The Weekend Blend

By Josh Tyler: 2006-05-26 00:00:00

A lot of the year’s expected number ones have ended up as gigantic flops. Poseidon most recently. But if there was ever a sure bet to make big money, then X-Men: The Last Stand will be it. Maybe The Da Vinci Code can provide some stiff competition in its second week, but the only real question isn’t whether or not Last Stand will be number one, but by how much? Some forecasters are predicting over $100 million for the less than perfect third X-Men movie, but $80 million might be more reasonable. Since it’s the only wide release opening this weekend though, big money should be easy.

But who cares how much Ratner’s ruining of the once great X-Men series makes. Here’s our weekly look at everything, mutant or otherwise, opening this weekend:

5/26 – 5/28

Limited Releases(Opening in fewer than 500 theaters.)

Al Gore’s global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth arrives in four theaters, and is the only non-mutant movie opening this weekend worthy of note. Except I’m not quite sure why he bothered to make it. By all accounts it’s incredibly well done and surprisingly fair, but isn’t this just preaching to the converted? The audiences heading out to see Al Gore talk about global warming are going to be almost entirely composed of people who were already on his side anyway. You’re not going to get a lot of head-in-the-sand, hardline conservatives to show up for it. For on thing, it’s an indie movie and thus only playing in arthouses, and arthouses are usually frequented by gay people. So they’re not going anywhere near it. Also, it’s about global warming, and the folks convinced that there is no global warming don’t really care what you have to say about it, since they won’t believe it anyway, no matter how much blatant evidence you can throw at them. Science? Bah! So why bother making this movie? It’ll accomplish absolutely nothing, no matter how many people see it. Al Gore is no Michael Moore.

X-Men: The Last Stand (Opens in 3,689 theaters.)

It’s the third movie in the great X-Men series, and done by a new director. But the real difference between X3 and the other two X-movies isn’t who directed it or wrote it, but how much time they had to make it. Fox forced Brett Ratner and his team to rush, and it shows in every single frame of the film. X-Men: The Last Stand is by no means a disaster. It could have been, and the mere fact that it isn’t will probably leave a lot of people pretty pleased. But just because it isn’t a complete and utter failure doesn’t mean it’s good either. Fans will remember there was a promise made at the end of X-Men 2, a promise of something spectacular, something even better than the amazing film X2 was. X3 delivers on none of that, and instead saps all the emotion, complexity, and heart right out of the X-Men’s story, all in the name of getting it in theaters faster and giving more screen time to Halle Berry. It’s a shame. This movie could have been something special. Instead, it’s yet another superhero franchise that can’t deliver on a decent third movie. It’ll make a lot of money, and you’ll probably enjoy it. But X-Men: The Last Stand is a tremendous disappointment.

STILL IN THEATERS AND WORTH YOUR TIME: Mission: Impossible III, United 93, Over the Hedge

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