A person's second opinion about: X-men: the last stand

Rating: 5/10 (6 May 2007)

Recently i've gotten the chance to read, "Astonishing X-men" joss whedon's vision of the xmen and the cure that comes with it...i've also taken the opportunity to read the dark phoenix saga written by Chris Claremont and and try to put two of them together in a way that the movie did...unfortunately, the results ended badly and thats' why i'm giving my second opinion of X-men: the last stand.
The last review i made of this movie i really lashed out at it without giving a reasonable view of this movie. Truth be told, I REALLY didn't like this movie on the basis of a convoluted story arc that tried REALLY hard to be put together by the screenplay writers. Much like spider-man 3 tried to do they, "Tried" to merge different stories to make a much interesting and maybe action-packed movie but failed on the idea that maybe it was a bad idea and just stick try and true with the original story at hand and it made me wish for Joss whedon's view cause for the action and character depth. But let me point some of the good before the bad just to be fair, for those that like this movie i can say this movie was a good, "popcorn flick" as far as the action/adventure is concern. The fight scenes were fast and intense and the music made the pace just as good; I enjoyed how fast and cool they made this work out in their favor. However now for the bad, Brett Ratner's vision isn't up to par with such directors like Singer or long term comic writers like Claremont or bendis; his focus was more intent on two characters...storm (Halie berry) and wolverine (Hugh Jackman) which for some way storm DID get a longer part which I'm not complaining but when its at the cost of some those other characters that deserved their time as well in one form it was being selfish on the director's part.
Other X-men vets did make an appearance like the Beast (Kelsey grammar) who did pretty damn good for taking the time to dress like a, "Blue fur ball" and then there's angel (Ben foster) who's very talented as well as athletic so i can see why they chose him for this role but you only see at least 15 mins of his character before he walks off or disappears into the crowd of the less important co-stars...word to the directors, if you are going to put a character on a poster claiming that he will be in most of all the scenes of the movie....MAKE IT SO! if this was the case you might as well had him come into the room and say, "hi guys, i'm angel" and walk away and never see him again which i felt it was really unfair to most of the fans who were expecting him to be part of the fight and climax for the long run. Now lets move to the story...as much as it was full of action which I thought was hot, the story was not! Technically in a nutshell, taken place a month after X2 Jene gray sacrificed herself to save her teammates knowing that there was a deeper power lurking that saved her and it was about to show itself; meanwhile doctors Kavita rao and warren Worthington Sr. created a "cure" that can solve the mutant "problem" most will take it and others will oppose against it...like magneto who believed a war is brewing against homo sapiens (Humans) and mutants which is happening. IN the middle Scott summers is grieving...everyone somewhat forgot about Jeane...Phoenix has risen some X-men characters die and phoenix don't do crap except stand in the background as a poster child or reminder to join magneto's crew which i found really insulting giving she's is powerful than magneto and the whole mutant-kind combined.
which leads to a whole new set of problems, the direction, as much as it was fun to watch the story and direction was all over the place...lack of character depth of new characters and understanding of old ones puts this movie on a downward spiral; it got caught up in its own action that it forgot the purpose to what the dark phoenix saga was about...i mean a comic fan would ask, "where's the hellfire club?" and "shouldn't Emma frost be introduced to this?" which was never asked thus leading this movie into a confusing twist of just action nothing more...nothing less. Jugganaunt was cool, and the line at the climax did make me clap but that's all it was an enjoyable feast. Honestly, after reading both comics i saw Whedon's vision and wanted THAT version into this movie if it was going to stick to the "Cure". But if they were going the route of the Dark Phoenix they should of added the elements that the comic portrayed like the hellfire club and ms. frost instead of setting off meaningless deaths that should of never happened.
All in all, I give it a "5" cause even though this movie was fun, and going into the movie leaving your mind behind is a good way to enjoy this movie; most movie goers go into this movie hoping of a good story to go behind it; this movie was confused in its own world and too hyped up for its own good making this movie a confused mess; i didn't know where the story was going and why characters didn't stay to fight it was unfair to most true comic fans to see something like this made in a way that didn't set the bar of the comic itself instead it just made it a roller coaster ride of adventure with no development whatsoever thus is why i don't like this movie cause it lost that feeling of what the other two movies tried to do.