Film Review: X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Money isn't everything, even in Hollywood. Having a record-high budget and impressive box office results doesn't guarantee that a film will be remembered fondly by audiences or critics alike. Unfortunately, this is precisely what happened with X-Men: The Last Stand, the 2006 superhero film directed by Brett Ratner.

As the third instalment in the series based on Marvel comic books about humans with genetic mutations who possess various superhuman abilities, it follows a plot set in the near future. The story revolves around two factions - the X-Men, led by the kind-hearted telepath Professor Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart), who seeks to maintain peaceful coexistence between mutants and ordinary humans, and the Brotherhood, led by his former friend Magneto (played by Sir Ian McKellen), who desires war and annihilation. Decades after powerful industrialist Warren Worthington II (played by Michael Murphy) discovered that his son Warren III is a mutant, his company has developed a "mutant cure," which turns mutants into ordinary humans. While some mutants like Rogue (played by Anna Paquin) seek to take the cure in order to lead normal lives and form relationships. However, Magneto launches a campaign to destroy the cure. In the meantime, Jean Grey (played by Femke Janssen), a member of the X-Men who apparently died years ago, returns to life but is now burdened with dark powers that give rise to her alter ego known as Phoenix. This character plays a significant role in the final showdown between the X-Men and the Brotherhood.

While X-Men: The Last Stand is inferior to its first two instalments, it isn't as bad as its reputation would suggest. Much of that bad reputation stems from hardcore fans of the original comic books who were utterly disappointed with the way the film failed to properly use their favourite characters. The problem for this film lies mainly in its conceptual challenges. X-Men, unlike most other superhero sagas, deals not with one but many protagonists and their complex relationships, often akin to a soap opera. It is very challenging to give this kind of complex story justice in feature film format, and even more so when character exposition must go hand-in-hand with spectacular action.

The challenge was made even harder by 20th Century Fox executives who meddled into production and demanded changes to the script, originally developed by Matthew Vaughn. The plot initially had to do with the saga of Jean Grey/Phoenix but was deemed too dark. Instead, the new script added a subplot about the cure. As a result, some characters, like Archangel (played by Ben Foster), are undeveloped and underused.

Bad reputation for X-Men: The Last Stand owes much to Brett Ratner, the director who, unlike his predecessor Bryan Singer, wasn't a comic book fan and was brought in as an action-comedy specialist after replacing Vaughn. Ratner gave more emphasis to action than to characters, but his approach also meant that the film would be much shorter, with a running time of 106 minutes, making it more economic and digestible for the audience than today's epic superhero films that aren't allowed to run less than two hours.

This economic approach, together with limited availability of its major stars, also led to some of the most iconic and popular characters simply being killed off. This infuriated many original comic book fans who felt that their beloved heroes were being mistreated on the big screen.

On the other hand, Ratner directed the film well, considering the time constraints. The 210 million US$ budget, the largest at the time, is mostly visible on-screen, with some impressive action scenes combined with quality CGI. A flashback scene featuring young Professor X also represents one of the first instances of digital de-ageing and remains impressive for the standards of that time.

However, it was Ratner's on-set antics, which were interpreted as homophobic and later led to accusations of sexual harassment, that ultimately cast a dark shadow over the film. This has resulted in many X-Men fans choosing to ignore or distance themselves from X-Men: The Last Stand, viewing it as an unfortunate blip in the franchise's history.

The Last Stand, whatever its reception might have been, was supposed to be the last X-Men film, at least as part of the original trilogy. The great commercial success, on the other hand, guaranteed that the saga would continue in some form. Instead of sequels, 20th Century Fox opted for spin-offs and prequels, starting with 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine and 2011 X-Men: First Class. Those films, in various ways, tried to distance themselves from The Last Stand, often creating plot holes and problems with fictional universe continuity.

These problems were supposed to be finally addressed with 2018 X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which was actually a remake or reboot of The Last Stand in some way. However, that film turned into a major box office bomb, harming the future of the franchise more than the unjustly maligned X-Men: The Last Stand ever did.

While X-Men: The Last Stand has its flaws and shortcomings, it isn't entirely without merit. It remains an interesting entry in the X-Men franchise, offering a glimpse into what could have been if more care had been taken to honour the source material and give each character the attention they deserved. Troubled production and legacy of The Last Stand may not be forgotten anytime soon, but perhaps it doesn't deserve the level of criticism and disdain that has been heaped upon it over the years.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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