Wasted Potential (contains spoilers)

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2006)

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
Had "X-Men: The Last Stand" been about either the rise of Jean Grey as Phoenix OR the "cure" for mutants the movie could have been full of the meaningful allegories and edge-of-your-seat action that made "X2" such a great film. Instead it tries to tackle both story lines and ends up falling sadly short on both.
One major crime was the misuse of characters. The biggest (but not only) faults:
 Rogue: Once a major focal point of the series, she vanishes early on in the action and turns up (seemingly as an afterthought) at the very end. One of the plots was about the "cure" she left to get  wouldn't it have been more meaningful if the audience got to go along on the journey with this character we care about?
 Bobby/Iceman: He's unfortunately been afflicted with the same good-guy-blandness that neutered Cyclops in the movies. Before, we cared about him because Rogue cared about him; without her around he's really not very interesting. That would have made his many scenes hard enough to watch even if his storyline hadn't been completely pointless.
 Kitty: Her character is so generic she might as well be called "Bobby's Alternative Love Interest". Honestly, with as much screen time as she got we should have gotten to know something about her besides the facts she can walk through walls and touch Bobby while Rogue can't.
 Hank/Beast: Another character with a lot of screen time that we didn't know enough about. What's his story? How is it that he's such good friends with the X-Men even though the audience hasn't met him before? Where has he been? How, out of all the mutants in the world, did he get the high position in the federal government? The movie offers few real answers to any of these questions and that makes his character difficult to care about on a personal level.
 Angel: This character, on the other hand, has an interesting and relevant back-story that the audience is allowed to know and both it and he are completely wasted. This role is little more than a glorified cameo, which is a shame because the little I saw of him made me want to know more.
Mystique/the bad guys: Mystique is such an awesome character and the movie wastes her; instead she is replaced with some new baddies, none of whom we know enough about to be too invested in the Brotherhood-versus-X-Men fights (more on this later).
The plots are simply stretched too thin to get enough excitement and emotional impact, and the movie doesn't even seem to try for any of that. Where is Rogue's struggle with her identity as a mutant and how that affected her decision about getting the "cure"? Where is Warren Worthington II's reaction to being saved by Angel and the mutation he'd tried to "cure"? Where are the scrimmages between Magneto's Brotherhood and the X-Men that build up the tension and rivalries between the two factions? This movie has no big one-on-one fight scene. Sure, Iceman and Pyro's showdown is cool (no pun intended), but it's hardly on par with past greats such as the glorious and riveting showdown between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike in the second film.
There are a lot of flaws in the details too. The dialog is totally dumbed-down (what, isn't anyone in the not-too-distant future capable of speaking in compound sentences anymore?). Most scenes and sequences are rushed and disjointed; and since no one bothers to take the time to flesh out characters, rivalries, and story lines the audience remains fairly emotionally disengaged during the climatic battle at the end. With too much to cover the emotional impact the movie could have had is lost, especially with its sub-par script.
Not that "X-Men: The Last Stand" is without its great moments. The final confrontation between Jean/Phoenix and Professor X is heart-stopping; Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge is a highlight of the action sequences; Storm is finally flying; Wolverine lighting his cigar with the burning rubble in the Danger Room simulation is perfectly in character; and Magneto's final scene alone at the chess board is lonely, intriguing, and hopeful all at once. It's too bad these are so few and far between  instead of recapturing the greatness of "X2", the third X-Men movie is but a shadow of what was.