X-men: The last stand

MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED



In the scene where Wolverine stands in front of Xaviers monument, and Phoenix starts messing with his head, there is a bug crawling on his jacket. That bug is a perfect metaphor for how I feel about this movie. Something is wrong, creeping around inside and all over this movie but I can't quite put my finger on it

It's not really such a terrible movie as people say it is. It's definitely the worst of the three, and much of that has to do with the change of director. Bryan Singer, the guy who directed the first two, grew along with the movie. The flaws he displayed as a director on the first one were the strenghts of the second. If he would have been the one directing The last stand, it would have been the culmination of an ending six years in the making, but instead they chose Bret Ratner.

Not only was he a novice when it came to comic book movie, he was also notorious for ruining franchises. He made a mess of Red dragon, even if that is still an ok movie and he even ruined his own franchise, Rush hour. The first one was a good Jackie Chan vehicle, but the second and third were complete trainwrecks.

Why on earth would you hire a director that is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be bad at directing to finish your very well recieved trilogy?

The writers were also moved around. David Hayter who was mainly responsible for the screenplays of the first two, was left out and instead Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg (the latter also being the main writer on Days of future past) take over.

Once again, the movie isn't being handled with the kind of respect you would expect for such a hype machine.

So what is it that is actually bad about the movie? Well, first and foremost, Brett Ratners style does not suit an action movie. He moves everything way to slow and sometimes feel uninterested in the characters. Making Wolverine cry twice and run from a fight goes directly against the very nature of the character.

Then the script takes way to many liberties with the intellectual property. I know this was supposed to be the end, but that does not justify killing main characters of screen even if it's just Cyclops. Once again he iss swooped to the side and for good reason, James Marsden really can't act or at least not in these movies.

But for all it's faults it gets one thing right. The whole plot sorrounding the "cure".
While most of the mutants disagree with the idea of calling their mutation a "disease" I fully understand why some would want to be cured. A perfect example is made of Rouge and her love triangle sub plot with Bobby and, former one scene appearence and now fully fledged character, Kitty Pride.

Rouge is having a tough time coping with the fact that she can't even touch the one she loves. Bobby, who for some reason becomes the target of her anger despite him saying in the last movie that he was ok with it and still is in the third, becomes somewhat enamored with Kitty. Rouge sees this and it realise what she has to do.

In the case of Rouge, her mutation isn't what I would call a gift. Everyone tells her it is, but what benefits has it given her? None. It has only made her feel left out, and it is physically stopping her from ever touching a human being. Why would she want to keep such a curse, out of pride? Principle? No, in my eyes her life would be vastly improved by her being "cured".

This is an important point that the script wants to stress more, but it gets a bit sweeped under the carpet to make place for the final battle scene. A gigantic battlefield full of mutants, and somehow Ratner manages to make that scene boring as well.

In all honesty, The last stand isn't the worst movie ever. It does get hampered by some really horrible direction and some of the worst character treatment in the trilogy. What little it gets right is overshadowed by the force of a director that doesn't care and writers on a powertrip.