X-Men: The Last Stand -- 2006 -- PG-13

In any film, there should be significant change among the characters or situations. This is a trap a lot of franchise films run into is that they're afraid to mix up the status quo. This film is not one of those status quo films. Not only do things get mixed up, but it's done dramatically and visually.

This time, a "cure" for the mutant X-gene is discovered and this cure is being distributed among the mutant popultion, if they want it. The source, ironically, is a mutant whose power is to actually strip the power of any mutant in his immediate vicinity, making that person temporarily "normal." Well, this whole cure thing causes waves among the mutant populace where some are ok with it, some will let others have it if they want, and others unite against the very idea, knowing that the government will use this cure against them at some point.

Add to this a character who is considered a Class 5 mutant, which is apparently the best of the best. This character had supposedly died in the recent past, but it is quickly discovered they survived the ordeal that should have killed them. But with this survival comes the arrival of powers that were believed to be dormant, and with these powers, terrible things are possible, and terrible things happen. This temporary sidetrack from the main story seemed extraneous for awhile, but it finally folded into the main storyline becoming a fairly interesting piece of it, while not fully integrating until the end...and what an ending. Couldn't have worked out any other way.

The biggest piece of these X-Men films is the special effects. This one maxes out the effects to some things we haven't seen in previous films. People disintegrate. A house is ripped from its foundations and floats in the air. The final battle at the research facility at the end is nothing short of wow with all kinds of stuff going everywhere. We also have more mutants than we've seen before, and each one of them has something unique, also achieved through effects.

One weakness in here is actually the variety of mutants. I don't know if this has struck anyone before, but if this X-gene is a human mutation, why is it that no two people share the same power? Wouldn't it stand to reason that eventually, more than one person could manipulate metal, control the weather, create fire or ice, or be super-psychic? Some of the mutations were just a little ridiculous, case in point being the guy whose body manufactures...um...cones? Horns? I don't know what they were, but his body was spitting them out. I get a lot of the powers and could accept them as some kind of mutation, but what purpose is this whole horn thing in the food chain? It was silly.

The character development in this installment remained as strong as the prior films for the primary characters. Some of the secondary ones got some moments, but only enough so we could ID them the next time we saw them or get some of their relationships with the other characters. It didn't really hurt my overall enjoyment of the film, which played out perfectly.

I think being a third film in a franchise, there's potential to lose focus and create a piece of schlock trash, but instead, we maintain the strengths the series has been building on through the first two films and end in such a way that it could end well where it is, or they could continue it onward without any problems at all. Change is good, but in a movie, it's essential, and we got loads of it here without a lot of gratuitous FX. Very well done.