3rd X The Charm?

I really try to refrain from doing movie reviews as I feel that movies and their subsequent reviews are strictly based on personal taste and having nothing to do with quality what so ever.

That being said I will skirt this fine pencil drawn line and discuss X-Men: The Last Stand which I saw 2 nights ago. Let me also say right off the bat a few things--

• I love the X-Men.
• I loved both X-Men & X2 (both directed by Bryan Singer)
• I love Marvel and everything about the Marvel universe.
• I hate DC in every single possible way.
• I hate that fucking bat and that piece of shit in the blue tights and the red cape.

I went into this with little in the expectation department as I was not sure which way the new director, Brett Ratner (After The Sunset, Red Dragon, Rush Hour) would take this franchise in it's (haha) last installment. I really know nothing about Ratner expect for the fact that he has done a few movies of little interest to me and he did a lot more music videos with even less interest to me. I know that he had the formidable task of taking over this franchise after Mr. Singer bolted for the Man of Blue Hosiery.

That being said, some things I liked tremendously about X-Men: The Last Stand (I try not to give away spoilers)--

• It was far more of a "comic book" movie than the first two. It felt more like Spiderman in the sense that they (Marvel and mainly Mr. Ratner) were less inclined to explain every back-story or scientific aspect of the story and just get to the meat of the story.
• Even though major characters died they handled them in a fairly non-sentimental way. It is a comic book for christ sake so skip the crying as we know every character always has a way back in via some way (i.e. Alternate Universe).
• They made Storm (and the toothless one known as Halle Berry) into a real character and played the part to Ms. Berry's strength, meaning less dialogue, more ass kicking and even more black leather/spandex.
• They finally admitted that this was a Hugh Jackman/Wolverine movie and went from there. They stayed away from his past and left that to the upcoming Wolverine movie as it is too big of a topic to just touch on.
• Kelsey Grammer was fantastic in the role of Beast. His speech and gestures were right on with this character. A great surprise this was indeed.
• They involved more characters on both sides (X-Men & Brotherhood). Instead of focusing in on a few characters they touched on more including Shadowcat, Pyro, Iceman, Colossus, Angel, Juggernaut, etc.

The biggest flaw I saw in it was the lighter-weight dialogue/storyline which I think was based on Singer's absence. Honestly I could list some additional flaws I saw in it but again that it is irrelevant. Overall I liked it quite a bit and will purchase it when it comes out on DVD.

God bless Marvel and lets hope Nic Cage can pull off Ghost Rider in a few months as well as Mr. Ratner pulled off X-Men: The Last Stand.