Stand against violence

Rating: 7/10 (13 May 2010)

Originally, I didn't like X-Men: The Last Stand. Today, I watched it again and it's still my third favorite of the original 3. (It goes: X2: X-Men United, then X-Men and finally X-Men: The Last Stand.) However, what I originally gave 2 or 2½ stars turned, tonight, to 4/5 stars.) Why? (Spoiler alerts following. It's so hard as the expert journalist I think I am to avoid giving away the major points in order to review. So, if spoilers aren't your bag (baby) then skip to lifesaboxofchocolates.com.) So many mutants and humans (or homosapiens) die. This is NOT your childhood, your Superman: The Movie. This is WAR. An adult comic book movie, as if this could "really" happen. So there will always be causalities. Does that mean, I have to like it? No. I don't want to see the majority die or get "cured." Oh, sorry, that's another spoiler.
Humans have developed a "cure" for the common mutant in the form of awell, mutant. That little mutant boy, Leech (or Jimmy (Bright)) is capable of transforming any mutant into, well one of them, orus (humans.) Naturally, there are those against it, namely Magneto (so wonderfully played again by McKellen) and his "brotherhood" of mutants-against-change.
Meanwhile, and this is another major plot-point, Jean Grey (Janssen) is back, but now as "Phoenix." Hey, that's where I live. That was bad. Sorry. Anyways, her split personality is weighing heavily on multiple sources: Wolverine (Jackman) who loves her, Cyclops (Marsden) who mourns her, Xavier (Stewart) who wants to help her and Magneto who wants to, uh, evolve her.
Sure there are more subplots roaming. But, suffice to say, I loved the fact we left Wolverine's backdrop behind, Rogue (as annoying as she isin all three original features) is only minimal, and the action was intense, when it did happen. Hates? Well that a huge amount of mutants either got evaporated – and I won't spoil who, or "cured." Stick around for the before-and-after credits for some nice surprises.
Also, the bridge moving scene went on for far too long and was a completely unnecessarily (CGI-excuse) scene as Magneto could've easily lifted everyone over via metal slab.
Fine, (since I'm still p*ssed) I'll give away one transformation I didn't care for: Mystique (Romijn.) She was definitely one of my favorites in the first two chapters and could've been used here more.
If you liked the first two, this is definitely worth a shot/viewing. It's not perfect, and suffers from a lot of the same old comic-book/sequel dilemmas: too much, too late. And it's very violent for a "comic-book/super-hero" movie. It's not for smaller kids. I admired that "stand" against the norm. Watch it. And, again, stay through the credits Side Note: and I wish they would stop that. It's definitely no fun to stay through a 2 hour movie, wait 4-9 minutes for the credits to finish so you can see an additional 20 seconds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's marketing or attempts to get you to read/see all the people involved. But it's annoying. Seriously.