Tuesday, June 13, 2006

X-Men: The Last Stand

Got to see this one in the afternoon, after having jury duty in the morning. It was the best kind of jury duty - show up at eight in the morning, watch an instructional video, work on a book of cross sums until you're told at eleven that you won't be needed. And it's Friday! And you've got Monday off because it's a holiday! Awe. Sum!

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon filling out forms and trying to print out a picture so that I could go to the post office and drop money for a passport. The plan's to head back to Montreal for Fantasia this year, since last year was a ton of fun. Having a passport would have streamlined things.

Also: That was one of those days where the weather plays mean tricks on you. I was a sweaty mess by eight o'clock when I got to the courthouse (walking to the other end of Cambridge will do that), changed into shorts when I got back home, really needed the large soda by the time I'd crossed the river and made my way to Fenway... And walked out of the theater into the pouring rain. Real cute, weather gods. Real cute.

X-Men: The Last Stand

* * * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 26 May 2006 at AMC Fenway #13 (first-run)

Considering the continued popularity of the series, I doubt that X-Men: The Last Stand really represents the last of anything, especially considering the rich library of characters filmmakers can choose from should they choose to jettison more expensive pieces. And give them credit for recognizing this - the third X-Men movie certainly plays like they could either walk away or at least play a very different team in #4.

Characters don't necessarily have to die, though. A San Francisco pharmaceutical company has just announced the development of a drug that permanently suppresses expression of the mutant "X-gene" - a cure, so to speak. Mutant terrorist Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his Brotherhood of Mutants consider this an abomination; telepathic Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) doesn't like the idea, but recalls having to place mental blocks in a student to prevent her own powers from going out of control. That former student, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) was presumed dead at the end of the last movie, but she's back, and her hold on sanity is slipping just as Xavier feared.

Read the rest at HBS.

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