X-Men: the Last Stand Review

Director: Brett Ratner

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen and Ian McKellen

Original Release Date: May 26^th 2006

Based on the characters created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

*NOTE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS*

X-Men: The Last Stand was originally supposed to be the final instalment in the X-Men Franchise. All roads were leading to this film, this one moment, the climactic final battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants and the rise of the Dark Phoenix. After the teasing end from X2, fans eagerly awaited the next chapter in the X-Men series. Unfortunately director Bryan Singer could not return for the third chapter, Singer was busy filming Superman Returns with Warner Brothers, so directorial duties went to Singers friend Brett Ratner, this of course did not bode well with fans. Ratner was coming into a franchise that had already been cared for by Singer, in fact even David Hayter didn't return to write the script, so X-Men the Last Stand felt extremely different from its two predecessors. Since the day it came out X-Men the Last Stand has been a subject of debate, others like it, others just hate it. The Last Stand is considered by most to be the beginning of the downfall for the X-Men Franchise. Of course it’s not as bad as the next film I'm going to talk about, so let’s just focus on the film at hand here.

The Last Stand takes place a few months after X2. The X-Men team is still suffering from the death of Jean Grey. Cyclops has secluded himself from almost everyone and has left his Mutant brothers in the dust. Logan has decided to stay at the X Mansion, taking care of students and bringing up the next generation of X-Men with Storm.  However all of this is brought to a screeching halt when a pharmaceutical company develops a Mutant “cure”, a serum that suppresses Mutant abilities. This development causes a schism in the Mutant community, many in support for the cure, while others find it to be an insult to Mutant kind. Magneto uses this as the perfect opportunity to finally wage his final war against mankind. The X-Men are forced to once again fight the Brotherhood of Mutants, who have gathered an army  to take down Humanity, but all of this is nothing compared to the return of Jean Grey, who has transformed into the powerful Dark Phoenix. The X-Men must fight against the Brotherhood and try to suppress Jean Greys terrifying abilities before she loses control.

Personally I like this movie, I always did. Yes, it has its problems but it is not the steaming pile of crap that people make it out to be. The plot is pretty bland compared to what was served in X2, but the Last Stand is still a fun ride and was meant to be the final chapter of a trilogy, hence why it hardly feels like it has no plot. That is because one has to view the original X-Men  trilogy  as one long movie, with the Last Stand being the climax, and boy what a climax does it have. Even if you didn't particularly like the movie, the final battle at Alcatraz is simply stunning, never had there been this many super powered characters on screen before. They really went all out in providing us a war against the X-Men and the Brotherhood.

Most of the actors do fine in their roles, however most of the returning cast just feel like they are going through the motions in this outing with the X-Men. Hugh Jackman is always amazing as Wolverine, and he is given some emotional moments in this movie, but because the plot is really thin, there isn't any reason to feel the hardships that he has to endure in the movie.  Ian McKellen is magnetic as always as Magneto, but this movie really makes it hard for us to sympathize with him.  For a man who had to endure World War II you would think that he would see that he has transformed into a super powered Hitler, with lines like “We are the Cure!” and his many propaganda speeches, they make the similarities a little to noticeable.  Famke Janssen is great as Jean Grey/ Dark Phoenix, the seeds of her eventual turn to evil were planted in the very first movie, and this gives her character a pretty great overall arc in the original trilogy.  She plays the darkness inside Jean very well, it is just a shame that the Dark Phoenix story was butchered the way it was.

Patrick Stewart does return as Xavier and he is great as ever, however he is hardly in the movie at all, along with other fan favourites like Mystique and Rogue, they are given hardly any screen time and nothing to work with. If Cyclops fans were disappointed with his involvement in the past two films than they will be furious with how he is treated in this. During principle photography for the Last Stand, Superman Returns was already being filmed. Singer had brought on James Marsden for the picture so his involvement in the Last Stand was forced to be minimal at least. However what they did with him will be mentioned later on in this review, but for now we have to go through the many new additions to the cast and there is many.

This in itself is one of the many problems with the Last Stand. X-Men and X2 were able to weave a story with all these characters without making it feel crammed. The Last Stand just doesn't know how to juggle its characters, and as a result we are given a slew of new Mutants (on both sides) who are given hardly anything to work with. For the X-Men we have Hank McCoy/ Beast played by Kelsey Grammer. Grammer is actually a really good Beast, and out of all of the newer characters introduced into the film he is given the most development and the most screen time. Pre-Juno Ellen Page plays Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, and Daniel Cudmore who had a cameo in X2 returns as Colossus. We also have Ben Foster as Angel who is only in the movie as a flying plot device. Shawn Ashmore as Iceman and we also have Cameron Bright-who honestly was in everything at the time- as Leech, who is the source of the cure, oh, and I almost forgot there is an unnecessary cameo from Jubilee (Kea Wong).

If you think the good guys have a huge cast, wait till you see how many Mutants there are in the Brotherhood. There is a huge amount, and hardly any of them are given anything to do, and it was all at the expense of Mystique’s involvement in the film. We have Aaron Stanford as Pyro, Vinnie Jones as Clint Marko /the Juggernaut. Callisto (Dania Ramirez), Multiple Man (Eric Dane), Psylocke (Mei Melancon), Arclight (Omahyra), Kid Omega (Ken Leung) the list goes on and on, and that isn't even covering that we also have Magneto, Mystique and Dark Phoenix in there as well. People talking about Spider-Man 3 being crammed need to go home, because this movie is just filled with unnecessary characters that serve hardly any relevance to the plot.

Now, because this was the final film in the series, the writers decided that the stakes had to be higher and that this was going to be a huge film that would impact fans across the board and what was it that they did you may ask? They killed off key characters for no other purpose than for “reasons”. The death list in this film is ridiculous when you consider who dies; Cyclops is in the movie for five minutes before having the life sucked out of him (literally) by Dark Phoenix. Xavier bites the dust as well when he tries to confront Jean and tries to make her see the light. Yes, you can argue that there is the post credit scene in the movie, but back then no one knew to stay around after the credits, and people now were literally confused with the post credit sequence in the Wolverine. The way they bring him back is also so half-assed that it’s laughable and hardly makes any sense, even with the incredible circumstances in the film. Mystique might as well have been killed because she is basically neutered by the cure and left for dead my Magneto, same goes for Rogue. It goes without saying that the fate of many of these character were completely unwarranted and only occurred because the plot "demanded" it. Killing of characters is a good thing, however it is only good when done effectively, Cyclops was only killed because the writers needed a reason why James Marsden was hardly in the film due to Superman. Xavier was basically killed for shock value only to be resurrected at the end of the movie because of some stupid plot device that is talked about off handedly in the beginning. The writers have even recently said that they didn't have a good time writing the Last Stand. 20^th Century Fox’s involvement forced them to kill of key characters because this was the final X-Men film.

But that isn't even the worst crime that the plot dishes out on the film. The Dark Phoenix Saga is just as iconic as Days of Future Past, Phoenix is one of the X-Men’s most dangerous adversaries and had returned time and time again (even in different hosts) to cause problems. However you would think a plot with this magnitude would be the main narrative of the movie, nope, it’s the secondary plot. Yes, you heard me; one of the most famous X-Men arcs is reduced to a side story. I am pretty sure most fans would have preferred an entire Dark Phoenix movie compared to the controversial war for the "cure". Even then Phoenix is driven back by some of the other plot lines in the film like, Storm becoming the new leader of the X-Men, Rogue wrestling with taking the cure or not, and the unnecessary forced love triangle with Iceman, Rogue, and Kitty Pryde. Even Phoenix’s origin is vastly different from the comics. In the comics, Phoenix is the result of Jean Grey becoming a being of pure thought. In the film Phoenix was always there, but Xavier decides to use his abilities to hold the power back through mental blocks. I guess this just gives Jean multiple personality disorder for some reason? I can kind of live with this because this origin is planted back all the way in the first X-Men movie, it was only in the Last Stand where we given the full story of Phoenix. Looking back at the original trilogy you can see that this was where they were going to take the character from the very beginning. It’s just the way the story is handled in the movie that makes it a major disappointment and I can understand how fans hated the treatment of the story. Famke Janssen is great in the role. It’s just that she’s given nothing to work with; maybe we will see a newer take on the Dark Phoenix Saga in the future.

Although the plot problems weigh the movie down heavily, the best aspect is the score. John Powell’s score in my opinion is the best soundtrack from any of the X-Men films, and is the only one I personally own. Tracks like Dark Phoenix Rises constantly get stuck in my head and lead to some epic and moving tracks, it’s just unfortunate that this soundtrack wasn't in a better movie. I haven’t heard the score yet for Days of Future Past, but as it stands now, the soundtrack for the Last Stand is amazing and is one of the saving graces of the film.

Sure X-Men: The Last Stand isn't a great movie, the plot is very bland making the movie simple mindless fun. It had the potential for becoming a great addition to the X-Men franchise  but it just doesn't reach said potential. Maybe if Singer wasn't directing the flop called Super Man Returns, we would have gotten a better X-Men movie, but as it stands it is passable.

I give X-Men The Last Stand a

6.5/10

Like I said, it’s a passable movie, it was meant to be the finale of the X-Men series. However this movie made a killing at the box office, and regardless of how people felt about it in studio language that means that the franchise is still bankable. So they began producing spin-off’s because there was nowhere else to go, and instead we were given a movie that was even worse than the Last Stand, and I shudder to even think about it.