X-Men: The Last Stand Review (Spoilers)
Jun. 18th, 2006 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_zimmerBoy my back was killing me today. Sitting through this movie almost made it worth it though.
X-Men: The Last Stand
First off, what's with all the hating? I'm not sure if the movie was better than the first two or not but I sure liked it. Yes, they changed some stuff from the comic books but comic books are frustrating for me. I didn't mind.
I liked the movie. Not as much as the Spider-Man movies but despite being directed by Brett "Hack" Rettner I thought it was good. Like the first one it started off with a couple of flashbacks. I was pretty impressed with how they managed to tie everything up at the end too before smacking us with a double-cliffhanger which was quite funny. The wobbly chess piece and Charles' return were both a delightfully wicked place to end the last movie of a trilogy. Since a Wolverine movie is coming (and MAYBE a Magneto one) I want to see if they have ANY intention of answering these two questions.
The mutant cure was a great idea for a film although I'm a little bit sad they didn't manage to wedge Apocaplypse in there since they streamlined the origins of Dark Phoenix AND Juggernaut. I think it might have killed the movie though so I was okay with it.
The good:
-The fight scenes were REALLY good and more epic than either of the other two movies. You'd figure with a title like "The Last Stand" that's to be expected but all the internet hating kept my expectations low.
-Lots of soap opera stuff which was always fun.
-Like the first two movies it continued the trend of not making the mutant paranoia by "normies" over the top. People in picket lines screaming "MUTIES! DEATH TO ALL MUTIES!" on the old Fox cartoon show always made me cringe. Magneto? He can be as arch as he wants to be as far as I'm concerned. Ian MacKellan can sell it. He was as great as he's ever been.
-They killed off Cyclops pretty quickly. I HATE Cyclops and James Marsden is an annoying actor and I was glad to see him punked.
-Loved Kelsey Grammer as Beast.
-Funniest scene in the movie was after the bridge being moved the family in the car locking the doors. It's funny cause no matter HOW pointless it was every single one of us would have probably done the exact same thing.
The not so good:
-The movie was a little too vulgar for me. I thought Kitty Pryde was so cute so when she called Juggernaut a phallic name I kinda cringed. Kids today.
-The Dark Phoenix stuff was nowhere NEAR as epic as the cartoon or the comic book. I know that couldn't really be helped because they jammed so much stuff in here but Jean instead of coming across as a fallen Angel comes across as a sociopath. Meh.
-This is more my problem but I couldn't keep all of the evil mutants straight. I didn't even recognize Pyro in the crowd scene outside the clinic. The movies have too generic actors in many of the roles.
-Storm's "big" role. I have nothing against Halle Berry but it seems almost like her contract negotiations squeezed Patrick Stewart out of half of the movie. I know Xavier has died a billion times but Stewart (along with Hugh Jackman) was the STAR of the first two movies and his role here was WAAAY too minor. And it's not like Storm's new high profile actually led to any great character stuff. She was basically just in more scenes and had more lines. That may satisfy an actor's ego but it does nothing for characterization.
-Logan wasn't as cool as he was in the first two movies. That said, I was surprised at how many people he was allowed to kill in this movie. They must've been gearing the audience for the spin-off.
I was pretty impressed that the trilogy actually had a pretty definative ending. Yes, the last two scenes could propel a sequel but they still managed to tie up a bunch of stuff. Rogue getting cured was sweet as I always thought she was one of the few mutants who got a raw deal out of her powers. I was just kind of disappointed for the reasons she did it. She should have just talked to Bobby beforehand. But people are stupid and she IS just a kid. I liked Jean going out in Wolverine's arms. And I like that the president of the United States isn't a villian now.
As for the last two scenes, seeing Magneto is old man's clothes was REALLY depressing but that wobble of the chess piece sold me on that scene. I FIGURED Xavier wasn't actually dead but DANG did he turn out to be majorly wounded. I want to know what happens next but I think this IS actually the last X-Men movie. I can't wait for the Wolverine spin-off. I liked it. ****.
X-Men: The Last Stand
First off, what's with all the hating? I'm not sure if the movie was better than the first two or not but I sure liked it. Yes, they changed some stuff from the comic books but comic books are frustrating for me. I didn't mind.
I liked the movie. Not as much as the Spider-Man movies but despite being directed by Brett "Hack" Rettner I thought it was good. Like the first one it started off with a couple of flashbacks. I was pretty impressed with how they managed to tie everything up at the end too before smacking us with a double-cliffhanger which was quite funny. The wobbly chess piece and Charles' return were both a delightfully wicked place to end the last movie of a trilogy. Since a Wolverine movie is coming (and MAYBE a Magneto one) I want to see if they have ANY intention of answering these two questions.
The mutant cure was a great idea for a film although I'm a little bit sad they didn't manage to wedge Apocaplypse in there since they streamlined the origins of Dark Phoenix AND Juggernaut. I think it might have killed the movie though so I was okay with it.
The good:
-The fight scenes were REALLY good and more epic than either of the other two movies. You'd figure with a title like "The Last Stand" that's to be expected but all the internet hating kept my expectations low.
-Lots of soap opera stuff which was always fun.
-Like the first two movies it continued the trend of not making the mutant paranoia by "normies" over the top. People in picket lines screaming "MUTIES! DEATH TO ALL MUTIES!" on the old Fox cartoon show always made me cringe. Magneto? He can be as arch as he wants to be as far as I'm concerned. Ian MacKellan can sell it. He was as great as he's ever been.
-They killed off Cyclops pretty quickly. I HATE Cyclops and James Marsden is an annoying actor and I was glad to see him punked.
-Loved Kelsey Grammer as Beast.
-Funniest scene in the movie was after the bridge being moved the family in the car locking the doors. It's funny cause no matter HOW pointless it was every single one of us would have probably done the exact same thing.
The not so good:
-The movie was a little too vulgar for me. I thought Kitty Pryde was so cute so when she called Juggernaut a phallic name I kinda cringed. Kids today.
-The Dark Phoenix stuff was nowhere NEAR as epic as the cartoon or the comic book. I know that couldn't really be helped because they jammed so much stuff in here but Jean instead of coming across as a fallen Angel comes across as a sociopath. Meh.
-This is more my problem but I couldn't keep all of the evil mutants straight. I didn't even recognize Pyro in the crowd scene outside the clinic. The movies have too generic actors in many of the roles.
-Storm's "big" role. I have nothing against Halle Berry but it seems almost like her contract negotiations squeezed Patrick Stewart out of half of the movie. I know Xavier has died a billion times but Stewart (along with Hugh Jackman) was the STAR of the first two movies and his role here was WAAAY too minor. And it's not like Storm's new high profile actually led to any great character stuff. She was basically just in more scenes and had more lines. That may satisfy an actor's ego but it does nothing for characterization.
-Logan wasn't as cool as he was in the first two movies. That said, I was surprised at how many people he was allowed to kill in this movie. They must've been gearing the audience for the spin-off.
I was pretty impressed that the trilogy actually had a pretty definative ending. Yes, the last two scenes could propel a sequel but they still managed to tie up a bunch of stuff. Rogue getting cured was sweet as I always thought she was one of the few mutants who got a raw deal out of her powers. I was just kind of disappointed for the reasons she did it. She should have just talked to Bobby beforehand. But people are stupid and she IS just a kid. I liked Jean going out in Wolverine's arms. And I like that the president of the United States isn't a villian now.
As for the last two scenes, seeing Magneto is old man's clothes was REALLY depressing but that wobble of the chess piece sold me on that scene. I FIGURED Xavier wasn't actually dead but DANG did he turn out to be majorly wounded. I want to know what happens next but I think this IS actually the last X-Men movie. I can't wait for the Wolverine spin-off. I liked it. ****.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Part 2, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 06:23 pm (UTC)About spin-offs:
If you're going to do a Wolverine spin-off, oh wait, don't do it. You're already pretty close to ruining Hugh Jackman, who, despite all that's going against him, is one of our few decent action stars. By all measure he should rightly suck. What kind of name is Hugh Jackman? How about Grant Cockbig? Steve Toughguy? Even with all the ridiculous movies he's done outside of
X-Men, Hugh Jackman still seems like a person I don't want to hate. He does theater. Musical theater. That doesn't make him cool, but it does help to differentiate him from The Rock.
And don't pretend that the Wolverine movie is going to be about developing his story. We know his story. It ended in X2. In fact, we all had it figured out in X-Men 1, but we put up with you showing him figuring it all out. How he got his name is not backstory. It's just obvious. (Why do they call Storm, Storm?)
And Magneto? We got him figured out in the prologue for the first movie. It took about 4 minutes.
Re: Part 2, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 06:54 pm (UTC)O contraire mon frere. mutants vs humans was exactly the kind of story that needed to be told for #2. My the things I liked and disliked about 3 seem different from yours, but I'd take X2 kick-ass action over X3's lame lameness any day of the week.
Re: Part 2, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 06:59 pm (UTC)But I still love the Second much more than the Third.
Re: Part 2, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 09:27 pm (UTC)Re: Part 2, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 09:28 pm (UTC)Re: Part 2, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 10:02 pm (UTC)Re: Part 2, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-20 08:17 pm (UTC)Re: Part 1, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 09:31 pm (UTC)I wish I remembered more about X2 so I could get into the whole whether mutants fighting humans is fair argument. I need to get the first two movies on DVD.
Re: Part 1, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-19 09:56 pm (UTC)Right after Battlestar Galactica.
Re: Part 1, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-20 03:28 am (UTC)Re: Part 1, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-20 03:54 pm (UTC)It's Official: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=5881
And the longer it takes you to watch this, the longer I have to wait to talk about all the amazing television.
Re: Part 1, damn LiveJournal
Date: 2006-06-20 08:19 pm (UTC)Still, I was seriously thinking about getting this anyways. I just want to be absolutely sure Sci-Fi ISN'T going to rerun it before October.