X-Men: The Last Stand
Review: A lackluster successor to ‘X-Men’ & ‘X2,’ The Last Stand isn’t a bad movie. It’s just not a great movie. I am partial to it because I watched it probably 10 times as a kid. Like I remember watching it significantly more often than the first two. Weird. This is a great comic book movie in the fact that it feels like a comic book. All the characters’ powers are on full display and the threat is real and imminent. The MacGuffin being a boy who saps mutants of their powers is really great. Hugh Jackman absolutely brings it (duh) and carries so much emotion from start to finish. They do very effectively make Jean a threat and definitely make it feel like Logan is the only one who can beat her. It is extremely frustrating to me that Kelsey Grammer’s Beast didn’t appear earlier because he is really entertaining and I also love Juggernaut and all his lines, especially ‘I’m the Juggernaut, b*tch.’ I thought that was hilarious when I was 10. Also a nice ‘Inception’ ending (I know this was first) with the chess piece. Also, WTH I never knew there was a post credits scene here. Like I know Charles came back and even knew how from my own research, but I didn’t realize there was a scene here until this viewing of the film.
High: Again, it balanced all the characters we know and love from the first few films like Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Pyro (Aaron Stanford), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), Cyclops, (James Marsden) & of course, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), while bringing old characters more to the forefront like Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) & Kitty Pryde (Elliot Page), and introducing new characters that are extremely prominent in the comics like Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), Multiple Man (Eric Dane), Leech (Cameron Bright), & Angel (Ben Foster).
Low: There are so many UNCANNY (comic fans know), questionable decisions in this movie. My bigest question is why would you kill Cyclops in the first act? And then Professor X shortly thereafter? Why does Iceman just completely switch up from Rogue to Kitty with no remorse? Then he’s just like back with Rogue at the end with no comments? Why would Magneto be allowed to not be in prison and just able to go play chess at the end? And finally and perhaps most important to the overall impact of the film, why on Earth would you still have Rogue take the cure? It undercuts everything.
Rating: 7.5/10
