X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) Review

"Don't you know who I am?  I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!"

-Juggernaut

The mutant world is rattled when a "cure" for mutation is invented.  Magneto (Ian McKellen), worried that mutants will have the cure forced upon them, forms an army to take down the laboratory creating the cure.  Meanwhile, the X-Men have a hard decision to make on how to proceed and to make matters worse, Jean Grey (Famke Jansse) is reveled to still be alive, only her personality has become...darker.

What Works:

The returning cast members are all really great.  McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and Hugh Jackson are absolutely perfect in their roles as always.  The three of them deliver every time they are on screen.

I love the different philosophies at play in The Last Stand.  Ideology and philosophy are always the strongest aspects of the X-Men films and the element of the "cure" is pretty fascinating.  I love all of the different viewpoints and the way everyone reacts to this news.  It's a really interesting story, especially in the first half of the film.  I especially love the Rogue (Anna Paquin) ends up getting the cure.  Some of the mutants are offended by the very existence of the cure, but some people, like Rogue, are truly better off not being a mutant and that is a story I find wholly engaging.

The visual effects are definitely an improvement here and the scene where Magneto moves the Golden Gate Bridge looks great.  

Finally, I know this might be controversial, but I like that the movie killed off both Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Cyclops (James Marsden).  It shows just how powerful Jean's alter-ego, Phoenix, is and it that nobody is safe.  Losing two of the original cast here just increases the stakes for the rest of the film.

What Sucks:

First off, this movie has way too many new characters and most of them get no development whatsoever.  We really don't get a reason to care about any of the new cast members.  They are just there to be there.  The best example I have is Angel (Ben Foster).  He is set up to be a key player, but could be completely cut from the film with no change to the story.  Why have him in the film if you're not going to do anything with him?

This movie really feels like two different films crammed together.  We have the cure story and the Dark Phoenix story and they don't really play well together.  I wish they had just cut the Phoenix story out completely and saved it for a 4th film.  The cure plot is more than enough.

I never bought the love story between Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Jean.  It's always felt forced especially because they've only spent a few days together over the course of the first two film. It's another component of the Dark Phoenix story that doesn't work here.

Finally, the 3rd act final battle is pretty lackluster.  For what should be the big epic conclusion, it's not that exciting and feels more silly than anything.  It could have been handled much better.

Verdict:

X-Men: The Last Stand isn't a bad movie and it is entertaining, but it's disappointing when compared to the first two films.  The original cast is great, the story is interesting, and the visuals are excellent, but there is too much crammed into one movie with too many new characters, an unnecessary secondary plot, a shoehorned romance, and a weak third act.

 6/10: Okay