X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006)
Tagline: Take A Stand
(Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi) [PG-13]
Things are better now, but you of all people know how quickly the weather can change.
In this one, a mutant is discovered that has the power to remove the abilities or “cure” any mutant. His power is used in an offensive against all mutants and weaponized after humans are provoked by Magneto’s brotherhood (a collection of mutants that want to eliminate the cure and humans if possible) freeing a few imprisoned mutants. Meanwhile, after a horrific accident, Jean Grey has once again appeared and it is discovered that her Dark Phoenix side is taking over. In this state, Jean is a danger to everyone around her, but Magneto believes he can use this to his advantage to advance the brotherhood’s cause.
First off this movie does a great job of bringing back the main cast from X2: X-MEN UNITED. The additions are solid as well. I loved Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde (she is actually the 3rd actress to have played her in the series, Katie Stuart and Sumela Kay had the role before) but deciding to not include her dragon Lockheed wasn’t going to win over many fans of the comic. After finding out Summer Glau also tried out for the role, I kind of wish they had cast her anyway even if it was for another character. I also thought the strongest addition in this movie was Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy. He carries off the role like he was born for it. Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, and the rest of the cast absolutely crush it as well.
Conceptually THE LAST STAND is one of the best in the series, just for introducing the (comic-based) paradox of having a mutant that can cure other mutants. The execution of how this impacts the mutant community carries a lot of parallels to real-world situations, especially regarding the pandemic of 2020 and mask mandates as well as the introduction of vaccines. Where the movie I think fell flat and drew largely negative reactions was in the fact that it felt like it was ending the franchise. We lose 3 major characters we were just getting to know. There is even a character that basically gets thrown away like yesterday’s garbage due to circumstances. The excuse for this was scheduling conflicts, but you have to find ways to work these things out better.
The script is fantastic dialog-wise, but really missed the mark in areas where world-building would have been critical. It missed the mark so bad a decision was made to retcon the events of the entire movie 8 years later. In other areas, the movie is almost apologetic. We finally get to see some uniforms that at least respect the ones in the comic. One really strong point is the final battle scene. At the time this movie came out, it was the most expensive film ever made.
This might come as a shock, but honestly, walking out of this movie I pretty much loved it. It took me a while to really come to grips with all the actual issues in this thing. Cinematically it’s enjoyable. The middle is a bit slow, but the story's pace is pretty solid and it doesn’t feel like they shoved a lot of unneeded sequences in here.
Taking out all of the extracurricular issues and just looking at this movie as a stand-alone I have to give this one a 5 out of 7. I did not like how many of the characters were handled and it felt like we had a bunch of villains that were thrown in just to get a decent number of villains. However basing this review on what we got, I think a few slight changes could have really put this over the top.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
A look around the series...
X-MEN
X2: X-MEN UNITED
THE WOLVERINE
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX
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