling scene at the end where Angel swoops down to save his father, who in only a few scenes earlier had insisted he be injected with the so-called cure.

To this end, the series has come full circle: in first chapter Magneto finds a way to turn everyone into mutants; in The Last Stand an antidote has been created to make all mutants "normal". Rogue was used as a catalyst for Magneto's assault on Ellis Island; I found it strange that her inner conflict to take the cure was not at the forefront of this installment in the series. Up to this point the relationship between Rogue and Iceman was certainly strained – and yet we have a drawn out scene where Iceman takes Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat ice skating? The priorities are all wrong.

Character development was never really a strong point of the first two films, and introducing so many new mutant characters in this chapter simply exacerbated this shortcoming. The romance between Wolverine and Jean Grey felt forced. Pyro was limited to snivelling sidekick, and Juggernaut is not intimidating at all in his lycra pants and bondage costume. What's worse are this character's attempts at comic relief that defuse every scene. Surely someone told Vinnie Jones he wasn't on the set of another Guy Ritchie film!

I wasn't particularly impressed with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, either. Considering the power and profile of the mutants to join the ranks within the comic books, the mutants that joined Magneto's cause in the film seemed too much of a ragtag bunch to ever be deemed threatening. I also noticed that the "evil" mutants were mostly of ethnic decent. Even Magneto – a survivor of the Holocaust – was sure to play up his heritage. It just felt cheap, as if Magneto had no other reason to fight against the mutant oppression. It made the subsequent stand off between six X-Men and Magneto's mob of Brotherhood mutants that visibly outnumber them seem all the more absurd.

Magneto's displacement of the Golden Gate Bridge was probably the best scene in the movie - if only because it was such a brazen act of mutant chest-thumping when he could have just as easily stolen a boat. Still, with this dramatic entrance (complete with an instantaneous change from daylight to darkness), there seemed to be an unconcerted effort to attack the lab at Alcatraz. If the cure was such a crime to mutants, how could Magneto simply stand by and watch his obviously unprepared army be cut down ruthlessly? Surely the entire site was covered in manipulatable metal! Though I suppose it was more effective to watch Magneto and Pyro launch flaming cars at the X-Men and the U.S. Army (who I’m sure were extra careful not to shoot any of the "good" mutants in the face of such adversity).

The short length of the film further exaggerated its many problems. It was as if Ratner was afraid of boring the audience with explanations. The film felt like it was a series of action setpieces loosely strung together on the premise that a cure for the mutant gene would be reason enough for the actors on screen to be fighting. After two strong entries audiences have come to expect more from the series. After killing off a total of three characters, it was clear Ratner and screenwriters Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg wanted to leave their mark, but copped out at the last minute with Magneto's little chess trick and Professor X "waking up" after the credits (I knew that body without a mind would serve a purpose). This basically tells us that the cure may not be one at all, and the battle that just took place was of no consequence.

X-Men: The Last Stand was disappointing not because it was a bad film. Ignoring the plot points, if the same approach was taken for the first film in the series I doubt it would have received the same acclaim and even reached the point of two sequels. Rather, I was disappointed that what started off as a deftly orchestrated take on one of Marvel's longest running and most popular series was essentially squandered on a director playing with mutant action figures. There is no substance to this spectacle; it only confirms the suspicions that there will be another sequel, with the events of its precursor reduced to mere inconveniences for the cast of characters.