Is X-Men: The Last Stand Really That Bad?

so I've obviously been cutting a lot of Wolverine Clips lately and naturally I found myself stopping my work to watch random scenes from the original X-Men Trilogy you know those Super O movies that were just as important and influential as the Rainy Spider-Man movies except they were directed by conniving militia's Predator so now nobody talks about them for fear of dredging up Brian singers rightfully tarnished Legacy in a recent interview with the guardian Jackman finally addressed the long-running Bevy of allegations against singer and the notion that singer's Behavior tainted the legacy of those films in popular culture I think it's fair to say that there are some stories you know I think there are some ways of being on set that would not happen now and I think that things have changed for the better similarly to Joss Whedon is unfortunately true that can make great art singers work on the first two X-Men films are no exception the director's Behavior cannot be excused and his attempts to downplay outright ignore the numerous stories surrounding him have only further plunged his work into relative obscurity x2 in particular is one of the best superhero films ever made I'm sorry to say it's perfectly paced satisfyingly dark and tops the first film in just about every way the third film is a completely different Beast singer of course left the ex-franchise to go and do Superman Returns meaning the in development third film was left without director close to going into production Matthew Vaughn got involved but left because he didn't feel he had enough prep time ironic then that he would go on to turn around X-Men first Class in less than a year and made it one of the best X-Men films ever I prefer [Music] Magneto next up was rush hour's Brett Ratner another director with a less than Stellar reputation Ratner was a director for hire who clearly didn't understand the characters to the same degree singer did X-Men the Last Stand was shorter faster and way more popcorn Laden Charles always wanted to build Bridges it was mauled by fans and critics alike and even as a kid I distinctly remember being so disappointed with it following up X2 it was probably one of the first times I'd gone to see something at the cinema and really honestly knew in my heart that this movie I was tremendously excited for that I was rooting for sucked ass but is it really that bad well yes and no a lot of this film disappointed due to expectations Cyclops and Gene were often overshadowed by Wolverine this movie was set to do the dark Phoenix storyline the definitive Scott and Jean Story the previous movies had hinted at the younger Generations joining The Fray this movie's marketing saw more X-Men suited up than ever before they were set to introduce Beast after x2's blink and you'll miss it Cameo this was promised as the Epic ending to a narrative set up by the blast at the end of X1 and Gene's subsequent death in X2 there was a lot riding on it there was an expectation of structure solid snake's X2 script was tight it involved multiple villains with various motivation but it all sought to divide and conquer the X-Men before their eventual reunion in a blistering third act in the BTS for X2 the series was referred to as a saga meaning that multiple installments would come to pass that felt right for a superhero team that could hold its own as a Cinematic Universe on the scale of the early MCU phases by the time X3 rolled around it was being touted as the final installment in a Trilogy and felt incredibly rushed in doing so the biggest problem with the movie is that it tries to condense the dark Phoenix storyline that had been built up across the series alongside a mutant cure storyline all in roughly 90 minutes trying to honor two huge comic book plots the re-emergence of big bad Magneto the older X-Men the teen X-Men and the whole host of New Mutants meant this film was nowhere near the Polish and finesse of X2 and the juggling act that it was able to pull off there was also an expectation of tone that was created in the previous movies my boy the great Illusionist she took a power drill to her left temple in an attempt to bore the images out Strikers enslaved docile but incredibly powerful son Jason is one of the darkest Hallmarks of the old movies uh William this is your son what have you done no child my son is dead they didn't shy away from the abuse or persecution mutants faced in the comics and brought a sobering Touch of reality to those pages X-Men the Last Stand starts off with a grim scene showing a young Angel mutilating himself to keep his mutation a secret it's the kind of Darkness that would have been right at home in the first two movies and is something you'll never see under Disney's handling of the property going forwards unfortunately that scene did not set a precedent for the rest of the movie which largely fumbles its political allegories involving mutant powers and the so-called mutant problem you can let me out of here I need a p the tone switch up was incredibly jarring and it's hard to see this film as a follow-up to the first two come on the way the action is filmed is much more light-hearted complete with ball gags foreign in fact I'd say the finale especially is where it feels really like a Proto MCU style I mean just watch this entrance [Music] don't ever do that again that feels like the kind of rousing action moment we'd see in The Avengers not sequel to X2 although that Wolverine entrance is pretty sweet [Music] all those promo picks of the X-Men suited up that was all baloney Scott dies in the first 20 minutes he never suits up angel never suits up and barely factors into the finale at all Rogue suits up very briefly at the start and then decides to get the Cure and also sits at the finale this isn't what I wanted it felt really undercooked to have so many X-Men to play with and yet the finale only features a team of Wolverine storm Beast Colossus Iceman and kitty Pride that's a pretty good team no doubt but in the context of the whole series it's a slap in the face where's Cyclops where's Rogue where's Nightcrawler where's Angel they were all over the bloody posters why would you do me dirty like that movie this was the first time I can remember actively feeling shortchanged and deceived by a movie's marketing my child self could not work out why they could possibly snap all these promo pics of the X-Men in costume if the Finnish movie wouldn't feature them at all but I say we are the cure [Applause] a conflict between the trailers were Moody and seemed to evoke a tone from the previous movies there was nowhere to be found in the finished films there have always been moments when the course of history shifted honestly it drove me crazy this film has a lot to answer for one thing I will say is that killing off Scott Summers Gene ground professor Charles Xavier was pretty ballsy and something I think the film doesn't get enough credit for for a supposed Grand Finale it has more gumption killing off its characters than most of the MCU which couldn't commit to killing anyone important in Age of Ultron or Civil War or even really Infinity War I mean everybody's back aren't they in some variant form one way or the other yes these characters all eventually returned but unlike the MCU it wasn't part of an ongoing plan it was a gear shift eight years later at the time of The Last Stand This was meant to be it for the main X-Men movies I think it's cool that so many of them fall adding some genuine Stakes as we go into the finale I want to kill the professor if he'd give me the chance counting Xavier did more for mutants than the other one now it also has moments of Brilliance due to these parts like when Magneto says that he would never want Charles Xavier to die and that it's a shame that he had to for the mutant cause we go back and see the young uh Xavier and Magneto played by far spender and McAvoy it really adds more texture to that relationship to see how Magneto would deal with him out living Xavier he's not happy about it at all it's probably one of the movie's best lines a single greatest regret is that he had to die for our Dream to live it's also a very satisfying parallel to a similar line said by Magneto at the end of days of future pastors I have a pressure than back to be honest all of the best moments and lines in the movie come from Magneto in chess the pawns go first he flipped a truck two years before the Joker made it cool [Music] and of course he just gags every other mutant that dares to criticize him you're so proud of being a mutant where's your mark I have remarked once my dad let me assure you no needle or she'll ever touch my skin again you know Ian McKellen is such a goat it takes a proper actor to make levitating a bridge look this cool I love the way he brushes his gloves together before he does it Magneto what a tank forever and always where the movie falters is how it feels like certain characters deemed important before are now suddenly inconsequential Wolverine Magneto Xavier Jean Gray and storm all still have their part to play but characters like Rogue and Mystique and cyclops just drop off the map in favor of new characters or promoted supporting characters it really doesn't help when the movie is already in a completely different place tonally and narratively speaking you never should have left tying together this cheesier more light-hearted tone is the score John upman had a rousing theme of his very own foreign [Music] more poignant tracks in the first two movies that really accentuated the Grim proceedings John Powell's new theme sucks in comparison [Music] and the overall score does away with any of that Darkness even if the movie had just kept the main theme song it would have tied it in better as a Trilogy I think the Last Stand might be the reason I harp on about the scores so much in things like no way home it really makes a difference when you keep up with the music and certain pieces remain tied to certain characters stripping this movie of the ottman theme in place for that awful thumping new theme was one of the movie's worst decisions the dark Phoenix storyline could have worked and filled the runtime twice over even more frustrating is that when it works it works well Wolverine's Arc becoming a leader in the absence of Charles Scott and Jean actually flows really well from X1 to this and help us fight with us fight with you or join the team be an X-Man wheel Oscar we lost the professor and we don't fight now everything they stood for will die with them I'm not going to let that happen he galvanizes the remaining X-Men and you totally buy that he would become this person after all these experiences then we stand together X-Men I know people don't see Wolverine as a leader like Cyclops or cap but in the context of the movies it really works plus the love triangle between Cyclops Gene and Logan was pretty well done in the first two movies it was appropriately tense and led to a good deal of friction between the heroes rather than everyone being like college buddies it pays off in this movie in a pretty epic scene at the end of course it does then play into the Trope that women with Powers become too powerful and need to essentially be killed in order to save everyone save me oh and always I love you but that's a problem you need to take up with the original dark Phoenix storyline in the first place the aforementioned cure Arc really goes nowhere although I will say it does provide a pretty incredible end for Magneto is there any fate worse in his eyes than ending up a human being I think he'd rather be dead um one of them it's also a nice payoff to his treatment of Mystique earlier in the movie I'm sorry Amanda you're not one of us anymore even if like roshi is another long-standing character who is tossed by the wayside I know that in the case of Rebecca romaine and James Marsden they had scheduling conflicts but the end result is that it still sucks and we lose really important characters when will Studios learn to just wait a year the action is a mixed bag the energy to the Nightcrawler White House attack or the satisfying wire work and savagery of the Wolverine vs Deathstrike fight are nowhere to be seen in this one however there is a really sweet sequence involving Wolverine leaping about and stabbing various sidless mutants in the forest from Silver Surfer I love how this guy is fully committed to steaming the Wolverine even though he's shown he can shrug off and heal from all of his attacks you gotta respect the fact he did not go gently into that good night ouch Juggernaut underwhelms is the new heavy replacing Sabretooth and death strike respectively he throws down with Wolverine at the gray residence in what is a tense scene in terms of its story but incredibly wet as an action set piece later he chases Elliot page through multiple rooms which I think is one of the film's most memorable visuals to be honest on the subject of kitty Pride the casting is perfect and Paige was a welcome addition to Days of Future Past but the love triangle subplot with Iceman just further seeks to push Rogue out of the picture the guys man just consoling them both just being a good friend to both of them totally not trying to play them [Applause] player speaking of face of Future Past the danger room training sequence yeah it's pretty cool for 2006 it was pretty mental to see superheroes in a terminator-esque post-apocalypse and we even get the fastball special oh damn it Logan don't do this of course Colossus has no character so it kind of becomes even more maddening that he's in the finale and not Cyclops or Rogue but I digress he actually has less lines in this movie than the next two The Last Stand does deliver a lost stand a big battle at the Flaming cars a pyro vs Iceman 101 not to mention Beast flipping around like crazy they really nailed beast in this movie in a way that they never quite managed with Nicholas Holt no fault on the actor and for some reason we're only allowed one awesome blue mutant in every movie beast and Nightcrawler in the finale was what we should have been treated to Nightcrawler's absence from X3 is insane but at least we've got that pretty fun tie-in game this was kind of the closest thing to an Avengers Star movie before the Avengers we'd had team up films before but their finales whilst effective were relatively small this was the first time we really had a massive group of villains with an army taking on the might of a superhero team funny that there's also six of them I wonder who would win out of The Last Stand six and the Avengers six Comics wise I think the X-Men have it but in terms of the movies I think the Avengers are taking that Crown although with storm Wolverine Colossus and Iceman it wouldn't be an easy win the X-Men certainly have a more diverse range of powers but I'd say The Avengers 6 have more fighting ability who do you think would win let me know in the comments I think this will be fun love a good match up so yeah whilst the movie doesn't live up to the spectacle of the Avengers New York battle it certainly paved the way for that kind of huge battle sequence in a supero movie this was at a time when those Marvel Autumn Alliance style movies were just an absolute pipe dream you have to remember it's called to see the X-Men throw down together in a way that we didn't really get again until Days of Future Past I love first classes finale but the action isn't really the selling point there this is what we're going to do [Music] overall I don't think it's quite as awful as I remember divorcing it from the expectations of seeing all the X-Men together and the tone set by X2 it's a serviceable supero movie with some fun moments and compelling characters does it hold a candle to X2 first class Logan or Days of Future Past hell no but it is better than X-Men apocalypse the New Mutants and the second attempt at dark Phoenix uh X-Men dark Phoenix at least this movie flies by and has fun that movie is a laborious exercise to get through I think if you watch it in isolation from the previous movies in the same way some of the Avengers solo movies switch up the tones from the previous installments then you're left with a movie that probably sits somewhere in between the middling entries in that franchise I'd certainly rather see Wolverine and storm League the X-Men than I don't know Ant-Man and the WASP Captain Marvel for love and thunder the eternals or She-Hulk quality wise I'd like it to Iron Man 2 or Thor the Dark World a just fine superhero movie that would probably entertain for a few hours but won't have the lasting impact of a guardians or rainy Spider-Man oh that sucks [Music] a big thank you to my full fat to your Patron Dr TK if you'd like to donate money to my patreon you can find me at patreon.com full fat videos if you'd like to follow me on 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Id: GSZUpFz8nc8

Length: 17min 41sec (1061 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2023