News » Marvel Movie Madness! Part 12: X-Men: The Last Stand

Marvel Movie Madness! Part 12: X-Men: The Last Stand

The original trilogy comes to a close.

by RT Staff | Friday, Jun. 03 2011
71 comments
Enter Marvel Movie Madness, wherein Rotten Tomatoes watches all of the significant Marvel movies ever made. Full Marvel Movie Madness list here. Tune in! We give you our thoughts, and you give us yours.


Part 12: X-Men: The Last Stand (2006, 57% @ 228 reviews)
Directed by Brett Ratner, starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen

Luke: The Last Stand feels like a kit car: from a distance it appears to be the real thing, but get up close and lift the shell and you discover it's running on an inferior engine. Like most I wish Bryan Singer hadn't jumped ship for that confusing Superman movie, but I also think Brett Ratner takes too much of the bad rap for X3's shortcomings. Ratner's douchey reputation tends to precede his competency as a director -- sure, his images lack the grace and personality of Singer's, but in his defense he at least tries to be reverent. The third part of a trilogy is always a tough gig, too: filmmakers have to pull the story threads together while feeling the need to up the ante by adding more characters and inevitably the level of spectacle. I'll get crucified for this, but I actually enjoyed most of the first part of the movie, which surged with a requisite sense of urgency for a third chapter, but it's eventually undermined by a screenplay that loses focus of what worked in the first two films, shortchanging the characters in favor of repetitive, tone-deaf action. There's an exact point that seals the movie's doom for me: Vinnie Jones, playing Juggernaut as a variation of his soccer hooligan persona, grunts, "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" It's horrible screenwriting, whatever the justification for it, and lazy lines like "The best defense is a good offense" don't belong in a series that previously worked to establish some gravitas.

What's worse is how it discards the characters that mean things to the audience. Scott gets dispensed early on without much care (as does Mystique); Xavier exits and the movie suffers greatly without his reason; and Jean, who gets a couple of great moments early on as pure Phoenix id, has her potentially emotional moment with Wolverine in the finale squandered amid an avalanche of loud CG. Meanwhile new characters receive disproportionate attention: I guess Kelsey Grammer is an okay Beast; it's always nice to see Ben Foster, however briefly; and at least Juno, I mean Shadowcat, gets to call Vinnie Jones a "dickhead" (a rare satisfying moment.) My biggest problem, though, is the handling of Magneto. This film gets to a point where he had my complete sympathy -- his fight against the cure seems just, or at least active, when everyone else is standing around debating flaccidly -- but X3 turns him into a low-rent, shouty villain who suffers a cheap demise in the end. Without Xavier around there's no balance to the relationship, no tempering of each others' ideology. (That ending and post-credits thing makes little sense and seems more like an easy sequel ploy.)

I don't think this is necessarily the horrendous sequel its reputation has come to suggest, but it is a disappointingly rushed conclusion to something that had been set up with care; it understands only bombast when it needed to pause to give the characters their due. Then again, it's a masterpiece compared to what was coming next...


Alex: X-Men Origins: Wolverine is stupid as hell but at least it moved around like a Hollywood movie. The Last Stand is completely disjointed: tonally all over the place, the plot lurches around in fits and starts. The X-Men are completely reactionary in this movie: they appear to have no purpose in existing beyond checking out the aftermath of Magneto's antics. Their time is spent inside the mansion crying about bad plot devices and trying to knock boots with a reanimated Jean Grey. Nothing made my jaw hit the ground faster seeing this movie exploit Professor X's death for some sweet, sweet Iceman/Rogue/Kitty Pride homeroom drama. And that "the last stand" takes place with Wolverine, Storm, some boring kids, and Kelsey Grammer on leave from Blue Man Group? I'm glad I had skipped X2 when it came out of theaters. It would've convinced me the series was worth continuing.

It's easy to to blame blame Brett Ratner but this was yet another production shortsightedly rushed by Fox (hopefully the great reviews for X-Men: First Class will have convinced the studio to cut it out). Ratner doesn't have much hay in the stable of self-critical analysis, and that's an asset when the job is to take this pile of money and shoot fast with a bad script and major actors unavailable. A better director would mull over proper shots and story structure, but, a better director wouldn't compromise themselves with a movie like X-Men: The Last Stand in the first place.


Luke: A great -- and insanely creepy -- point about the Jean-Wolverine situation. Not only is Scott Summers wiped out of the plot early without fanfare, but, as you say, Wolverine then proceeds to spend the rest of the film (when he's not sniffing out nondescript Brotherhood extras in the Ewok forest, that is) trying to consummate his flirtation with Phoenix. Where's the respect? Oh right, that'd be in the cheap pan across the headstones at the end -- hey, remember Scott Summers? Jean Grey? PROFESSOR CHARLES XAVIER (he's the one with comically big tombstone)? Yeah, we thought not -- the movie did its best to make you forget them. But we can look forward to X-Men Origins: Kitty Pride and the Sunny-D, right?

Alex: Kitty Pride's sidekick would be Jubilee and they would fight the injustice of long lines at the mall for iPads.


Tim: I'm just gonna come right out and say it: I've never understood the vitriolic hate this movie inspires. Is this movie as satisfying as the first two? No. Does it feel completely faithful to the X-men universe? Not really. Does it work as an action movie? It does. It's not particularly profound, but The Last Stand does a few things very right. I like the introduction of the new mutants on both sides -- seeing new characters learn how to harness their powers never gets old for me. For all its geographic absurdity, the sequence when Magneto literally rips the Golden Gate Bridge out of its foundations and rides it like a chariot to Alcatraz is a pretty awe-inspiring demonstration of Magneto's abilities. And the scene where Mystique is shot with the mutant antidote and loses her powers right before our eyes - with Magneto unceremoniously ditching her to boot - struck me as strangely poignant. Sure, the X-Men seem curiously understaffed for an apocalyptic battle against the Brotherhood, but the climactic throwdown is both thrilling and crisply edited. And the last scene before the credits, in which Magneto looks both haunted and defiant, has a quiet power to it. Overall, this is the weakest of the X-Men movies so far, but it's still pretty sturdy stuff.

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Comments

Sputnik99

sputnik 99

I missed this movie when it was in theaters, and was very anxious to rent it. I must say that I was disappointed. It lacks all the energy and charm of the first two movies, especially X2. But it does have a few good moments. Magneto and the bridge, for one. And I've always liked Beast.

What bothered me the most is that with Phoenix, the producers had a lot of potential for a powerful story. IMO, the Dark Phoenix saga is the best X-Men story ever written, and they totally ignored it and gave us some screwy plotline with Jean and her powers. Yes, Magneto needed to be the big bad guy, but a war against Dark Phoenix would have united the mutants and made for a spectacular movie. Putting both of them in the same movie didn't work.

Oh, and people kept getting killed off too simply. And Juggernaut isn't a mutant, he received his powers from a crystal. Yadda, yadda, yadda, I know.

Jun 3 - 01:51 PM

Alexson Philip

Alexson Philipiah

Xmen the last stand was alright in my opinion. I thought of the xmen series as just an average superhero movie series, I mean the first was terrible in my opinion, then the second was actually a huge improvement and did give me a bit of hope that i actually might like this series with a 3rd or 4th film, but this one was more of SPECIAL EFFECTS,ACTION,EXPLOSIONS,RANDOM DEATHS,etc. I gave it a 60%, It was kind of disappointing as I thought this series could get better with more films.

my ratings for the series: Xmen - 45%

X2 - 70%

X3 - 60%

Jun 3 - 01:51 PM

Alex H.

Alex Haines

what was wrong with the first?

Jul 29 - 01:19 PM

ALgreen99

AL Green

-50% rating.

Jun 3 - 01:55 PM

Justin D.

Justin D.

Even that is being generous.

Jun 3 - 03:11 PM

ALgreen99

AL Green

why did I put 50? I meant negative 100 %

Jun 4 - 04:46 PM

Confounded

Matthew Bertram

Hey, how do we make room for new WB-style Mutants and young adult drama in a series known for it's adult and profound themes? We kill of Cyclops in the first 10 minutes, Professor X in the next 30, and erase all attempts at even pacing the Phoenix storyline. Bam, she's a level 5 mutant; that's all you need to know.

I am far from a character nazi when it comes to comic book movies. I try to be understanding when directors and writers take liberties to fit a character into their vision. Rogue as a teenager, basically playing Jubilee? OK, I'll give you that. In fact, they dropped the ages of a lot of characters. Which is fine. But killing off the two most important members of the X-Men team just so you don't have to worry about them burning up screen time is awful. And then having Professor X telepathically enter another body is just a terrible Deus ex Machina. He might as well of popped out of a broom closet at the school yelling, "Ta-da!"

I knew lots of people who had little or no familiarity with the comics, and they enjoyed it. From the perspective of the uninitiated, I can see how it might be an OK movie. But there were just way too many middle fingers in X3 for me to forgive.

Jun 3 - 02:34 PM

Alan Smithee

Alan Smithee

It's hard for me to see a drastic drop in quality here since they were all bland in every aspect imaginable. You mention problems with characters when Lady Deathstrike & Stryker's son were both just plot devices in X2. So you see were not talking Godfather 3 here in terms of disappointing threequels.

Jun 3 - 03:12 PM

Bigbrother

Big Brother

Yes, but the difference is in X2 they fully developed Stryker and Nightcrawler and utilized existing characters well. Every ensemble piece is going to have a few players who get shorter thrift on development. Unfortunately X3 ruined all the existing characters and didn't replace with anything. Whereas X2 was a movie with a few weaknesses X3 was just overall weak.

Jun 3 - 06:02 PM

Alan Smithee

Alan Smithee

No one would have been the wiser if Singer's name had appeared in the credits instead of Ratner's. I find it amusing that Luke bashes on this film for the Juggernaut quip and praise X2 for the, "could you try not being a mutant" gag. Like I said before, it really says something when a 90s cartoon can convey more poignant social commentary in less than twenty minutes than the approximate combined four hour total of Singer's films. Sure X3 fell into the trap of trying to up the ante, yet I don't see any of the X films as anything more than popcorn flicks. Not horrible (besides Wolverine), but not special by any means either. There's so much squandered potential considering the source material.

Jun 3 - 08:26 PM

Jack Mynock

Jack Mynock

The minds of telepaths jumping into different bodies upon death/ near death has happened a few times in the comics. I'm not saying that makes it ok... just not without precedent.

Jun 3 - 09:16 PM

King Crunk

King Crunk

Bad, bad movie. Killed this initial series for the X-Men. Glad that Matthew Vaughn has rerouted this series (rather spectacuarly, if I may say so), and would prefer to see him guide the series into a complete reboot with X-Men: First Class, as his vision has been the best for the series so far, in my opinion.

Jun 3 - 02:54 PM

Bigbrother

Big Brother

Im hoping for the next one Vaughn does the Morlock Massacre storyline to set up a finale with apocalypse. Always thought Morlock Massacre could work well as a Civil Rights Era story which would fit Vaughns timeline and Magneto vs Apocalypse would be epic for a finale.

Jun 3 - 06:07 PM

King Crunk

King Crunk

I like your idea, Bigbrother! I hope Vaughn keeps Magneto on the fence between being a straight up villain and an anti-hero; he is definitely the most awesome character in the film series now.

Jun 3 - 09:44 PM

nongshim

Kathryne C

I didn't hate this movie. Is that bad?

Jun 3 - 03:25 PM

nongshim

Kathryne C

then again, i'm probably biased as both a kitty pryde/ellen page fan.

Jun 3 - 03:28 PM

Bigbrother

Big Brother

Not bad that you don't hate it. Now if you'd said it was the best of the series or better than Citizen Kane that might be different.

Jun 3 - 06:11 PM

Luke J.C.

Luke J.C.

No kidding, to me this was easily the best x-men movie. I was yearning for a huge scale of events and lots of action, so the large amount of mutants and their conflicts made this a huge satisfaction to me. Yeah, heroes get killed off easily, so what, just resurrect them for another movie. I call this movie 'Superhero apocalypse' and I like it.

Jun 4 - 04:06 AM

Observation 99

Anthony Johns

Tim's reaction seems to be the one a lot of people have, but I couldn't agree less with it or more with the other ones. This had so much going for it (including a good idea for a story) and managed to blow everything, including the action scenes. Most of the fights (especially in the final standoff) were just bodies, bullets and bright flashes flying around and colliding with eachother. Some kind of main one on one battle in the middle might have been nice, but the closest we got was Iceman vs Pyro, which was basically just them spraying fire and ice until one folded up. And I don't think I need to get into how entirely lame each attempt to throw out characters for shock value was (especially Prof. X, who should have been brought back before the end of the credits, where that obvious bid for a sequel with Magneto should have been).

Jun 3 - 03:38 PM

Justin D.

Justin D.

The first two X films were Wolverine fests to be sure, but at least they had coherent stories. This movie starts off well enough but quickly turns into a mishmash of bad ideas. The mutant cure ripped right out of the pages of Astonishing X-Men, The rising of the Dark Phoenix, Magneto's war w/ the United States Government, it was all too much. The story got so bogged down w/ trying to keep its nonsensical plot points straight that it couldn't find the time to figure out what to do w/ the characters, even the oh so popular Wolverine. Even he didn't have much to do in this movie besides, um, be heroic I guess.

Cyclops never got any love in the X films but what they did to him here was just offensive. Killed off screen by his girlfriend, because any lingering hope from X2 that Jean really did love Scott and would pick him over Logan had to be snuffed out. Jean turns into the Phoenix, kills Prof. X, then walks around aimlessly until the last 15 minutes of the movie. Rogue doesn't like Bobby hanging around Juno (whoops I mean Kitty), Bobby is mad that Pyro is a badguy now, and the audience still doesn't care. Two hot actresses (Halle Berry and Dania Ramirez) fight, Mystique is turned human w/ no satisfying resolution, the Juggernaut isn't Xavier's step-brother, Beast is Fraiser, oh and Angel is in the movie for some reason. It's all crap.

In the end all the ridiculous plot points collide and the film devolves into an overlong and grueling action sequence on Alcatraz (how long was he riding that bridge? It was day when he started moving it and night by the time he dropped it). Oh man I could spend all day talking about the things wrong w/ this movie but I'll think I'll just say it sucked and call it a day. It wasn't the worse thing I've ever seen but it still sucked.

Jun 3 - 03:47 PM

waggaga1

noel noel

Colossus is my favorite X-men, and he barely gets any screen time. They could've pit him against Juggernaut and the movie would've had a better reason to have mindless CGI violence.

Jun 3 - 03:53 PM

Manuel G.

Manuel Granados

Same feeling. I wanted to see a lot more Colossus since X2 and when he was billed here as one of the stars I thought "hell yeah, this will be epic"
Instead it's just lame.
I hated this movie with all my guts, I hated the fight scenes, I hated the incursion of Archangel for no reason, I hated Rogue and her drama, I hated Ellen Page (though I generally do).
Of course, I'd rather watch this movie 50 times than sit thru another Wolverine origins movie.

Jun 3 - 11:09 PM

llamablaster

Joe Gattus

"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" wasn't just bad writing or playing to Vinnie Jones as a soccer hooligan. It was a cut little nod to the video of the overdubbed X-Men cartoon that was floating around.

I found the reference funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSuvOVH0aSQ

Jun 3 - 03:56 PM

roboteer

robert Boutiere

X3 was adequate, but nothing compared to X2 which I missed commenting on. TWO was a masterpiece of writing where all the myriad individual powers and weaknesses were accounted for. It took a little research to figure a few things out in the very complex plot, but better that than condescending to the audience. Just exceptionally well crafted with not even a minor plot hole unaccounted for. The characters were all well defined and vibrant with their own motivations. The acting more than competent. Just an amazing;y well crafted motion picture that was exceptional on every level, but especially on juggling such a variety of powers and personalities and making them real. The absolute best comic book movie, and one of he top 5 action movies ever made. One that will hold those distinctions for a long time, IMHO.

Jun 3 - 04:04 PM

Corey B.

Corey Beliles

I really don't think Bret Ratner's direction was the reason this movie didn't turn out so well. It really was the script that was the main problem. The movie is actually fairly good in my opinion up into Xavier's death, and then after that it goes completely downhill and the storyline feels too rushed and intolerably bland up to its conclusion and none of the characters get any real justice onscreen. Rogue barely got any scenes in the movie and her character was a huge part of the first 2 films. The ending battle is too rushed and perposterous because there's about 6 X-Men fighting over 100 of Magneto's mutants and all of them live. All the new characters are barely given any real screentime or reason for being there. Bryan Singer and his screenwriters could have finished this series with true style and epicness that was given to the first 2 films. But in any event, I can't to see First Class this weekend.

Jun 3 - 04:17 PM

ninja13

daniel metzger

I agree more with Tim than anyone else. This film has a lot of problems: it's rushed, Cyclop's death, Angel's mysterious appearance. But none of the films in the series were exceptional, and just like the second film, this one failed to build on the first and make a definitive X-team. No one really gets anything to do, (except Wolverine in the Ewok forest). Anyways, all the complaints the guys made were valid, (that Angel thing still makes me scratch my head), but plenty of those complaints could have been made about X2: Cyclops didn't get much more screen time in in than in this, the plot, (and the characters) kind of just meandered about until the end arrived, the burning up the police officers scene didn't move the plot forward anymore than the forest scene in X3. I'd say this film actually made more nervy decisions with the story than the others, (even if some of those failed), and Kelsey Grammer was excellent.

X-Men- 7/10
X2- 5/10
The Last Stand- 5.5/10

The only truly terrible X-Men film is Wolverine, (that deserves all the hate).

Jun 3 - 04:18 PM

Wisenheimer

Joshua Dinsmore

Oh yuck. X-men 3 was a big letdown for me.

Jun 3 - 04:28 PM

Frisby2007

Frisby 2007

Ugh, the disgrace of the X-Men movies.

Jun 3 - 04:46 PM

Geoff O.

Love Stallion

Oh just wait until you review Wolverine! You'll be begging to watch X3 again.

Jun 3 - 05:26 PM

Phillip K.

Phillip Kissell

I agree that there were a very few things that were good in this movie, such as the parts listed in the end of this article, but having maybe two minutes of the movie be decent does not make up for all of the characters they discarded like used tissues, and wasting all the potential that some characters had. (Colossus, and Angel come to mind)

I can't even enjoy this movie on a basic, pop-corn action flick level because it's a disgrace to the other two movies, and so much potential goes untapped, and it is wholly unsatisfying.

This movie is shit.

Jun 3 - 06:30 PM

Mathlol1

S P

It was pretty bad. Just tried to make a lot of action sequences. Didn't draw any attention to character development or any significant iota or continuity.

Jun 3 - 06:32 PM

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