The third film in the X-Men franchise is the first without Bryan Singer at the helm (he's off making some low key movie about a fella in blue tights) and there were many avid fans initially concerned about his replacement, Rush Hour's Bret Ratner. After the original two X-Men, Spiderman 2 and Batman Begins undertaking wider and darker themes, the naysayers were not convinced that this (some say the last) installment would be of such high quality. X-Men The Last Stand does deliver, but only does so in parts.

Picking up loosely from the plot strands of X-Men 2 (or X-Men United if you prefer), Ratner's tale begins via two, yes two, prologues. The first, set 20 years ago, has Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (the ubiquitous Ian Mackellan) visiting a young and precocious Jean Grey (Famke Jansen). The second, 10 years on, constitutes a brief visit to an ashamed and pubescent Angel (Ben Foster) filing off his wings. Angel's dad is the CEO of a pharmaceutical corporation you see and they have a `cure' for mutation. Cue a difference of opinion between the X-Men's merry bunch of `peace for all' freedom fighters and Magneto's gang of would be neo-terrorists. There is also the return of the believed-to-have-snuffed -it Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix to contend with. Especially as she may be a bit loopy these days.

Ratner's take on X-Men lore is solid in some of the key action sequences, notably the prison break out of Mystique, Magneto's use of The Golden Gate Bridge and the titular showdown. Witness Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Beast open many a can of whup-ass, but Ratner comes across as a kid with a new toy (or more specifically 150 million dollars worth of new toys) in other moments, throwing many `more is more' action sequences up on screen. It's diverting enough sure and does expand admirably on Singer's vision, but Ratner drops the plates he's spinning when it's necessary to invest in emotional response or narrative. Some of you may ask `why is there a need for narrative in a comic film?' But in X-Men there is a hugely intricate amount of back story and, yes, even depth to characters. In this production audiences are introduced to Angel (pretty much a waste of time), Beast (Fanboy favourite, played by Frasier's Kelsey Grammer), Leech (the source of the mutant `cure'), Kitty Pryde (glimpsed in the prequels) Vinnie Jones' Juggernaut and a whole host of (expendable) bad guy mutants. With so many interesting characters vying for screen time, it's perhaps not that surprising when some X-Men fall by the wayside, literally.

Ultimately, in trying too hard to outdo the prequel, Ratner crams in too many new characters never allowing them the space and time to develop. He does have the balls however, to kill off some key players adding some dramatic weight to the `good mutants v's bad mutants v's humans' smack-down (these choices will infuriate just as many as they surprise).

Whether or not this really is the last in the series remains to be seen. Plenty of subtle hints have been dropped by the cast and crew and many a spin off series mooted by those in the know. X-Men The Last Stand is not a misfire by any stretch of the imagination but your left wondering what Bryan Singer would have done with the same material. He, though, has bigger fish to fry.