X-Men - The Last Stand DVD > Reviews > One Stand, One Chance & One Failure

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Unmemorable
Special Effects	Good
Soundtrack	Unmemorable

Advantages:	A classic franchise and the special effects
Disadvantages:	Very disappointing end to the trilogy

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Finally, mutants and humans collide in a war that has been waging for two films now.

To begin the film we are thrown into two flashbacks, which should probably be prominent to the film. The first shows Jean as a child, hinting at how powerful a mutant she is. Then we are shown another childhood flashback, introducing a new mutant who is trying to hide the fact that he has wings from his father. This mutant is of course Angel, as the fans of the comic book will know, and is played by Ben Foster in his adult form.

So before I go any further I suppose you're thinking, I don't read comic books so will this film be for me? Before seeing the first X-Men films the closest I had ever came to the franchise was the cartoon series as a child. Of course I was young and didn't take anything in from them really, so I would say that knowing next to nothing about X-Men did NOT affect my enjoyment of the film.

In that sense though if you are a fan of the comic book you will be watching the film for every detail, and that knowledge of X-Men could come back to bite you as I have heard from comic book readers that this third film and the climax to the first trilogy is actually the worst of the lot.

Should you watch X-Men 1 and 2 before viewing this film? X1 and X2 set things up for X3 and to fully appreciate X3 you will have to see these first two films. There's no ifs and buts about it really, I don't think X3 or 'Last Stand' works as a stand alone film.

The main focus of the film is the US Government having used a mutant (who's power is to disable other mutants powers) have developed a 'Cure' for mutants. Whilst there is protests that there is nothing that needs curing, there is one side of mutants that is happy to see the 'cure' being used peacefully those mutants who want to be 'fixed'. The other side of things sees this as offensive, and will stop at nothing to stop any further progression of the 'cure'.

Of course these sides are led by Xavier and Magneto respectively, just as in the previous two films, where Xavier has been leading the good mutants and Magneto is the leader of the bad guys. New characters to feature on the good side include Kitty Pryde, who's power is to run through walls and is also included in a love triangle storyline with Bobby ("Iceman") and Rogue.

Those who have seen the previous two films will know that Rogue's mutant power means she is unable to have any physical contact with other mutants, and she is very tempted to take the 'cure' offered by the government.

New bad mutants to feature include the likes of Juggernaut, who is an incredibly strong and British mutant, played by Vinnie Jones. X-Men: The Last Stand is actually quite an interesting one when it comes to big name actors, as Kelsey Grammer ('Frasier' and the voice of 'Sideshow Bob' in Simpsons) plays Beast who works for the government trying to improve mutant-human relations.

All the usual suspects are there as well including Wolverine and Storm. Also as commented on earlier Jean does return to the big screen, however this film introduces her as no longer being able to control her power and going under the name of 'Phoenix'.

With so many storylines going on (The cure, Phoenix and the love triangle) 99 minutes does not sound like much time at all, especially when you've got to factor in they're also introducing A LOT of new characters. X2 was half an hour longer than X3, and for the last film in the trilogy to be shorter is incredibly disappointing. The Last Stand simply was not given enough time to live up to its fullest potential.

The film will bring the trilogy to its climax though, even if it is an anti-climax with more than one major character dying and others losing their mutant powers as the government begin using the 'cure' as a replacement for the usual ammo in guns. In my opinion however, X2 was the best part of the trilogy with X3 coming in last.

On the special affects I mentioned in the what is good about this film it is true that they really have gone to work with things like Phoenix's power and the much shown Magneto moving the bridge scene. Storm was also used a lot in this film compared to the others requiring the use of special affects, so I can see why Halle Berry decided to stick around even though it was rumoured she would not feature in the film.

For make-up the new character in Beast must have required a lot of work, and once again all those people who used to search the internet for information on the film will remember reading that Beast was left out of previous films because of the cost of his make-up. Well he's in X3, and looks great. Angel's wings look very realistic as well, even if his character was a complete waste of time in the film - I believe he was just included for his name and because they wanted to have a scene with a man flying. That's not enough reason to watch the film.

I can see that most people 20+ probably won't be into the X-Men films and for those 15-20 who have seen the previous X-Men films will be really disappointed with this one. Those 12-15's will probably enjoy it for the special effects but sadly the film doesn't cut it with me. If you have seen the previous films then you have to watch The Last Stand to see how things end, but that doesn't mean you'll like it.

If you've never seen the X-Men films I would advise you to watch the trilogy because the second was really good, under a new director however things have just turned out as one big failure.