X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) Review

So the next film on my X-Men reviewing list is the third film in the franchise X-Men The Last Stand and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees the government come up with a Mutant cure which cause a divide in the mutant community, while Jean Grey comes back with a darker more destructive personality. 

Main Character

Hugh Jackman is once again the lead here as Wolverine and he is okay here. He still has that charm and charisma there which is good for an action star, but the character development and the intrigue of his character is gone here. It just feels like he relies on his charisma and the actual performance just isn't as strong and honestly I think the lesser quality of the whole film does hurt his performance. 

Supporting Characters

Halle Berry as Storm was really good in X2 and I think she is just as good here. She takes a larger role here and she fits her role here. Sir Ian Mckellen is back as Magneto and once again he is a great villain here and even though I think it is the least interesting of his performances he still rises above and does a great job. Newly added to the cast is Kelsey Grammer as Beast and this was inspired casting, he is superb and such a cool character here in this film. But then to the rest of the main cast, Sir Patrick Stewart is good as Xavier it is just he is so poorly used here and it feels like he was an afterthought here and wasn't a character of importance. Now onto Famke Jenssen as Jean Grey and she is so dull here, this is a very lifeless performance and this film does nothing to make her interesting at all. Also characters like Iceman, Shadowcat and Rogue are here and really poorly used and are clearly afterthoughts here too. 

Story 

This story is an absolute mess, it literally is all over the place. It just seems filmmakers don't know how to do The Dark Phoenix saga as it really doesn't work here and we will talk about it when I review Dark Phoenix. This cure storyline and The Phoenix stuff could be interesting if told individually but trying to fit both of them in this film, means neither stands out and neither have enough intrigue to keep you interested and this really just makes this film brainless action. Also this film really lacks conviction, it makes some radical decisions but by the end of the film goes completely against them and takes the easy way out. 

Script

The script here is not good, the drama for me didn't work it was really poorly done and I just didn't find myself caring for the heroes, in fact the film does such a bad job I actually ended up rooting for Magneto which I am pretty sure I am not meant to do. The humour only works when Jackman does it, I mean Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut has some of the most absurd lines in any film ever made and it really doesn't work. 

Style

As mentioned earlier, this film tries to focus on its action and yeah there are some pretty grand and exciting action scenes here. But I mean there isn't anything that is truly amazing here at all, I would argue there are much better action scenes in X2. Also the pacing of the film is all over the place, it is really choppy and tries to focus on too much in the first hour of the film. 

Overall

Overall, this film really brings a sour note on this trilogy, and changing director really doesn't help things. I would say even if you are an X-Men fan maybe this one is one to skip as I feel like it doesn't really add anything much of worth. 

Rating - 3/10