Is It Bad?!?: X-Men- The Last Stand (2006)

 After watching what some people call 'the best X-Men Movie ever,' it is only fitting to look at what used to be considered the worst.

Before Dark Phoenix came out, everyone hated this one and the Studio spent a bunch of time retconning it.

This is...

Pro: The Film takes risks right off of the bat.  We see a younger Xavier and Magnus recruiting Jean Grey in the late '80s.

Good foreshadowing.

Con: The technology wasn't quite there yet.  Plus, they are two people who were famous at this same point in their lives, so the matching has to be spot on!

Pro: Magneto is still written on-point here.  He is upset because a so-called Mutant Cure has been created.

He plans a big attack, which involves freeing Mystique (captured off-screen).

When he sees that the Cure works, he is extra-motivated.

Pro: We get a version of The Phoenix Saga.

Con: We don't get most of it, with the Story actually being about Jean (who cocooned herself at the end of X-2 like in the Comics) being so powerful that Xavier locked away a 'personality.'

That personality- Phoenix.

Con: We get very little of Scott, who is driven to meet her when she revives...only for her to drain him to death.

To be fair, James Marsden committed to doing Superman Returns, so he wasn't going to be available for much anyhow.

Pro: The dramatic face-off and brief fight between Xavier's team- Storm and Wolverine- against Magneto's new team- Juggernaut and Callisto- is nice.

Pro: The dramatic face-off between Xavier and Jean...even if it is only based on new information from this Film 20 minutes ago.

Con: Killing off Xavier is a big move that doesn't really pay off.

They actually retcon it IN THIS FILM, but it is never explained at the end of The Wolverine.

Pro: New Mutants with brief bits to shine.

Callisto- as confusing as this version is- looks nice and works well.

Beast is great, a Casting that has so far carried over into the MCU.

Multiple Man is memorable, even if it is just for 2 Scenes.

Con: Quill was somehow credited as Kid Omega.  I guess 'QUill' and 'QUentin' were close enough to fool some people.

Con: The Film heavily promoted Angel, but he literally flies in and out of the Movie twice.  Misleading much?

Pro: Rogue's Character Arc here is quite good.

She can't touch her boyfriend- Iceman- and sees him forming a bond with Kitty Pryde.
This drives her to go seek the Cure.

Officially, she got it- which creates a massive Plot Hole in The Rogue Cut- but they also shot a version where she didn't.

Con: They picked the wrong Ending.

Pro: Magneto strikes in a big way.  He takes the Golden Gate Bridge and turns it to Alcatraz, where the Facility has been kept.

Con: We cut from it being maybe late afternoon on the Bridge to *the dead of night* for the final battle.

I like the moody lighting, but...come on now!

Pro: We get little bits of newer Characters- like Glob Herman- which is better than nothing.

Con: Colossus sure doesn't do much until he throws Wolverine at the end.

Pro: Magneto getting depowered- but also not really- is good.  Jean's death- while melodramatic- was used well in the next Wolverine Film that we talk about (so not Origins).

What is Good?

The Plot outside of Jean just being, well, crazy has some really good points to it.  It brings together a large group of Characters and gives *most* of them at least one moment to shine.

Characters aren't bastardized and the little moments work.  For instance, Magneto rejecting a 'Mutant Tattoo' that Kid Omega's group all got by showing his Concentration Camp mark and saying that 'No needle shall ever touch my skin again.'

Great stuff.

The Movie also looks really great, with most of the nearly 20-year-old CGI still looking pretty darn good in HD.

What is Bad?

The change to Jean Grey to make the new 'Phoenix' thing work is not a great.  The fact that the worse Film- Dark Phoenix- got that right is notable.

Many of the Characters used in Cameos are so blink and you miss it that I almost wonder what the point is.

Also you did 'The Juggernaut- bitch' in this one.
A Deleted Scene has 'Here's Juggy'- which is somehow worse.

Killing off multiple Leads is also a choice they made that certainly taints things.

So...

Is It Bad?

No

This one is admittedly closer than others so far, but I stand by it.  The Film is 2/3 of a great X-Men Film.  It's not a complete ruination of the Characters and Plot.

Enough of the Film is good to great that I can't hate it nearly as much as I did in 2006.