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(While the Scriptural references are certainly not subjective, my commentary may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database Production (US): 20th Century Fox, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Donners' Company, Marvel Enterprises, Ingenious Film Partners Distribution (US): Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Director(s): Brett Ratner Producer(s): Avi Arad, Lee Cleary, Ross Fanger, Kevin Feige, James M. Freitag, David Gorder, Stan Lee, John Palermo, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter Screenplay by: Simon Kinberg, Zak Penn Cinematography/Camera: Philippe Rousselot, Dante Spinotti Music: David Hykes, John Powell Film Editing: Mark Goldblatt, Mark Helfrich, Julia Wong Casting: Heike Brandstatter, Coreen Mayrs, Richard Pagano Production Design: Ed Verreaux Art Direction: Chad S. Frey, Geoff Hubbard, Helen Jarvis, Sandi Tanaka Viewed At: Driftwood Theater 6 X-Men: The Last Stand (X-Men III or X3) begins 20 years in the past with Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Eric Lensherr (Ian McKellen - Magneto). meeting the young Jean Grey (Haley Ramm, later Famke Janssen) for the first time with hopes of her coming to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters that she might learn to better control her power while the implication is that the school will help cure her of the mutantcy. At her parent's house, Jean demonstrates mutant powers that promise to exceed even Magneto's powers. As a teen she lifts objects throughout the neighborhood such as cars and lawn mowers and even causes a garden hose stream to flow upward. This intro material sets the stage for the theme of this X-Men: The Last Stand. Though it is called the last stand, the final scene hints of more. If there are and more X-Men movies, don't look for Xavier in them. Or Jean Grey. Throughout this film is a theme of "curing" mutantcy and the attempts of the mutants to fight the cure and be accepted for who they are. This film touches matters of ethics and race with an undercurrent of matters of preference (and all that term implies nowadays). There is really not that much plot or story but a ton of dazzling CGI action cramped by rushing through too short screen times of key players. If you have not seen X or X2 (or read the comic books) you won't know the characters. Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) is just as undressed in X3 as the other Xs only more often in this X than the other two Xs. [**] "This X?" Maybe "X" would be more befitting of a rating for this film than the PG-13 the MPAA gave it. I wouldn't know whether the final score of 21 of this film is equivalent to the content NC-17/X films. We don't do NC-17/X. And won't. So I have no idea what the scoring range for NC-17/X might be. Nor do I care to know. I do know however that the final score makes this film fully equivalent in content to most R-rated films (see R-13). At least there can be no argument now about Raven Darkholme, a.k.a., Mystique, who was fully dressed in a full-length gown in the original X-Men comics, being nude in the X-Men films since - SPOILER - in this X installment she loses her powers and as her powers fade she becomes a nude woman. Fully nude. All for your 13 year old kids, mom/dad. The original Mystique fully dressed? This Mystique nude? Now there is another indication of the decay of morality in entertainment. Worthington Laboratories, owned by Warren Worthington II (Michael Murphy) whose son, Warren Worthington III (Ben Foster) is a mutant (Angel), develop a cure for mutantcy. For those who want to be cured anyway. The same argument continues. Who says being a mutant is a disease? Who says mutants are dangerous? Well, Magneto and his band of merry mutants answer that latter question in no uncertain terms. Two factions battle for domination of the mutant "race." First is Xavier's "good guy" mutants who are trying to stop the war that is developing between those who want all mutants to register or to "cure" them and Magneto's "bad guy" mutants who are proceeding to wage the war. Both groups want the same thing -- to live their lives in peace but Magneto has an anarchical way of reaching for peace. The core cast of the first two Xs is there: Xavier; James "Logan/Wolverine" Howlett (Hugh Jackman); Dr. Jean Grey; Bobby "Iceman" Drake (Shawn Ashmore); Scott "Cyclops" Summers (James Marsden) for a short time anyway; Marie "Rogue" D'Ancanto (Anna Paquin) and a couple others. New to the "good guy" mutants includes Dr. Hank McCoy, a.k.a., Beast (Kelsey Grammer) who is the Secretary of Mutant Affairs for the US. Department of Mutant Affairs. Among the new "bad guy" mutants are Dr. Jean Grey (I'll not explain how a "good guy" mutant is also a "bad guy" mutant); Cain "Juggernaut" Marko (Vinnie Jones); James Arthur "Multiple Man" Madrox (Eric Dane); Callisto (Dania Ramirez) and others of some rather creative ingenuity on the part of Stan Lee. By the way, Stan Lee plays the waterhose man in the intro material. One of the "bad guy" mutants, I can't remember which, is a human porcupine with quills protruding out of his body at will. He murders a woman with his quills by hugging her. CGI is quite dazzling in this third X. Magneto disconnects a few hundred feet of the Golden Gate Bridge and with it spans the waters between San Francisco and Alcatraz Island where the Worthington Labs are based. The battle on the Alcatraz Island is beyond description. CGI is so effective that one might almost believe the mutants were real had the powers portrayed. The mutantcy cure, developed by Worthington Labs, changes a mutant back to a human which, in my opinion, is a misnomer on the part of the writers since the mutants are humans. While Xavier and Magneto are vicious enemies, Xavier and his entourage and Magneto and his band of merry mutants regard the cure as poison. They claim mutantcy is not a disease and that mutants are here to stay. They wish to stay the way they are since, though a small percentage of the total population, they were born that way; since being a mutant is not a choice: that they who want to "cure" the mutants are full of hatred and intolerance of those who are not like them. Even the ending suggests that "they cannot change who they are" (as if what we choose to do is who we are). I have used a couple expressions popularized by homosexuality protagonists for a purpose. Those of us who watch the show who have been monitoring/studying the movement of the homosexual agenda, especially in public schools, will hear several such expressions in X3. Not as many as in X2 but they are there nonetheless. That makes sense since at least one of the quintessential thespians - the as-talented-as-ever Sir Ian McKellan - by his own admission is a practitioner of homosexuality as is claimed by Allan Cummings (Nightcrawler) of X2. A note on God's view of sexual practices. God created us as sexual beings, reserving intimacy for the married man and woman pair. God gives us many admonishments against sexual immorality, too many to list here and still keep this report under book-size. God's many admonishments against sexual immorality may be summed up as any sexual contact (including visual), conduct or activity outside of a monogamous heterosexual marriage is immoral. But note deeply that each of us who chooses to practice such activities is as precious to Jesus as you and I. No exceptions. No debate. It is some of our chosen behaviors He hates. And, yes, sexual practices of any kind are choices. Every single non-autonomic movement of the human body is a choice. No exceptions. No debate. Note that there is supposed to be a post-credit segment of about 20 seconds for which I did not stay and thus is not part of this analysis report. I will try to return to the theater soon to watch it and retrofit this report with what is found.
As promised, following is a comparative of the three X films.  This is the standard comparative format we've used many times, Figures 1, 2 and 3 are the CAP Thermometers for each of the three X-Men films. However, this comparative adds two special relationships, that of the Scoring Decay (Figure 4) and the Influence Density Increase (Figure 5) from X to X3. Though all three X-Men films are rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the first X-Men is the only one that truly belongs in the PG-13 range and then only barely, just two points above the R scoring range of 54 and below out of 100. The two graphs as Figures 4 and 5 are simply to help visualize the decay of morality over the 6-year span of X-Men films. [Ps. 12:8] Of those two graphs, the Scoring Decay graph (Figure 4) shows the degradation of the scores of the span of the three films. The Influence Density Increase graph (Figure 5) shows how much the negative influence has increased. The shaded areas in Figures 4 and 5 indicate the respective range of the R domain. For the Scoring Decay graph, the R domain is 54 and below out of 100 (the lower the score the more the assaults on morality and decency). For the Influence Density graph the R domain is 0.78 and above (the higher the value the more intense the influence). While the final score for the first X-Men film (56) falls barely above the R domain, both of the newer and "more modern" X-Men films earned final scores well into the R domain. Further, all three films earned an influence density fully within the R domain. If there is an X4, probability requires that its final score and influence density will fall on the question marks. Eat your heart out, Harvard (see Harvard Agrees with Us). You told us you revealed the "ratings creep." Not only did we reveal the "ratings creep" four years before you, we can tell folks how much and where plus the relative position and movement of morality in popular entertainment. And we did it with the Word of God. The assaults on morality and decency in X-Men: The Last Stand are many and are often extreme. So much so that each of the Wanton Violence/Crime (W), Sexual Immorality (S), Offense to God (O) and the Murder/Suicide (M) investigation areas found enough programming to cause the loss of all starting 100 points in each of these four investigation areas. Wanton Violence/Crime found assaults such as a child in self-mutilation, "kill me!", long and graphic battle sequences, severe impalement scenes, many killings and body decimation gore. Sexual Immorality found much nudity [**], activities in prelude to intercourse, making out frenzy, even a vulgarity by a child and other matters of the sexually immoral nature [1Ths. 4:1-5]. Offense to God found many portrayals of the use of unnatural/unholy power akin to witchcraft and sorcery to kill, control others and manipulate things [Deut. 18:10, 2Chr. 33:6]. And Murder/Suicide found several deaths by murder, most often by using unholy powers such as incineration and impalement [Rev. 21:8]. The Impudence/Hate (I) investigation area found enough assaults on morality and ethics to lose more than half of the starting 100 points, mostly due to foul language [Prov. 22:11] and adolescent false autonomy [1 Peter 5:5]. The Drugs/Alcohol (D) investigation area was the least offensive to morality and decency and lost only 17 of the starting 100 points. Please take the time to inspect closely the listing of observations in the Findings/Scoring section before you decide whether this R-13 film is fit for your family. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. CHAPTER/VERSE ** "Nakedness" (display of nudity) is spoken of as dark, restricted, undesirable, shameful, etc. 47 times in the KJV from Genesis to Revelation. ***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry*** As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
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 Wanton Violence/Crime (W) Impudence/Hate (I) Sexual Immorality (S) Drugs/Alcohol (D): Offense to God (O) Murder/Suicide (M) |
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| There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our more than eight years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
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