X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)


Plot Summary

 When a private laboratory supported by the government finds the cure for the mutants, using the DNA of a powerful boy, the mutants have the option of giving up their powers and become human, but their society split. Magneto opposes and decides to join a force to fight against the government and kill the mutant boy. Meanwhile, Jean Grey resurrects uncontrolled by Xavier and with the personality of the powerful Dark Phoenix. She destroys Cyclops and Professor Charles Xavier, and allies to the evil forces of Magneto, making them almost invincible.

So we come to the conclusion of the original trilogy of X-Films and boy does it end with sound and fury but so very little substance. The plot of the film combines the "Gifted" storyline from Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men comic and the Dark Phoenix storyline crafted by Chris Claremont back in the early '80s. This proves to be too much for one film as they should've stuck to one storyline rather than squashing the two of them together to make a rather disappointing whole.

Say what you will about Bryan Singer but at least he had a vision with this franchise and not having him at the helm of this project was costly. Fox had to scramble for a director and ended up with the hack Brett Ratner who to his credit at least had experience with rushed productions as this movie took less than a year to film and put to screen. Unfortunately, Ratner had no feel for the characters and the more serious aspects of the idea of a mutant cure is dealt with in a very cursory fashion.

The movie also suffers from Halle Berry crying like a bitch that she wanted a more expanded role and thus she was given that role but she was just as useless as she ever was. You don't buy her as a worthy successor to Professor X. (though in the comics she's quite worthy) The movie suffers from killing off Professor X early on and Cyclops who naturally figure prominently in the Dark Phoenix aspect of the story is dispatched with even earlier!

The nuances of Magneto is completely stripped away in this movie as he's basically a "MUAHAHAHAHAHA" villain who wants to do away with the cure and subjugate humanity to his rule. This is just nonsensical considering the fact that Magneto was once enslaved and knew the hardships of being shackled as a boy in WWII Germany. The idea of him taking the Phoenix possessed Jean Grey and using her as an ultimate weapon was foolish on many levels as she had  no control of herself and would destroy anything in her path including mutants.

There are other logical problems with the movie not the least of which having Warren Worthington's lab at Alcatraz which is IMPOSSIBLE since it's a protected landmark and can't be appropriated for private use. There was an earlier draft of the script when Singer was still on board that would've made the film a lot more cohesive as Magneto would release a captured Mystique in Alcatraz then go to Washington DC where Worthington's labs would be so that he can take the cure then take over the White House to rule over America. Magneto would still be a pretty one note villain but at least logically his plan would make more sense.

I will give this movie one bit of credit. It's by far the most visually appealing of the original trilogy of X-Films. There are some great action sequences such as the Danger Room simulation of the Days of Future Past future and Magneto ripping apart the Golden Gate Bridge and putting it on Alcatraz so he and his mutants can attack was stunning to watch. The one sequence that was the best IMO was the sequence in Jean Grey's home where Xavier is trying to convince Jean to come back into his care so that he can subdue the Phoenix Force. She completely loses it tearing apart the house and lifting it into the air. Wolverine and Storm come to try and save the professor only to have to fight Juggernaut and Calisto in an impressive all out fight while everything around them is going to hell.

So if it's vacuous action and poor plotting you're looking for this movie is up your alley LOL. Honestly though this was a bad ending to a pretty good series. Fox waffled near the end of production and decided they wanted to leave the door open to future sequels with the original cast so Ratner left some things open ended. Fox's original idea of doing origin movies for other characters blew up in their faces with the tepid reaction to the Wolverine Origins movie and the trouble they were having developing a Magneto project. They then decided to reboot things and now we have the second wave of X-Films.

As for this movie? I give it * 1/2 stars

Next week i'll be watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I've heard bad things about it so we'll see what I think of it.