08 March 2011

Tuesday Cap - Vol. 18



Title: X-Men: The Last Stand

Notes: Say what you want about how seriously messed up THE LAST STAND is as far as character continuity is concerned and the liberties it takes on the forty years of comic books before it, but this is one hell of a scene, and I say that with the utmost respect. John Powell’s magnificent score, “Phoenix Rising”, coupled with this rather emotional moment where poor Logan needs to sacrifice the love of his life (here’s to pretending ORIGINS doesn’t exist) to basically save the world – cos she’s just so out of balance and she’ll end up destroying it, see. A magnificent scene as Logan undergoes emotional and physical pain, the special effects department gets paid big time for some splendid shots, and in the end there’s a breathtaking sequence that nearly makes up for the rest of the “meh” movie. And then, of course, there’s the legion of fans screaming “WTF?” at the sheer absurdity of what the screenwriter has just done.

I’m not a lover of X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, but I accept it and, to a degree, dig it. There are faults along the way, indeed, and the tone is so obviously different in comparison to the first two and feels a tad, shall I say separated from what came before it. But as a concluding chapter to that particular series, at least for the time being, it was serviceable, and provides the X-MEN movie universe a clean slate if or when Fox decides to jump back into that wagon, assuming they don’t feel inclined to reboot it like another franchise that came out two years after X-MEN.

Discuss: Considering Ratner got a lot of dissing for his work on THE LAST STAND, what exactly about his directing did you not love? What do you feel are some of the successes and faults of the movie? Are you bothered by the major character deaths? Is it a satisfying ending to the trilogy? What do you feel Bryan Singer could have contributed to the movie to improve it?

4 comments:

David Bishop said...

I wouldn't count the last film as a favorite, but I'll definitely watch it from time to time. I don't think it's a bad movie, but it's not a great one either. It's entertaining. As an X-Men fan. sometimes it's just fun to see a large scale battle between mutants, and that's what they delivered. On top of that, the whole 'cure' plot point was some pretty captivating social commentary.

The movie has its faults. Why open your movie on Angel if he's going to be such a small part of the movie? And I do think at least one of the deaths could have been handled better, but at the same time, I sort of like seeing Ellen Page take on the role of Kitty Pryde, so... ya know, there's that.

I really don't know if Bryan Singer would have done anything that much better. Keep in mind that he didn't do this movie because he was working on Superman Returns which was somewhat of a flop as well (though I still enjoy it).

X-Men The Last Stand is just one of those movies that gets way more hate than it deserves (and I would say Spider-man 3 does as well).

Fletch said...

Not being a comic book reader, I've never known or cared about all of the potentially myriad ways that X3 "screwed it all up" and thus never really understood what everyone's problem with it was. I'll still take the first as my favorite (I think most like the second?), but that's mostly for the introduction to some of the characters *coughWolverinecough*. That said, X3 always seemed to have the most emotional depth to it, and therefore consequences, and this scene is (fitting, since it's the climax) heavy.

Of course, the Angel thing was a problem. He ended up being merely a bookend when he seemed set up for a larger role. But with such a large cast of characters and only so much time, it's understandable.

David Bishop said...

SPOILERS

Just to be unambiguous. The character death that I didn't think was handled all that well was Scott Summers. Xavier's death and Jean Grey's are indeed emotional highlights of the film (maybe because they both use the same musical motif). I was never upset that characters died because when you name your movie The Last Stand, it's sort of stupid to not have losses.

Andrew Simon said...

Exactly! I have no qualms with Scott dying, but the cavalier way his death is handled, that I did not take lightly. Like you said, Jean and Xavier had those FANTASTIC dramatic moments, and Scott gets this death that lands with a thump. Scott may not have been as central as Wolverine felt like in the first two, but damnnit, he deserved a proper death 'moment'.