Extremely disappointed.

Rating: 3/10 (10 July 2006)

Plucking a few appealing ideas from Joss Whedon's stint on the X-Men comics, The Last Stand fails to impress. With unbelievable special effects, but a mostly talent lacking cast, the final movie in the trilogy leaves you pondering if money was spent in all the wrong areas. Halle Berry brings back her character of Storm and Patrick Stewart of Star Trek fame returns. The script writers fail to provide on adequate script to showcase talent for most of the cast, though Ian McKellan brings the script to life with his charismatic acting, though Magneto is not unlike any character he's played in his long career. James Marsden's characters heartbreak is shown by the growth of a beard on his usually clean shaven, boyish face; though a thirteen year old teen could have grown as much in a matter of weeks. Kelsey Grammar's character Beast, though with a small role in the movie, acts as if he really was a monster, instead of an unfortunate man dressing up in steaming hot blue plastic prosthetics.
The Last Stand attempts to draw the audience into a serious ethical debate, which really has no place in a comic book movie. The X-Men movies have made their money out of brilliantly choreographed fight scenes, original story lines, and amazing locations. To see the third forsake this formula, and instead try to have at least a dozen side stories going, and overdone drama, not to mention character inconsistency, is really disappointing, for a person who's read the comic books, followed the TV series, and the first two films eagerly. The film also touches upon petty teenage issues, allowing Anna Paquin to display her poor acting ability to a fuller extent, as if the first two films hadn't taught us anything.
Since the release on the 26th of May, thousands of discussions have spawned online, with young and old, longtime and relatively new fans ripping all aspects of the movie to shreds. While the idea of ripping the Golden Gate Bridge from the ground, and moving it throughout the harbor may have seemed genius at the time  I'm sure the employees who spent endless months digitalizing the scene, as well as the majority of the audience disagree. The budget was wasted in prettying the movie up, yet they can't quite cake on enough to conceal that beneath a somewhat attractive exterior, lays a hideous film. Not unlike Australian fashion week, actually.
With pathetic one liners, and loopholes in the plot large enough to drive a convoy of trucks filled with Halle Berry's hair products through, what could have been a masterpiece has become a disaster. Brian Singer, director of the first two movies did a most intelligent thing, which leaves him most likely laughing now. He left before having to associate himself with the rubbish that is X-Men 3. A poorly executed and poorly conceived movie can't expect to receive a high, so I'll give it three stars out of ten. No movie with geographical errors and crew from the ingenious film Snakes on a Plane should receive a rating above four stars, so I think it's much more than fair.