Twentieth Century Fox Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) sharpens up his tough guy skills in the X-Men "Danger Room." Click photo for larger image. The Interviews Hugh Jackman says he had to dig deep for his inner demons to portray Wolverine.

NEW YORK -- The "X-Men" faithful cried foul seven years ago, when the relatively inexperienced Bryan Singer came aboard as director, and they howled at the moon when the unknown Hugh Jackman, at 6 feet 3 inches, was cast as the 5-foot-3-inch Wolverine.

Two successful films later, all was forgiven and memories of misgivings were wiped clean.

Then Singer jumped ship to helm "Superman Returns" and was replaced by Brett Ratner, and the fan outcry started all over again. Ratner, who began his career as a director of rap videos and went on to the "Rush Hour" movies and "Red Dragon," wasn't even the first choice -- Matthew Vaughn, an even odder pick with only one film ("Layer Cake") to his directorial credit, bailed before filming began.

Unfazed, Ratner stepped in to save the day.

"I'm pretty much a fearless guy. I did it on "Red Dragon," when I stepped into the shoes of Ridley Scott and Jonathan Demme," says the round-cheeked, jovial director, dressed all in black and, on this day, not quite as manic as his stars have described him.

"I called Bryan when I got the movie and I thought he was going to give me advice, like, 'When you work with Magneto, make sure you ...' And he said, 'Don't read [the Web site] Ain't It Cool News. And I was like, 'What?' And he's like, ' 'Cause I read some stuff, and they're saying the exact same stuff they said about me with the first movie.'"

Singer gave his friend Ratner the green light, saying, "I can't wait to see your version of the movie.' "

Ratner, clearly, had a lot of his own ideas to bring to the franchise. But he was mindful of the X-verse established by Singer, revving up the action and emotions without changing the tone.

	Twentieth Century Fox Storm (Halle Berry) guides Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page, left) and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) during an epic battle scene. Click photo for larger image. The Interview Halle Berry discusses the expanded role for her "X-Men" character, Storm, in the third installment of the film series.

Halle Berry and the rest of "The Last Stand" cast give Ratner high marks across the board. Berry, in particular, saw her role expand (See Storm fly! See Storm fight! See Storm take charge!) under the new director. Ratner's own powers to exude energy provided a spark for Berry and Co.

Seated in the same spot where Ratner had held court earlier, Berry's beauty dazzled the small room at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where 11 cast members and their director were promoting the movie for today's opening.

"Did he tell you about the time he put on the Wolverine costume?" she asks, eager to share. "Let me tell you. You know what Hugh looks like? You know what Brett looks like? Imagine that he put on Hugh's [X-Men] costume. It was hysterical. He had on the whole thing -- the hair, the whole thing. And he came out ... at like, 3 o'clock in the morning, when we were all like, can we go home? And we all got just this burst of energy.

"It was one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen."

There was a point when Berry's return to the set seemed in doubt, amid reports that she was demanding more screen time.

"I was threatening that, but I wasn't for real," she says with a laugh, then turns serious.

"My complaining was never about, 'I want to be on screen more.' These movies take a big chunk out of our work year. And I thought, if I'm going to put in the time, then I just want a little more to do than hang around for five months. ... When I am there, I want her to have a point of view. If she talks for five minutes, then let it be five about something. Let her say something. Let her fight more. Let her be involved. So I was happy when I read the script."

Twentieth Century Fox Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) rekindle their long-simmering attraction to one another in the third installemtn of the X-Men trilogy. Click photo for larger image. The Interview Famke Janssen's rises from the dead in this installment of X-Men, as her character Jean Grey assumes a darker role, one that's more cerebral than physical. Her onscreen husband, James Marsden, says he didn't know much about Cyclops when he was cast in the part, but he learned quickly.

Jackman sings the praises of both Singer and Ratner, but coming back for No. 3 was all about the script, he says.

"I love the character," says Jackman, whose Wolverine prequel film is in the works. "And when I read the script, I thought we had the best script of the three. The essential idea is really fantastic. It really cuts to the core of what these movies are about: feeling alienated or different or discriminated against, and if you had the chance to change anything about yourself that you didn't like, would you do it, like that [snaps his fingers], with a pill or a shot? Or do those hurdles and things make you the person you are. Do you stick with it?"

After a year off from filmmaking for his Tony-winning turn as "The Boy From Oz," Jackman had to rediscover his inner Wolverine.

Getting to that dark place takes some effort for Jackman, looking lean but not mean -- never mean.

"As a youngster, I don't think I have it now, but I had a bad temper," he admits. "I was the youngest of five so I had no power. So all of a sudden it would come out.

To find his inner demons today, "I train every morning when I'm doing the role, and really, if you ever saw me in there, you'd be a little frightened and think, that's not Hugh. I turn up Godsmack or Metallica and I'm screaming and yelling and I'm swearing like there's no tomorrow and lifting weights as though I'm at that breaking point, because you have to feel he's at that point, at any point he can snap and go berserk."

	Nels Israelson He's blue, he's fuzzy and Beast benefits from the distinctive voice of Kelsey Grammer, as well. Click photo for larger image. The Interview Kelsey Grammer is new to the "X-Men" series as Beast -- or, as Grammer describes him -- the "Renaissance mutant."

It's not giving away much to say that the apple of Wolverine's eye, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), rises from the dead like the Dark Phoenix she becomes. Her return comes first in a flashback, in which we see her as a child in her first meeting with Xavier and Magneto (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, respectfully, made more youthful by new digital effects).

The scene sets up the development of her monumental powers.

"One of the best things about playing that character for three movies is that all of her powers are cerebral powers," says Janssen, accompanied into the interview room by her onscreen husband, James Marsden (Cyclops), and her ever-present Boston terrier, Licorice. "So by lifting a finger, she can cause mass destruction. So on that front, it didn't take any strenuous exercise ... it's just that emotionally, it was challenging to play this character."

"She's bipolar," jokes Marsden, although that plays to a theme in the film. It seems Professor Xavier has been controlling Jean's behavior for years, a revelation that has ramifications for Wolverine, as well.

"What was different about this movie was not so much the reluctant hero journey that [Wolverine's] been on -- will he be part of the X-Men? He's been very cynical about it all; now he's entrenched in it all," Jackman says.

Moving forward familiar characters and incorporating new ones was one of Ratner's better juggling acts. Among the newbies is Kelsey Grammer as Beast -- "a Renaissance mutant," Grammer calls him.

"I saw him as a pioneer who has an elevated place in society," the former "Frasier" star said of his character, a big, blue fuzzy fellow who acts as a liaison on mutant issues for the government. "Once the cure comes on the scene, he becomes more relevant."

And more personally conflicted. "He can't get by" in public because of his appearance, so he struggles with the news of a cure.

As for taking the leap from small-screen psychiatrist to big-screen action hero, there wasn't much in the way of hesitation. "As actors we go to school and learn to fight. It's fun to finally do it."

Ratner put a lot of thought into which mutants would make the cut and what powers they would have. When he decided to cast Dania Ramirez, a Dominican beauty, he searched for a character with little-known background and came up with tough-girl Callisto. Ramirez originally had come in to audition for the blond, blue-eyed Stacy X, so he went back to the comic books. His attention to detail gets a nod from "X-Men" creator Stan Lee, who has a cameo at the beginning of the film.

		Movie Review 'X-Men: The Last Stand'

An irony of the Singer-Ratner debate is that Ratner was originally attached to "Superman Returns," and he worked on the effects to get that superhero off the ground. With "X-Men," he wound up with super-powered armies, a huge battle scene on the Golden Gate Bridge and mass destruction beyond the scope of either of the previous films.

"I think the preparation I had with 'Superman' is what allowed me to do a movie of this scope. ... The bridge scene is one of the most complex scenes you could shoot. We built a quarter-mile of the bridge in Vancouver. And we built miniatures. There's CG extensions. There's real cars, fake cars, real people, fake people ... it's unbelievable."

The brew of strong emotions and spectacle would seem to be irresistible to fans. Still, everyone involved is saying that this is, indeed, "The Last Stand."

Ratner, deep into work on "Rush Hour 3," said he has accomplished his mission.

"The tone was really set by Bryan. He did a brilliant job of kind of translating the comic book into the cinematic world, and I kind of just stuck with that. ... I wanted to connect the dots."

If this is, indeed, the X-Men's last stand, Ratner has ended it with an exclamation point.