It's really a shame that we the viewers have grown so accustomed to CG effects that we're unable to tell the real stunts from the digital any more. Luckily there are still behind the scenes features such as these (not to mention the occasional bootlegged work-print). You see a mere fifteen seconds into this 20 minute documentary, we see Hugh Jackman, complete with his Wolverine flattop and claws, performing an actual honest to goodness back flip suspended on wires that starts way up in a tree, sees him land on his feet and start to duke it out with some of Magneto's patch of scruffy scumbags (as Patrick Stewart calls them a little later on). Jackman is doing it all for real, however when you see it split into two different shots in the finished film, no matter how impressive it looks, people will think it's been digitally enhanced (and by that I mean more than just some wire erasing).
Executive producer Kevin Feige says that three years after X2, they simply couldn't have waited any longer to make X-3 the Last Stand, or there would have been riots in the streets. Brett Ratner is gushing about working with some of the greatest actors and most beautiful actresses in the world. Unfortunately he's unable to pronounce Famke Janssen's first name correctly. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner praises Brett for making it more dramatic, and 'personally complicated' than before. Producer Ralph Winter says he's got a different sort of energy than Bryan Singer. Brett for his part praises Singers work all the way and in doing so kind of belittles his own direction. It also doesn't help that we see him wearing a Superman T-shirt in on set footage. Writer Simon Kinberg (recognizable by the headphones round his neck) says Brett has no ego, he's not the king of the movie because this is not an empire. Of course being a writer he should know a kingdom is not an empire either.
Comic book creators Stan Lee and Chris Claremont, who both cameo in the opening sequence of the film also get a word in, while Hugh Jackman uses more big words than Hank McCoy to describe the 'mutant cure' plot of the film. Just like the mutants in the film all have a different opinion about the cure, so do the actors. Ian McKellen for instance think's its a horrible concept to cure somebody. Kinberg gets in another couple of bold claims as he talks about sculpting the character arcs and that a hero has never ever turned bad in a movie before the way Jean Grey does. Tree jumper Hughie then throws another couple of logs on the fire by saying Wolverine has to make his toughest choice ever in this movie. Maybe even the hardest movie choice ever written for a movie of this kind. To top it all off, the music from the score goes absolutely crazy in the background. They could have toned down the dramatics a tad in this reviewers opinion.
Luckily things wind down a bit during the next segment that is devoted to the new mutant characters in the film: Kelsey Grammar as Beast, Ben foster as Angel and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut (or 'Juggie' as he calls him). Producer Avi Arad (there sure are a lot of different producers on this film) says Vinnie doesn't need the Juggernaut outfit to look scary (but both Grammar and Jones clearly enjoyed wearing their padded muscle suits). Ben Foster mentions he got bird-bumps (or maybe angel bumps) when he looked at himself in the mirror all decked out with Angel's wings and writer Zak Penn thinks that Angel couldn't have been realized as successfully in either of the first two parts simply because the technology wasn't there.
As usual with these sort of documentaries, everybody becomes a bit philosophical near the end. Stewart begins to talk about not dismissing the philosophical aspect, the strange or alien scene (something he obviously knows a lot about) and James Marsden is seen without his Cyclops glasses for a snippet that for this twenty minuter is just about proportional to his screen time in the film. End it all with a montage of action scenes, a quote by Wolverine and those silly sliding X-doors that open all three movies and resemble a DVD menu. On to the next documentary on disc 2.
7 out of 10
Executive producer Kevin Feige says that three years after X2, they simply couldn't have waited any longer to make X-3 the Last Stand, or there would have been riots in the streets. Brett Ratner is gushing about working with some of the greatest actors and most beautiful actresses in the world. Unfortunately he's unable to pronounce Famke Janssen's first name correctly. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner praises Brett for making it more dramatic, and 'personally complicated' than before. Producer Ralph Winter says he's got a different sort of energy than Bryan Singer. Brett for his part praises Singers work all the way and in doing so kind of belittles his own direction. It also doesn't help that we see him wearing a Superman T-shirt in on set footage. Writer Simon Kinberg (recognizable by the headphones round his neck) says Brett has no ego, he's not the king of the movie because this is not an empire. Of course being a writer he should know a kingdom is not an empire either.
Comic book creators Stan Lee and Chris Claremont, who both cameo in the opening sequence of the film also get a word in, while Hugh Jackman uses more big words than Hank McCoy to describe the 'mutant cure' plot of the film. Just like the mutants in the film all have a different opinion about the cure, so do the actors. Ian McKellen for instance think's its a horrible concept to cure somebody. Kinberg gets in another couple of bold claims as he talks about sculpting the character arcs and that a hero has never ever turned bad in a movie before the way Jean Grey does. Tree jumper Hughie then throws another couple of logs on the fire by saying Wolverine has to make his toughest choice ever in this movie. Maybe even the hardest movie choice ever written for a movie of this kind. To top it all off, the music from the score goes absolutely crazy in the background. They could have toned down the dramatics a tad in this reviewers opinion.
Luckily things wind down a bit during the next segment that is devoted to the new mutant characters in the film: Kelsey Grammar as Beast, Ben foster as Angel and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut (or 'Juggie' as he calls him). Producer Avi Arad (there sure are a lot of different producers on this film) says Vinnie doesn't need the Juggernaut outfit to look scary (but both Grammar and Jones clearly enjoyed wearing their padded muscle suits). Ben Foster mentions he got bird-bumps (or maybe angel bumps) when he looked at himself in the mirror all decked out with Angel's wings and writer Zak Penn thinks that Angel couldn't have been realized as successfully in either of the first two parts simply because the technology wasn't there.
As usual with these sort of documentaries, everybody becomes a bit philosophical near the end. Stewart begins to talk about not dismissing the philosophical aspect, the strange or alien scene (something he obviously knows a lot about) and James Marsden is seen without his Cyclops glasses for a snippet that for this twenty minuter is just about proportional to his screen time in the film. End it all with a montage of action scenes, a quote by Wolverine and those silly sliding X-doors that open all three movies and resemble a DVD menu. On to the next documentary on disc 2.
7 out of 10
