Movie Review- X-Men: The Last Stand

I went and experienced X-Men: The Last Stand tonight. I went with a whole gang of folks including Bryan and his son. Opening night is always fun for an action/Sci-fi/superhero movie and this was no exception.

I am an X-Men fan. I collected Uncanny X-Men comic books for years and then later all the other X-Men titles. I know the history of the characters. I am attached to many of them.

I love the previous 2 movies. The first X-Men movie was revolutionary in bringing Marvel comics to the big screen for the first time with out the movie being horrible. It treated the characters well and introduced them to millions for the first time. The second did a great job of telling the story of Wolverine past. I would give both of those movies A-.

I had a variety of expectations and hopes going into this movie. I had the hope that they would take the characters and continue to develop them and grow them into the third movie. I knew that they were going to tell one of the most interesting storylines ever in X-Men by telling the Dark Phoenix Saga. I knew that they could not tell it just like the comic book because that would not flow well in a 2 hour movie. It might in a 10 hour miniseries. I also expected that if you told this storyline wrong, it would be Batman and Robin bad. I hoped it would be the best of the three.

My expectations for this movie was not that high. I knew that it had been rushed into production. I knew that we would have a new director, which can be bad for a series. I had high hopes but moderate expectations.

I read an initial great review of this movie on Ain't It Cool News. Then I started reading not so good reviews of this movie. Some of the people loved it and some of them hated it. This helped moderate my expectations down even further.

Spoiler Information contained Below:

Here is what I liked about this movie:

• I loved what they did to Storm. She got a haircut and got full use of her powers. She was flying and had great control of the weather. In one scene where she is depressed, she makes the weather dark and gloomy. I also loved the tribute to the comics with the battles scenes where Storm takes on Callisto (without having to explain the whole Morlocks thing.)

• Wolverine is turned loose to act more like Wolverine in the comics. He will kill bad guys to get what he needs. There are a couple of scene with Wolverine on the attack and he slaughters (not very bloody) several of them. They play his wildman side along with his feeling for Jean very much like the comics.
  

• We get to finally see the Danger room and how the X-Men train in the Danger room. In there we also get to see our first Sentinel. The conflict the Wolverine and Storm have about the Danger Room is a classic.

• The emotional turmoil that Cyclops goes through while dealing with the Death of Jean is right on the money. It was like I was reading the story again. He leaves and now Storm is the leader. Perfect.
  

• I enjoyed the additional X-Men characters being added and it being done well. I loved the Beast and also really liked Juggernaut and Angel. They also focused on some of the younger characters that we had meet before like Iceman, Kitty Pride, Pyro, and Colossus.
  

What did I not like about this Movie?:

• I did not like how they changed the Phoenix to be a part of the Jean's mind. I hated that explanation. They did not have to even explain it at all in this movie. They could have played it more like the comics did orginally and state that she seems to be experiencing a great power surge. Let me state it again, I hated the explanation.

• (Big Time Spoiler) I hated that we are led to believe that Jean (or should I say Phoenix) killed Scott. I also hated that she obliterated Professor X. Characters die and come back to life all the time in comics. Phoenix never killed either one of them. Yes I know that Professor X is back at the end of the movie (after the credits).

• Magneto and Mystique never lost their powers in the comics. I liked the overall idea of the Cure plot line but I did not like it used on these main characters. Yes I know that Magneto showed that he might get his powers back at the end but that is not the point.

Overall Grade: B
It was not as good as the first two X-Men movies. There were great things about this movie but I would not call it a great movie. It reminded me of how Aliens 3 was good but not in the same league as the original Alien and Aliens.

Other Reviews:
Rotten Tomatoes 52%
Coming Soon: 3 different rankings 5.5/10 rating 7/10 rating 5/10 rating
Rolling Stone: 2 out of 4 Stars

Memorable Quotes
1) Logan: [to Rogue] Hey, I'm not your father. If you wanna go, be sure it's what you want.

2) Prof. Charles Xavier: [to Ororo Munroe] You of all people know how fast the weather can change.

3a) John Allerdyce: Maybe you should go back to school.
3b) Bobby Drake: [Knocks out Pyro] You never should've left.

4a) Bobby Drake: You seem like you're avoiding me, I mean something's wrong.
4b) Marie: I can't touch my boyfriend without killing him.
4c) Bobby Drake: Have I ever put any pressure on you?
4d) Marie: You're a guy Bobby. Your mind's only on one thing.