Great Concept, Rushed Execution. 7/10

Rating: 7/10 (13 July 2006)

Like it's predecessors, X-Men: The Last Stand has stunning visual and audio effects that leave you in awe. However, I suppose we'll start with the cons. There were only 3 major downfalls in the movie that I saw:
1. It barely followed the original comics. 2. It lacked a handful of certain characters. 3. It felt like it was rushed at times.
I don't know what happened to the character of Cyclops when X-Men hit the movies. He played a significant role in the first movie, which was good considering he's supposed to be the 'squad leader of the X-men'. In the second movie his role took a sharp dive and he netted screen time of about 10 minutes. Basically he goes with Prof. X to meet Magneto, they get captured, he disappears for an hour or two, he fights Jean, they make up, and that's about his role in a nutshell. By time the third movie rolls around, he's just dead. Just as your starting to grasp the opening story in the third movie, they just tell you he's dead. Somehow I thought the squad leader of the X-Men would have a slightly more significant roll in their 'last stand'.
Another character that's randomly missing is Nightcrawler. They don't make an attempt to justify his absence or even mention him for that matter. He did great in the second movie so I was almost positive he would be back, but I guess I was wrong. I wish before the 'last stand' they could have chosen to not say "There's only six of us.". I guess Gambit, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, and a few others chose their life over making a stand.
I was very content with the scene where Jean was trashing the house up when Prof. X was trying to console her. However, other than that and a few minutes near the end of the movie, the Phoenix never really goes around on a blood-lust killing spree. This didn't take from the overall movie, but it would have been nice to see more Phoenix-effects.
The biggest downfall was how short the movie turned out to be. There was such a great deal happening that the movie flies right by. The whole thing is action-packed and does a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat, but at times there is so much action going on it can be overwhelming and rushed. What - Cyclops died? The professor is gone?
With that said, we can move onto the pros of the movie. Despite the lack of a few characters, many more have joined the fray. People like Kitty, Colossus, Beast, Angel, Juggernaut, Multiple-Man, and Spyke will enter the film. The list goes on but those were a few of the ones I noted. There are so many mutants flashing around at different times it can be hard to catch them all.
If nothing else, the one thing the movie succeeded at was closure. *WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET* I doubt they'll make a fourth movie, but if they do I have no idea what it could possibly be about. Ultimately, Cyclops, Jean, and the Professor are dead. Mystique and Rogue are regular humans, and the once powerful Magneto has become a useless old man who can barely make a chess-piece wobble. (Although this does hint that he's getting his powers back, I somehow don't think Magneto will threaten the world with his almighty ability to slightly wobble a single chess-piece) On top of that, Beast has apparently succeeded at making Mutant-Human relations peaceful again.
That just about wraps up every single conflict ever arisen in the X-Men movies. The Wolverine-Cyclops-Jean love triangle is gone, Magneto and the brotherhood are apparently dissolved, Prof. X is 'dead', Iceman and Rogue can have normal relations, and everyone's happy and peace-loving again. Doesn't leave a lot of leeway for a fourth movie.
Again another great feature of the movie, as to be expected from the trilogy, is the amazing special effects. Early on you get to see Magneto crushing cars and throwing them out of the way like nothing. Pyro and Iceman have a short but sweet fight, and Wolverine fights a few bouts with Juggernaut, Spyke, and various other random generic mutants. Possibly the coolest effect in the entire movie was at the end. Wolverine's dramatic walk towards the Phoenix while being constantly pelted by her Phoenix-ness. His skin gets torn apart time and time again but it keeps regenerating due to his healing ability. On a side note I think people found it amusing that his shirt was blown to shreds in the first hit, yet his pants managed to survive around 20. Thank god for armored pants.
Overall, it gets a 7 out of 10 for the new characters, sweet effects, and general all-around closure of the film. It loses the last 3 points for failure to follow the original story, the complete lack of Cyclops or Nightcrawler, and the rushed feeling of the film.