X-Tinction

If any of you remember back to my past review of X2, you would remember me saying how one of the hardest jobs for a director to do when it comes to constructing a sequel, is maintaining a consistency of quality from the first film into the sequel whilst adding something new that either works with the overall plot or the characters involved. X2, directed by Bryan Singer, was a film that did this in the simplest form; by flourishing out the X-Men comic/thematic themes of individualism and discrimination into greater depth and improving on the development of the characters, with each character sharing the spotlight with their little story arcs in a consistent form. It was a film that even ended with a nice teaser for a potential sequel, hinting at the possibility of the ‘Dark Phoenix’ plot line from the original X-Men comic stories. In fruition, while X-Men: The Last Stand, this time directed by Brett Ratner instead of Singer who at the time was in favour of developing Superman Returns, did correctly flesh out the ‘Dark Phoenix’ story-line, the film  in of itself, collapses into total dispensary and embarrassment. With complications with the scripting/writing and production being rushed by the studio, Ratner’s The Last Stand fails in every shape and form; with a colluded narrative that is up-an-down-an-all-around in terms of its decision making and lack of depth, and bad writing which pits this film among the ‘special’ and panto films of Batman and Robin. Without a doubt and not having to do any analysis yet, I can safely assure you that The Last Stand, is indeed… a franchise killer.

When a private laboratory, supported by the government, find the ‘cure’ for mutants that can turn anyone with the X-gene into a normal human, there is outrage amongst the mutant community. While this ‘cure’, to some mutants, is seen to be a means of becoming ‘normal’, as shown with how Rogue feels, there are many mutants who oppose the ‘cure’. Magneto (Ian Mckellen), who still believes a war is coming between the humans and the mutants, re-establishes his Brotherhood of Mutants to take down Warren Worthington III and his ‘cure’. If this wasn’t bad enough for Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and the X-Men to handle, another problem arises, with the sudden re-emergence of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Possessed by the cosmic power of the ‘Phoenix’, the resurrected Jean Grey has become a danger to herself, her mutant comrades, and the entire world. With Jean joining Magneto in fighting off this ‘cure’, the battle lines are drawn as Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry) and the rest of the X-Men, including the new faces of Beast (Kelsey Grammer) and Angel (Ben Foster), must contend with an old adversary, and an old friend… 

Now, to begin with, it has to be said that The Last Stand in all tense and purposes, is simply an ambitious disappointment. One of the biggest problems that this film embodies, is its poor narrative progression and story choices; being that it basically has two stories lines of the ‘Dark Phoenix’ and the ‘cure’ political story arc. One of the things to note in terms of The Last Stand being established was it’s issues with the writing and the hurried production. While it was originally set that the writers wanted to pursue the ‘Dark Phoenix’ adapted storyline, the studio, with all their wisdom, wanted the ‘cure’ story. The obvious resolution that came about was that both story lines were used, with the ‘Dark Phoenix’ story-line acting as the emotional plot line of the film, and the ‘cure’ serving as the political focus of the plot. Quite simply however, these two plot lines just don’t work at all. Everything about the narrative of the film feels rushed and as I was re-watching this film, the film just came across as rushed piece of work, with Ratner making up a few things here and there as he went along directing this film. The tight scheduling that Ratner had as well is evidence of this unnecessary rush that we see in this film. While I could go on and on, in talking about the pace of the story, there are contextual and character choices that do negate this films potential and what it could have been. The obvious one that sticks out for me is the introduction of the character of Angel since we only ever get to see him a few times within this overstretched and bombardment of a film, and when he does appear on screen, he doesn’t say much at all. In fact, I think I’m right in saying that he only gets to say a few lines of dialogue throughout the entirety of the film which is really criminal. But he’s not just the only character with problems. While the supposed rivalry between Iceman and Pyro shed a silver-lining to the film with their interactions with each other, there really isn’t a resolution to their characters. Basically, Iceman head-butts Pyro… End of story. Really? that’s how you resolve a good potential edge to the film? At this point, I’m sure most you are reading this and are saying, ‘Aren’t you going to mention the death of Cyclops and how ridiculous that was, killing off one of the leading characters of the X-Men?’ For the most part, I would agree to an extent that Cyclops’ death was poorly executed, especially of the fact that it’s a scene that doesn’t really add any emotional weight and sympathy for the character in any way. However, I do think that, if The Last Stand had only the story of Jean Grey and that character turning into the ‘Phoenix’, then I think Cyclops’ death would have added a really good emotional side to the story. One of the reasons why I think the death of Cyclops was unnecessary was because of the other plot of the ‘cure’ and how the film gradually kept on switching between the two-story lines; which in turn allowed no emotional attachment to any character. There was no cohesion and depth to the story of this film, which again falls back to The Last Stand being a rushed cinematic work that should have never been released. The ‘cure’ story honestly, I think, was put into the film, mainly because it serves in providing a reason for Magneto’s to conflict against the human race and the X-Men. If that is the case, then again, that was also completely unnecessary because, didn’t we see the reasons for Magneto’s conflict against the X-Men and the humans in the Bryan Singer films? I would say we did, making this ‘cure’ story moot. Since I’m nit-picking here, it has to be said that there are many plot holes within The Last Stand which negates the viewing experience. I mean, the obvious one’s would be the Jean Grey character herself, because by the fact that they introduced a story-line involving a ‘cure’ that rids off the X-Gene in mutants, why aren’t the X-Men focusing on stopping Jean? since she’s so powerful and has the potential to destroy everything. The other noticeable poor story-telling and plot hole is Magneto and how we casually see him play chess, but, isn’t he a wanted criminal for the death-defying things he’s done? I hinted at this just before, but, even though in my opinion that this film never should have been released and that it should have been dealt with in a much more patient manner, if I was Ratner, I would have just kept the ‘Dark Phoenix’ story arc. By only having this as the story, it allows time for characters like Magneto and Worthington (potentially) to be slowly introduced and to have some much needed character depth and personality. Having that one story could also even bring up, ever so slightly, the Mutant Registration Act again, earlier hinted in the first of Singer’s X-Men films, which could have provided the political side of the story instead of the ‘cure’ story which is executed poorly in this film. 

Along with the writing and the catastrophe of the narrative, the other big problem that The Last Stand has to offer, is the poor characterisation and how there is more depth in a tea spoon, compared to the characters that we see on screen. One of the aspects that I appreciated when watching Singer’s first two X-Men films was the definitive focus there was on the characters and how each of their stories coalesce within the main story. While Ratner attempts to take over from what Singer managed to do well, the characterisation and development of the characters that we do see in this film, is thrown out the window; making what Singer did seem to swept aside for predictability. There is an argument to be said that The Last Stand essentially waste their characters to lazy story-telling and cliché’s. A good example of this, without using other characters that I’ve already mentioned, is Kelsey Grammer’s performance of the ‘Beast’ character; an individual that is seen as one of the main figure-heads in past X-Men entertainment iterations. While, on the positive side, Beast seemingly fits into the first half of The Last Stand and interacts with the main characters in a manner which doesn’t seem out of place and actually makes Beast to be seen as a character that has interaction with the X-Men film world, he is ultimately sidelined into a rather predictable and cliché role. This is very much seen in the rather ‘panto’ and ‘Batman and Robin’ esque ending fighting sequence when we do witness some of the most outlandish and cheesy dialogue known to human existence and character extras that fling themselves all over the place as though they were Super Mario. What is funny yet sad thinking about this, is that, in the case of Burton’s Batman and Robin, we all know that this was a film that had some really silly and goofy cinematic aspects, yet never took itself too seriously as far as the story goes. In the case of Ratner’s abysmal X-Men take, it’s rather the opposite, with it having silly and nonsensical cinematic aspects that takes itself too seriously. It is no surprise to state that, if Ratner had followed Singer’s style of applying subtle choreographed action sequences and story-telling that had simple depth, who knows what film we could have had. Deviating back to what I was originally saying however, the hook for the character of Beast, is that he’s conflicted; confused over the political side of things. The scene in which we see Beast/McCoy meet the source of the ‘cure’ is rather promising, as it can be seen to be a good catalyst for how Beast feels about the pros and cons of this ‘cure’. But in short, his characterisation is wrapped up too easily, with him siding with the X-Men to stop Magneto. This goes the same for Angel, who also has a promising character introduction, but is later sidelined to a near-non-speaking part.

As for characters like Juggernaut, played by Vinnie Jones, and the other extra villains that Magneto recruits, well… what can I say. Juggernaut is simply a waste of space that is catered towards the ‘fans’ of X-Men, and the rest of the villain extras look all the same; wearing black/gothic clothing who are try-hard wannabe’s that want to be the next Evanescence or something.

While I could go on to talk about the better things that The Last Stand has to offer, like how it has some good CGI with the training battle sequence at the start of the film and with Wolverines claws (which have continually looked worse ever since) and the scene where Magneto lifts the Golden Gate bridge over to Alcatraz island where the ‘cure’ is, it’s actually tiresome to try and defend this wasted film. While Ratner tried to rekindle what Singer left behind in the X-Men franchise, The Last Stand has proven to be the film that has negated the X-Men films for eternity. While understandably, people genuinely hate this film for what has to display, for me, it is simply a disappointing film. I think that if Fox didn’t rush the script and the production scheduling of Ratner’s directorial work, then we would definitely have seen a different and perhaps better film. It is a shame now, that we are now living in a day and age where the X-Men films are reflected in a bad light. Nothing more we do I suppose. All I can say to you is…

And on that note, it’s time to end. As always thank you for reading my latest review of X-Men: The Last Stand and I hope you’ve enjoyed the read. If any of you had an opinion on either the review or on the film, then please, feel free to drop a comment down below. I know I said this in my last Blog Post update, but it feels really good to be writing/typing up film reviews again for you all, I can’t wait to do more and I hope you enjoy them! The next time you’ll see me will be later this week with a kind of special Blog Post. So until then, thank-you for reading and have a good week! Adieu!!

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte