Marvel Mania 2: X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen
Directed by: Brett Ratner


With two hits at the box office, the X-Men movies were one of the elite comic book franchises. But of course, you set a standard that high for yourself and it's only a matter of time before you have to be taken down a peg. We got that in the form of X-Men: The Last Stand. Continuing from where X2 left off should've been easy for Bryan Singer. But there lies the problem: this film was not made by Bryan Singer. Singer opted to go direct Superman Returns instead, and the studio decided to replace him with Brett Ratner. What follows is an X-Men movie that is lacking the component from Singer that I think made these movies work: attention to story and characters. Ratner's directing was focused more on making stuff look cool. It results in so many missed opportunities with getting these characters and story arcs where they need to go. There are a few performances that hold aspects of this film together, but there's way too much wrong with this film and the story it's attempting to tell to consider it a good X-Men movie. So let's look at what went wrong with X-Men: The Last Stand.

Let's get the one major positive out of the way for this movie. Kelsey Grammer is AMAZING as Beast. Just look at that guy and imagine Frasier delivering his lines. That IS Beast. Diplomatic at most times, but knows how to bring the goods in a physical fight. Beast also brings a bit of mythology with him, as he is a former X-Men that has since moved on to fight for mutant rights in a more political platform. Hmmmm...well isn't that interesting to see. The possibility that there have been other X-Men teams in the past, kind of makes you want to see what that would like like. With how their next two films were essentially origin stories, I can only imagine this was a clever way to plant those seeds and spark some interest in the concept. But anyways, let's give credit where credit is due. Kelsey Grammer, the makeup team, and effects crew really deserve a lot of credit for bringing one of the most popular X-Men characters to life in this movie. I just wish he was in a better X-Men movie.

Beast wasn't the only new character thrown our way, but he could've been the only one done right. Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde isn't too bad, but it's hard to get into a character like Kitty when she isn't really developed as a person beyond her mutant powers, and the fact that she was played by 3 different actresses within the first 3 films. Page is the most famous to play her and was treated as such when they brought Kitty back recently for another appearance. Ben Foster as Angel was a huge disappointment, simply because they used him in a total of 2, maybe 3 scenes. He doesn't get to fight alongside the X-Men and doesn't really get any major resolution to his arc. That's what stings. He's not treated like he's an ultimately important character and he's a freaking X-Men original in the comics. And then there's Juggernaut, played by Vinnie Jones. I'll give the writers some credit in defending their choice to make him a mutant, when he's definitely NOT one in the comics. But I can't get over the ridiculous lines he says, how silly his costume is, and how he gets taken out like a punk in the climax. What an embarrassment for one of the biggest fan favorite villains in the X-Men universe.

But where the movie really fails is in its adaptation of the Phoenix Saga. I always thought Famke Janssen did alright as Jean Grey, but she feels really out of place when she's playing the Phoenix. Making her a split personality seemed strange, having Wolverine show sympathy towards it felt completely out of his character, and the whole thing was tied together by Wolverine's love for Jean. I never really liked seeing the Wolverine/Jean/Cyclops triangle just because the Wolverine/Jean aspect of it felt really forced and they never gave Cyclops any traction to look like he had a shot of getting the girl. Speaking of Cyclops, the Phoenix Saga in this film is what wrote him out within the first act. Our wonderful leader of the X-Men folks, just completely wasted without a second thought. I'm not as into the comics as most people, so I can only imagine how much the hatred flows through the veins of must X-Men purists.

To piggyback off that thought, I'm sure a lot of purists detest this film simply because it had the potential and just felt rushed. There's always the lingering thought of what could have happened had Fox let Singer take the time off to do Superman Returns, then come back and do X-Men: The Last Stand. It may not be the greatest idea in terms of making money, but as far as making a faithful adaptation is concerned, it needed that extra touch of care from the director to the project. This was not the way you do a movie like this. Style over substance can't work in an X-Men movie and you would hope Fox would've learned from the mistakes they made from this movie. But NO, it still took one more stinker for them to finally get their act together and realize that a well developed story and characters are what make us like these movies. And while THAT sinful picture still gets a lot of hate from yours truly, I'll say that I've simmered on X-Men: The Last Stand. I still think it isn't great, but if you watch the whole trilogy, it has the quality of the first 2 movies to keep it on life support. Speaking of which...

Since X-Men: The Last Stand has a post-credits scene, I'll put a *SPOILERS* over this paragraph to talk about it. Earlier in the film, Xavier is having a classroom discussion on planting your subconscious into another person's body. After the credits, we cut to a comatose body that was being researched earlier and we find out Xavier has put his mind in the body, thus keeping him alive. It's definitely a head-scratcher at first watch. But trust me when I say it'll play a much larger role about 3 or 4 movies from now.


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Definitely a disappointment, but I think enough time has gone by to the point where I can forgive and move on. X-Men: The Last Stand does have a few shining moments, but suffers from way too much crammed in and a noticeable change in directing styles. When Singer dropped out to do Superman Returns, they should've put this on hold. Instead, they rushed it out and we were given an unsatisfying conclusion to an otherwise enjoyable trilogy of superhero movies.

X-Men: The Last Stand and movie images are copyrighted by 20th Century Fox