his third installment of the Marvel Comics’ trajectory of the genetically enhanced superheroes follows the comic-book pattern of the other "X-Men" movies to the core: Steamed conversations are trailed by not-quite-subtle explosions, trailed by Halle Berry creating a storm, trailed by Hugh Jackman growing blades from his knuckles, trailed by Famke Janssen killing people by merely thinking about it...

Director Bryan Singer's compassion to the storyline made the first two X-Men movies surprisingly in sync for comic-based summer extravaganzas. Now the series has been handed over to Brett Ratner (replacing Singer who defected to direct "Superman Returns"), who operates on a different M.O.: "Forget subtlety… Blow it up!" While Singer ("The Usual Suspects") was skilled at juggling large casts of multi-dimensional characters, Ratner (who gave us the "Rush Hour" Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker movies) apparently has a thing for large, yet highly unimaginative explosions.

"The Last Stand" - supposedly the end of the first series of X-Men movies - introduces a few new characters - principally the blue-haired monster Beast (a virtually unrecognizable Kelsey Grammer), young Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and the winged mutant Angel (Ben Foster).

The sleek, no-nonsense script (by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn) is filled with surprises, but each development follows the paths created for each character in the earlier movies. Like the previous X-Men, The Last Stand takes place in the near future, wherein the war between humans and mutants that Magneto (Ian McKellen) has threatened from the very beginning finally occurs. The well-staged event that sets off the long-simmering feud is a surprising one: A pharmaceutical company owned by billionaire Warren Worthington II (Michael Murphey) has discovered a serum for the Mutant X gene, which turns regular humans into temperamental, spandex-wrapped superheroes, making the vaccine available to all those mutants who want it.