When I was younger, I watched X-Men cartoons and really enjoyed them. I really enjoyed them and the characters and eventually picked up a few of the comic books. I was very happy when I heard that a movie was going to be made and headed off to see X-Men when it came out. I really enjoyed the movie and also went to see X2: X-Men United as well as picking up a few books about the characters. I have been looking forward to seeing X-Men: The Last Stand for a very long time.

X-Men: The Last Stand is the third movie featuring the X-Men who have been in many popular comics over the years. One of the major story arcs for this movie tied in very closely with the second movie. I do think things would make more sense if these movies were watched in order. I will be discussing some things related to this movie that could be spoilers for people who haven’t seen X2: X-Men United yet. The plot things I will be talking about are things that have been shown in the trailers.

Twenty Years Ago

Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr went to visit a young mutant girl, Jean Grey. She had very strong powers and Charles believed that he could help her control them at the school he started for mutants.

Ten Years Ago

A young boy named Warren Worthington III was trying desperately to hide the fact that he was a mutant from his father. Warren Worthington II was devastated when he saw that his son was a mutant.

The Near Future

Storm had taken on more of leadership role around the school because Scott was still grieving for Jean. Charles had even asked Logan to help with some of the teaching. Scott was heaving Jean’s voice and returned to the lake when she had died saving the rest of them and discovered that she was somehow alive. At the same time, Dr. Hank McCoy (Beast), learned that a company owned by Warren Worthington II had developed a cure for the mutant gene. Beast traveled to the school to talk to Charles and Storm about the cure and also met Logan. While they were talking, there was a press conference announcing that the cure would be available to any mutant that wanted to be cured. Magneto, along with his Brotherhood of Evil, believed that the cure would be forced on all mutants. The mutant community was divided on the cure. Some wanted it so they could be normal. Others were insulted that people thought they needed to be cured and wanted no part of it. The most extreme that joined with Magneto and saw a war with humans as the way to deal with the cure.

Charles sent Logan and Storm to the lake after sensing that something was wrong there. They found Jean and took her back to the school. Charles explained that he had created mental blocks years ago to help Jean control her powers and keep the other half of her personality, called Phoenix, from taking over. Logan didn’t like that idea and didn’t believe that Jean would do the things Charles said she was capable of if Phoenix took over. It was quickly clear that Jean wasn’t herself. She displayed great power and ended up joining with Magneto to try to stop the cure.

Anyone going to see the movie should wait for the credits to finish because there is a short, interesting scene shown then that I think raised a very interesting possibility. I think it was well worth sitting through the credits to see.

X-Men: The Last Stand built on what was established for the characters in the first two movies. Throughout X2: X-Men United, there was a lot of foreshadowing that seemed to indicate the third movie would be delving into the story arc of the Phoenix with Jean, a very well known story from the comics that also made it into the cartoon. Anyone that was even remotely familiar with the history of Jean Grey should have picked up on that. I thought that story line would work well in a movie. The Phoenix was included in the movie like I expected, though the background for it was changed. Originally, Jean was taken over by the Phoenix Force, some kind of force from space. For the movie, things were changed to make the Phoenix a second personality of Jean. That did seem to go with the foreshadowing from the last movie and was an easier way to explain the Phoenix to people not already familiar with the story. The Phoenix story line had so much potential that was wasted in this movie. Changing the origins didn’t bother me even though it sounded strange when Charles explained it.

The inclusion of a second major plot just detracted from the Phoenix story. It should have been a powerful story arc that instead just sort of went nowhere. Most of the time, she was just standing around looking depressed. Phoenix did show off some impressive powers, but they weren’t like what I remembered her being able to do. The Phoenix’s appearance did change when she used her powers. It just wasn’t how I expected. Her skin got a veiny look that reminded me of when Willow turned evil in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As I remember it, Phoenix would be engulfed in fire when she used her powers. Fire has always been a part of the Phoenix and was even in the foreshadowing in the last movie in certain scenes with Jean. In this movie, it wasn’t part of the character and that just didn’t seem right. Fire finally started to play a part with the character in one scene late in the movie. Even then, it wasn’t as impressive as it should have been and seemed to be added in as just an after thought. I had expected more from the Dark Phoenix aspect of the plot and ended up disappointed with it. The Phoenix story would have been so much better if it had been the main plot of the movie instead of having to share time with another major story. I do wonder if the fact that Bryan Singer ended up not directing played a part in that. I have read some different stories about why he didn’t direct from him just wanted to do Superman Returns instead to the studio being overly difficult and all but forcing him out. I do think that he had intended to do a third movie that would have focused on the Phoenix because of the foreshadowing he put in the second movie.

The second major plot line of X-Men: The Last Stand dealt with the development of a drug that would suppress the mutant gene. Some people called the drug a cure and said things to indicate that they believed that mutants had a disease that needed treating so they could be normal. I’ve heard that the story came from Astonishing X-Men, a comic series written by Joss Whedon, the man who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly Series , and Serenity . I haven’t read the story and really don’t know much about it so I don’t know how it was changed for the movie. I figure at least some small elements of the story were changed since that usually happens. I did think the idea of a cure for mutants was an interesting idea to be explored. Ever since the beginning of the comics, the mutants have had to deal with people who were afraid of them or just hated them because they were different and not what society considered normal. Prejudice has always played a part in the X-Men in some way and the cure tied in well with that aspect of the characters. Some of the mutants, like Magneto, had always been fighting with humans while others, like Charles, had tried to live peacefully with humans.

Some mutants had adjusted well to their powers and abilities while others had more trouble. Some mutants did seem intrigued by the idea of the cure. Rogue couldn’t touch anyone on the bare skin without harming them as a result of her mutant ability. She has struggled with her ability since it first appeared during her first kiss with a boy. It seemed like she felt isolated even with the other mutants because of her ability. The first two movies had set up her unease with her ability and then once the cure turned up, it was like she took two minutes to make a decision about what she wanted to do. She wasn’t shown struggling with her decision. No mutant was. For mutants that had decided that they wanted the cure, they were really just shown arriving where they could get it. Rogue was the really the only one shown thinking about it, and that just lasted a few minutes. Rogue was almost pointless in this movie. Hank did seem tempted by the idea, perhaps because of his appearance, but that wasn’t explored either. This story line didn’t reach its potential, just like the Phoenix story didn’t. The movie wasn’t long enough to properly deal with two major plots. I think things would have worked better if only one of those stories had been the focus of the movie. I do wonder if it was the studio’s decision to do the cure story and if the Phoenix was only left in because it had already been set up in the second movie.

X-Men: The Last Stand had a lot of unbelievable things going on since it was about superheroes. I wasn’t bothered by that because I fully expected it before seeing the movie. The things that happened wouldn’t really happen, but they were done in a way that was believable. There was no fictional city, which I think did help make things a bit more believable. Some of the characters have very unique looks, like Beast, that were accomplished with makeup. The makeup for Beast was very well done and made the character very believable. Elaborate makeup was also used when Mystique was in her in normal blue form. Some of the characters required special effects of some kind, like when they used their powers usually. I’m fairly sure that Angel’s wings were created with computer effects of some kind. Logan’s fast healing had to be done with effects as well as several of the other things that different mutants were able to do. It seemed clear to me that those things had to be created with effects, though they really didn’t jump out as obviously being effects. All the effects were well done throughout the movie.

It’s normal for movies featuring superheroes to include action and even some violence. X-Men: The Last Stand wasn’t any different in that respect. There was a good battle scene at one point that wasn’t exactly what it seemed to be at first. It was still well done and included some impressive action. As the movie progressed, there was action included in several scenes culminating in a very important scene late in the movie. There were explosions and fire and some characters got hurt. The action did help to keep things interesting. Violence was included in most of the scenes that had action. The violence really wasn’t that graphic, but it could bother some people. I don’t think this is a movie for young children. This movie did seem to be driven more by the action than by the characters like the first two movies. There were also some small bits of humor included throughout the movie, again mostly provided by things that Logan said. I thought it was really funny when he called Beast a furball.

Ever since Logan was introduced as a character in the X-Men comics, he has had feelings for Jean which strained his relationship with Scott. From what I know of the characters, there hasn’t been any question that Jean and Scott loved each other even though they had to face some unique situations in their relationship. Jean loved Scott but did have some feelings for Logan that she wasn’t going to act on. The love triangle has been included in all of the movies, though it was never a major focus of the movies. Logan continued to have feelings for Jean into X-Men: The Last Stand. At one point Jean even seemed to be finally acting in return and they did share a steamy scene. Logan stopped before things, far, believing that Jean wasn’t herself, which quickly proved to be true. There weren’t any actual sex scenes in the movie or nudity, though Logan ended up without his shirt later in the movie. He looks very good without his shirt. The first movie started a bit of a romance between Rogue and Bobby that continued through the second movie and into this one. Bobby and Kitty seemed to be growing closer, and Rogue was feeling like she was losing Bobby and created another triangle. That one never really went anywhere and really didn’t need to be included.

Over the years there have been many characters, both good and evil, involved in story arcs that have become very well known in the X-Men world. Movies have a limited amount of time to tell their stories, which means that many characters will be left out and other things related to the plots will be adjusted or changed in some way to fit the different medium. Some of these characters have been in the X-Men comics for decades now and have very full, elaborate histories. Only a fraction of the characters and stories have been included in the first two movies. There are just too many characters for all of them to be squeezed into a movie. I really liked Nightcrawler in the second movie and was disappointed that he wasn’t back. I had heard about that before the movie came out, so I was prepared for him to be gone. I still missed him and I was rather annoyed that there wasn’t even any explanation for why he was gone. Did he mess up during a teleportation and get stuck in a wall in the mansion? Did he go back to the circus? Did he develop agoraphobia and spend his days having from the rafters in the attic? I just wanted an explanation for why he was missing. It wasn’t a major problem. I just liked the character and would have liked to see him again.

I had heard that many fans were wanting Psylocke to be a character in this movie. I really didn’t know much about that character, but after I picked up some books on the X-Men characters, I did find out a little about her and she did seem like she could make an interesting addition. After seeing the movie, I was wondering where she was. The best I can figure is she was in the group with Magneto which was a little confusing to me because I thought she was an X-Man. elvisdo was kind enough to clue me in to the fact that she’d been an assassin before that, so now it makes a little more sense to me. From what I remember, she was in two or three scenes, really doing nothing. There was no demonstration of any kind of power from her that I saw.

A character called Multiple Man who could make many copies of himself was in a few scenes. He could have done a lot more. There was one mutant that ended up with more to do than several of the other new characters. The best I can figure is he was supposed to be Kid Omega, though Kid Porcupine would have been a more fitting name. So many characters were dumped into the mix of this movie that none of them ended up doing much of anything. That was a huge waste. With Magneto building a mutant army, it was necessary for there to be a lot of mutant characters. The characters were just going to be background characters, so they didn’t need to be identified as well known fan favorite characters who didn’t get to do anything.

I had hoped that Gambit would show up in this movie after his name at least turned up in the second movie. I even saw someone listed as Gambit in the credits for that movie though I still haven’t found him. So I was a little disappointed that Gambit wasn’t introduced yet. Though if he had received the same lousy treatment as several other characters did, it’s probably better that he wasn’t tossed into the mix. As it was, strong characters from the first movies, like Mystique, were left with very little to do. Colossus has now been in two of the movie, but he still hasn’t had much to do. He was shown throwing Wolverine in some battle situations which was cool, but other than that he was just standing around. Colossus was a very strong character who wasn’t utilized. Once again it was all but impossible to find Jubilee. She’s been listed as a character in all three movies and has had, maybe two minutes of screen time over the course of all three movies. I did manage to find her in the first two in her very brief appearances. My best guess is she was one of the students in a short scene when Charles was teaching. Siryn was listed as being in the movie as well. I only remember seeing her in one short shot that lasted less than half a minute.

According to the comics, Charles started his school with a small groups of students at first and then eventually expanded to having many more students. Three of those original characters have been in all three of these movies. Jean and Scott were teaching at the school and part of the X-Men team. In the comics, Bobby (Iceman) was actually a member of that original group. For the movies, Bobby was made a student still learning how to deal with his power. He was barely shown in the first movie but did get a slightly bigger part in the second movie which carried into this movie. Shawn Ashmore was fine in the part. Scott (Cyclops) had a very, very small amount of time in this movie. Since he’s been considered the leader of the X-Men over the years, I was a bit surprised with the way the character was treated in this movie.

The other two original X-Men, Beast and Angel, have been missing from the movies. They both were finally added to X-Men: The Last Stand. Angel did look very impressive when he was flying but he was really only used in a handful of scenes. It was a waste of the character, especially considering the promising scene at the beginning of the movie when he was a child. Ben Foster was able to show off his impressive muscles in a few scenes. It is too bad he didn’t get more to do after the impressive performance he gave in Hostage as a very twisted character. Beast did have a decent amount of time in the movie and I was happy with the character and the way Kelsey Grammer played him even though I did wonder on the casting at first. Once I thought about it more, and considered the type of character Beast was on the inside, Grammer made perfect sense. Beast looked like an animal, but he was really highly intelligent and educated with a kind and gentle soul under all the blue fur. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t hold his one in a fight. Grammer has played a very similar, though somewhat more neurotic character for years with Frasier Crane. Frasier probably couldn’t hold his own in a fight though.

Charles ended up with not much to do yet again. That has been a big problem throughout the series for me. Charles is a very important main character, and he’s spent the movies in a coma, or some sort of trance or something. Things seemed to be looking up with the first scene showing when Charles and Eric were still friends and working together to get young mutants to go to the school. I really liked seeing Charles walk and seeing the interaction with Eric. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t continue in that way and Charles was left out of much of what happened for the third time. That is bad treatment of such an important character. Patrick Stewart is absolutely perfect in the part. He just has never gotten to do much in any of the movies which was a shame. Storm seemed to have taken on more of a leadership role and also seemed to be a stronger character in general. I was very happy to see that she was finally able to fly. It was a bit strange in the first movies for her not to be flying. I do think Halle Berry was good in the part.

Logan has been a central character in all three movies. That didn’t bother me because I do like him and Hugh Jackman is very easy to look at. Logan did plan a big part in this movie without it revolving around him as much as the first two movies did. There was no talk about his forgotten past or any more attempts to try to figure out what had happened to him. This time Logan was focused on trying to help Jean once she returned. He didn’t want to believe that she could be evil like Charles claimed. He did show more emotion than he has in the previous movies. Hugh Jackman fits the part very well. Jean Grey should have had more to do considering that one of the main story lines involved her. The character did go through a lot of changes. Famke Janssen was fine in the part. She just didn’t have that much to do.

Magneto has played a big part in all three of the movies. He and Charles share a complicated history that did add a bit to the movies. They two men didn’t agree on how mutants and humans should exist together, but they continued to have some traces of their old friendship. Charles went to visit Magneto when he’d been in prison in the past and the two passed their visits playing chess. At one point in this movie, Magneto made it clear just how highly he thought of Charles even though he hadn’t agreed with him on many things. Ian McKellan really has become Magneto in these movies and I think he fits the part very well. He’s a very talented actor, able to play so many different types of characters believably. I most recently saw him in The Da Vinci Code playing a very different character from Magneto. Pyro was back working with Magneto. He got to show off his talent with fire a few times and that was mostly it. Juggernaut was another character that was introduced and then underused. He had a more complicated backstory that was left out and altered a bit. I did think that all of the acting was good overall. Just several actors didn’t get much of anything to do since there were so many characters. There were some developments with some of the characters that were surprising and a few things I wasn’t happy about. I did feel like the movie left possibilities open for several of them if another movie would be made.

CAST

Shawn Ashmore - Bobby Drake/Iceman
Halle Berry - Ororo Monroe/Storm
Daniel Cudmore - Peter Rasputin/Colossus
Eric Dane - Multiple Man
Ben Foster - Warren Worthington III/Angel
Kelsey Grammer - Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast
Hugh Jackman - Logan/Wolverine
Famke Janssen - Jean Grey/Phoenix
Vinnie Jones - Cain Marko/Juggernaut
Shauna Kain - Siryn
Ken Leung - Kid Omega
Ian McKellan - Eric Lensherr/Magneto
James Marsden - Scott Summers/Cyclops
Mei Melancon - Psylocke
Michael Murphy - Warren Worthington II
Omahyra - Arclight
Ellen Page - Kitty Pride
Anna Paquin - Marie/Rogue
Dania Ramirez - Callisto
Rebecca Romijn - Raven Darkholme/Mystique
Aaron Stanford - John Allerdyce/Pyro
Patrick Stewart - Charles Xavier/Professor X
Kea Wong - Jubilation Lee/Jubilee

Brett Ratner - Director

X-Men: The Last Stand did seem to be missing the continuity that was present between the first two movies, perhaps because of the change in directors. This movie was missing the stronger character development from the previous movies but it was still entertaining and worth seeing for fans of the characters. I do think the movie would have been better if there had been a tighter focus on one main plot. It also would have helped not to have as many characters as were in the movie and then leave many of them with not much to do. I was still able to enjoy the movie even though I was disappointed by certain things. I thought that this was a good movie overall. It certainly could have been a lot worse.

I would have gone with three and a half stars on this one. Since I can't, I'm rounding up to four stars.

X-Men Reviews
X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ X-Men Origins: Wolverine ~ Ultimate X-Men ~ Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon ~

Other Superhero Reviews
Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman Begins ~ Batman: The Ultimate Guide to The Dark Knight ~ Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ The Incredibles ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Sky High ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12