X-Men III: The Last Stand: review

Caught X-III at Tiong Bahru’s GV just now w/ Andrew, Adri & LH, and the theatre seems to have been built a little better than the other GV branches. For one, I could slouch and still get an unobstructed view of the movie, so that’s a big plus point from a slacker like me. One major turnoff’s the increased advertisement time though; it’s officially twenty minutes.

This movie’s been receiving a lot of publicity as well, second only to the Da Vinci Code. Add the fact that I haven’t been too impressed with the X-Men movies so far, and I was really bored before the movie started.

This time round I have to admit, the conclusion to the trilogy is pretty solid. The film makes me wonder where the scriptwriter got his ideas from though, since the plot totally deviates from the comic’s storyline. Not too bad though, I must say. And the effects are good, which is part of the mainstay for an action flick like this. In addition, quite a few of the main cast die in the process, which adds further points: no Hollywood all-the-good-guys-live-through ending!

I love tragedies : )

The camera work was pretty good in the first minute or so, as it made you focus on the important bits: the Grey surname on the letterbox, panning on to the impeccable shine of the car, and the two men who got out.

That was about as far as it went though; the appeal factor for the rest of the movie was more to the non-stop action and effects rather than anything else. The cast was decent this time round, though I lament the lack of characters represented: where the hell was Gambit! Most of the fights were carried off by Wolverine, Storm, the Beast, Shadowcat and Iceman this time round; Angel was flying around being eyecandy, Rogue and Cyclops were practically nonexistent.

I liked Wolverine’s quips, very reminiscient of his character as always. Hugh Jackman’s really good in his role; a pity he lacks the raspy snarl that I’ve always thought Logan to have.

And there was one scene where the young Angel was trying to sever his growing wings, now that was slightly gross. Imagine using sawtoothed implements (he had an entire drawerful of them, sick) to hack off a part of your body; no wonder the kid was sobbing in the bathroom as he tried to chop ‘em off. It brings out the desperation in his character to be normal though, quite a good touch.

Conclusion: I was quite impressed with the show, despite my initial misgivings and the short running time (it’s listed as being 104 minutes in the GV site).

One minor incident that happened during the movie was Adri someone using her toes to paw at my leg as if it were a “scratching post”, as LH so aptly put it. I was too engrossed watching to even turn away and tell her off, so I ended up being the objection of mutilation for almost fifteen minutes before she stopped, bah.

Do watch it! (On a weekday that is.)

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This is something I’ve been putting off for a long time; snaps of the M:I:3 souvenir given at the preview the other time. Like I said, a calculator with a pen inside.

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Addendum:

- This thingy called the Combimouse looks like the lovechild of a mouse and a keyboard, but will the consumer market love it? Let’s wait and see.

- Woah, Seagate’s acquiring Maxtor? Good thing, ‘cus I’ve never had a good impression of Maxtor stuff.

- New food review on Handle Bar posted up at the food blog, go check it out : )

- Made an adjustment in the blog layout; the top two posts now display in full instead of excerpt. There people, happy now? No more clicks needed to read the entire post! The bad thing’s 800×600 no longer looks normal, heh.

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Tags: movie

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