It was probably a no-win situation from the very start.

Like Nicholas Meyer was a stranger to “Star Trek” before taking on “The Wrath of Khan,” director Bryan Singer had the perspective of an outsider when he decided to take the reigns of “X-Men.” Like Meyer, that status ended up working to Singer’s advantage, the filmmaker bringing freshness and immediacy to the material that someone well-versed in the comic’s history and lore might have lost in their pursuit of reverential perfection.

There was an evolution to Singer’s films, an emotional cascading that got stronger first to second. The director found a way to balance comic book fidelity with dramatic ingenuity while mixing it all up with powerhouse action people going to them couldn’t help but be anxious for. While the first was good, the second was spectacular, Singer crafting a heady broth that thrilled fans, non-fans and critics alike cementing “X2: X-Men United” as one of the great comic-to-film adaptations of out time.

It’s not really a shock that Brett Ratner isn’t a director in Bryan Singer’s league. “Rush Hour” is not “The Usual Suspects” and “Red Dragon” is certainly no “X-Men.” Still, the trailers for “X-Men: The Last Stand” were remarkably promising, and in interview after interview Ratner stressed a distinct wish to follow in the footsteps so assuredly placed in the sand by his predecessor. While I can’t exactly say I had faith, the thought he’d do to this series the same thing Joel Schumacher did to the “Batman” franchise were at least partially quelled.

Now, after watching this third installment, I can say with absolute authority Ratner does not pull a Schumacher. This third, and according to the press notes final, part of the trilogy is a workmanlike thriller made with skill. It has decent spectacle, bits of exciting action and more than few confident performances. There is both visual and topical resonance, the film taking on big ideas and placing them front and center on an even bigger canvas. It is audaciously ambitious, Ratner, along with screenwriters Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, going for broke with a storyline far beyond any attempted in the series up to now.

But whereas Singer was able to handle his own large pallet in “X2” with intelligence and care, Ratner is from the bigger is better school of filmmaking, placing little value on things like coherence and character development. His picture is all about speed, all about the size of the vision, and the cooler the concept the more interesting it is too see it realized onscreen even if doing so takes away from the emotional resonance of what it is the characters are going through. “The Last Stand” is style without the sense, momentum without the energy, “piz” without any of the “zazz.”

There is certainly a good story for the director to tell. Singer left things at the end of the second chapter with Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) sacrificing herself to save the rest of the X-Men. Fans of the comic know what happens next, of course, so it should come as no surprise who it is Scott “Cyclops” Summers (James Marsden) finds alive and breathing at the bottom of Alkali Lake. Soon Jean’s running around the X-mansion as if nothing were amiss. But something is wrong, so wrong it could destroy the fabric of the world, and Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) isn’t at all sure even his massive powers are great enough to stop it.

But this Phoenix’s rising might be the least of Prof. X and his band of X-Men’s problems. An industrialist has discovered a powerful mutant named Leech (Cameron Bright) that renders other mutant’s powerless, and through him he’s synthesized a drug which essentially makes them human. This sparks a debate between mutants that could lead to outright war. For Magneto (Ian McKellan), this supposed “cure” is a prophecy fulfilled, and with Brotherhood of Mutants he’s going to make sure humanity pays dearly for trying to take away what Mother Nature has given them.

The problem isn’t that there is too much going on; the problem is that Ratner doesn’t allow for either subtlety or character amidst all the chaos. He beats his audience over the head with a sledgehammer, the picture constantly hurtling forward at a breakneck pace never once slowing down to flesh out the people at the center of this multifaceted quagmire.

Rogue (Anna Paquin) battling inner demons trying to decide if this cure, finally allowing her to touch, feel and kiss the young man, Bobby “Iceman” Drake (Shawn Ashmore), she thinks she loves, is for her? Unimportant. Prof. X distraught over the potential damage he’s done to Jean’s psyche over the years while trying to protect her from her nearly omnipotent alter ego? Too maudlin. Dr. Hank “Beast” McCoy (a perfectly cast Kelsey Grammer) debating the President (Josef Sommer) on the ramifications of this cure? Trivial. Storm (Halle Berry) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) contemplating having to become leaders of the X-Men and of Xavier’s students when neither thinks they’re ready to lead? Inconsequential.

The only thing mattering to Ratner is getting to the next monumental big budget set piece. Why craft intriguing and heartfelt character moments when you can move the Golden Gate Bridge and have it connect the San Francisco mainland to Alcatraz Island instead? According to this director, that’s all people want, all they come to these movies for. Storm flies, Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) and Wolverine unleash the Fastball Special, Iceman covers himself in his signature frozen shell and Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones) puts his head down and runs through walls, and while all of these are superficially neat finding any sort of resonance or connection to the characters or their plight is virtually impossible to discover thanks to it all.

The fact is, Ratner is such a fan of the comic books he felt compelled to throw in nearly every quirk and idiosyncrasy he was positive fans were clamoring for. Danger Room? Check. Sentinels? Check? Berserker Rage? Check. Angel (an underutilized Ben Foster), Beast and Kitty Pride (a wasted Ellen Page)? Check, check and double check. It is almost like the filmmaker is going over a list, crossing things off as soon as he finds a place to insert them into the picture. There is no passion to any of it, however, no emotional connection that would make it all truly affecting. It their place, only a fanboy’s effervescent glee at bringing all of his deepest, darkest, most heartfelt fantasies to life.

If only that were enough. Characters come and go like the wind, Ratner discarding fan favorites like Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and Cyclops with so little care it’s insulting. Sure he and his writers take a few chances here and there, going so far as to even kill three of comic’s most popular characters. But the director does it all so quickly and with so little subtlety even these momentous events register as only a blip on the cinematic radar instead of the slap to the face that they should been, the tear ducts shockingly dry after each of them takes their supposedly final bow. (For more info on that front, though, make sure to sit through the end credits.)

So maybe it was an impossible situation for Ratner right from the start. While action comes easy for him characters and emotion do not, and having to follow in the footsteps of a filmmaker whose forte both are certainly couldn’t have been easy. I do admit, when I heard the director of “After the Sunset” and “Money Talks” was going to be taking over this franchise, my heart crumbled a bit and I more than feared for the worst. But the worst didn’t happen, this trilogy capper full of thrilling moments of daring-do and superheroic feats worthy of their Marvel heritage.

Still, if this is the end of the line for the X-Men (and let’s hope it isn’t), then the fact that “The Last Stand” isn’t a disaster and is instead only passably okay is still nothing to get overly excited about. It’s nothing more than a hollow victory for Ratner, and for a summer hitting false note after false note this one can be safely added to the growing pile of cinematic disappointments.