Thanks again to Eric Isaacs at The IPC for helping me kick off NOOOOvember 2013 yesterday with a hilarious post about Prometheus, which you can read here. Now, it’s my turn to vent.
The original X-Men trilogy has a great first film and an even greater second film. Hypothetically, the third film should’ve taken all that awesome and tripled it, right? WRONG. X-Men: The Last Stand wasn’t the first superhero letdown (won’t be the last either), but it’s a very frustrating failure that almost immediately earned a slot among my top disappointments way back in 2006. Way to crush a teenage geek’s dreams, Brett Ratner.
***WARNING: SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW***
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Synopsis: “When a cure is found to treat mutations, lines are drawn amongst the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier, and the Brotherhood, a band of powerful mutants organized under Xavier’s former ally, Magneto.” –www.imdb.com
The Excitement:
- It’s all our favorite X-Men back in action! Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Iceman, and all of them wrangled by the benevolent, genius telepath Professor X. Heck, we even missed mischievous Magneto and Mystique, didn’t we?
- Jean Grey is back and she’s become the intense, all-powerful Phoenix! Let the awesome telekinetic destruction ensue!
- Kelsey Grammer as Beast?! Never saw it coming but I’m on board!
- Tension between humans and mutants rage as a “cure” is discovered in the form of a boy who can cancel out mutant powers. The X-Men try to keep the peace as the Brotherhood, a gang of angry mutants brought together by Magneto, threatens war. The plot thickens!
- There’s a dude with ANGEL WINGS?! Surely this film will be straight up MAGICAL!
The Disappointment:
- Hey there, Mr. Ratner, would you like some crackers with your cheese? This film is downright silly, y’all. It’s a tonal shift from the first two films, and you bet it shows.
- The dialogue HURTS ME. I cringed so many times I think I’ve permanently damaged some muscles.
- Phoenix is boring. Sure, she can literally shred a human being with her mind, but once you’re over the shock and awe of that, what have you got? A shell of a character who gets mad a lot. Yawn. Give me some kind of development.
- So many potentially cool characters are wasted. We have a dude with angel wings, a chick who can run really fast and sense other mutants, a human porcupine, the freaking Juggernaut, and so many more, yet how much do we learn about them? Pretty much zilch. Cool effects, sure, but nothing more. It leaves a sort of hollow feeling.
- WHERE IS NIGHTCRAWLER? He was my favorite part of X2, and I miss him dearly.
- EVERYONE DIES. Cyclops? Dead. Phoenix? Dead. Ninety-nine percent of the Brotherhood? Dead. Professor X? Well…kind of dead. And even some of the ones who don’t die become lame from losing their powers (Mystique, Rogue, and even Magneto…kind of).
- The last line of the film: “Way to go, furball.” SERIOUSLY?
How to recover: I recommend watching X-Men: First Class, which offers up a much younger Professor X and Magneto at the beginning of their turbulent friendship. It gives the X-Men franchise a much-needed clean slate. Also, the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past will dabble in time travel. Cross your fingers it changes the extremely lame future!
More NOOOOvember posts coming soon! And, again, if you’d like to vent about your own film disappointments, please let me know! Comment below or shoot me an email (cs227@evansville.edu).
Silver Screen Serenade 
The third movie sucked it! They put way too many characters in there and tried way to hard to make it action packed. The first two had a reasonable balance between action and drama. Great post!! GO NOOOOVEMBER!!!
Haha thanks, dude! And right?! Utterly disappointing…But nice to vent about! I feel better. 🙂
Oh yes. I choose to forget about this one, if only for this:
“She’s the only Level 5 mutant here.” Say what? Are we playing some cheesy video game? Leave me alone, Ratner. Leave me alone.
Good inclusion in your NOOOOvember series.
You know, I meant to mention the whole levels thing, but I forgot. I agree completely. There’s no explanation behind the levels, and they ultimately serve no purpose. Like, you can just tell us she’s really strong…
Yup. You know how I know Iceman, Xavier, Phoenix and the rest are more powerful than your average mutant? Because they do really awesome stuff, and other mutants don’t. You needn’t make up silly levels to tell me what you’ve already shown me.
I agree with you on this one, although I thought ‘X-Men 2’ was a massive let down too!
Really? X2 is actually my favorite of the three! But I have heard some people say they didn’t love it. Either way, I think it beats the heck outta the third. Haha.
I think the whole ‘humans vs mutants’ thing from the second was a poor story decision that early in the franchise and sort of put me off, although, I understand that a lot of people enjoyed it which is fair enough.
After the amazing second movie, this one really screwed the pooch because it lacked any sort of focus. Instead, it was just all about action, special-effects, and nothing else. No substance, no nothing. Good review.
Thanks! And exactly–all fluff, no real character development or good dialogue or anything. It could’ve been an interesting story, but not nearly enough is done with it.
I enjoyed first class. Hopefully the upcoming sequel won’t get ruined by tying things up with the dire X3.
Ugh. Yes, I sincerely hope they give The Last Stand a wide berth. Haha.
I never liked any of them. They were basically just Wolverine Movies. Rogue sucked through the whole trilogy. Cyclops never got enough screen time, gambit never had a appearance, Beast didn’t have enough screen time, Jubilee was never thought of, I could keep going but i’ll stop myself there. The X Men movies were a joke.
Ouch! Haha. Well, I liked the first two, but I do see where you’re coming from. I don’t know all of the X-Men characters, but I do know that a lot of them were left by the wayside and/or barely developed. And, yes, it does become the Wolverine show. Just out of curiosity, did you like First Class?
I enjoyed it because I got to see Magneto and Charles when they were younger but everyone else was mostly a miss for me. I do like it a little more then I did the X men Trilogy though.
Great post! I LOVE the first two films. I can’t remember totally HATING this one at the time but the fact that I can’t really remember much about it now says a lot…
Exactly. It’s just a blur of action. The first two a million times better. And I’m pumped for Days of Future Past!!
Me too! Can’t wait!! 🙂