For a selected audience

Rating: 4/10 (28 May 2006)

X Men: The Last Stand, is a film that shifts the movie franchise from story driven, character based entertainment to a popcorn film of grand CGI effects and humorous one-liners.
If you don't know much about the X-Men, never read or saw the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix Sagas, don't like a lot of "talkin'" in your films, and love bloated CGI sequences, this is your film.
If you are a core X-Men fan, know and love the Phoenix story, like the characters you're watching to have some "meat" on them, or prefer an even emotional flow to your movies rather than a mish-mash of scenes, this is not your film.
The movie's first twenty-five minutes is a steadily building mix of sadness, fear and powerful performances. However, this all reaches a climax early on and is not brought back until the very end of the film. What should have been tragic felt empty, perhaps due to the lack of emotional build up over the last hour to this final confrontation between a man and the woman he loves. Most of the rest of the movie is comprised of scenes that don't necessarily flow together, one-liners, and huge special effects.
Character development is sorely lacking in this film as well. Unlike Nightcrawler, Iceman, and William Stryker from X2, the new characters in X3: Angel, Beast, etc. are not developed nearly as well. Where you may be able to relate to Iceman, become entranced by Nightcrawler's personality and understand the motivation behind Stryker ... Angel is not much more than a cameo and Beast comes off as a replacement for Xavier or Cyclops (if you see the film, you'll know why they need to be replaced).
On the positive side, the special effects are fantastic and the one-liners are hysterical. Again, if that's all you care for your movies to have, then this is the movie for you.
In the end, fans of the X-Men mythos might feel cheated. The Phoenix Saga, a promise hinted at the end of X2, is a classic, proved, beloved and heralded storyline that after thirty years still holds a high place in the hearts of those who've read or watched it.
For the average movie goer, this is your big budget popcorn film. You will have a wonderful time watching odd characters blow up things and fight each other while delivering the most base dialogue imaginable (think pro wrestling).
For the rest, to have the core of the story changed so much (I'm sure no one expect space ships, aliens, and crystals, but did want the essential emotional Phoenix story to stay in tact) is a bit of a let down. Not getting to know the new characters and seeing beloved favorites dismissed may also be unnerving. No, X-Men: The Last Stand will make you leave the theatre without a sense of wonder, but perhaps a sense of disappointment in knowing what "could have been".