After spending your hard-earned money on this flick, you may wish for the days of Bryan Singer. While comic book films are supposed to be pure entertainment, the comics themselves are sacred in nature. When the director or writers do not stay true to the essence of these iconic characters, a less than entertaining form of media is developed.

In defense of Director Brett Ratner, he did the best he could under the time constraints for this film and the fact that Singer abandoned his “child” to direct Superman Returns. Writers Kinberg and Penn are seasoned pros, but both came into the film after Singer left and took the original screenwriters, Harris and Dougherty with him to Superman. Basically, they started with nothing and were able to create something just above nothing. Its the same old tired out storyline of good mutants versus evil mutants with a little bit of modern day political agenda thrown in for good measure.

It is not just the poor screenplay that ruins the film. Unfortunately, The Last Stand lacks the acting necessary to carry what is supposed to be one of the most tear-jerking, intense narratives in the X-Men comics, The Dark Phoenix Saga. Typical of comic book films lately, do not expect to find the original story arc in this movie. The dialogue between our heroes is tedious, a slap in the face to readers who know that Marvel Comics have always been cerebral in nature. The special effects are not up to par and even the actor chosen for the minor role of President was horrible. (Cotter Smith where were you?) This film was a huge disappointment and an embarrassment to the X-Men franchise.

There were major faux pas and incongruities in this film. Beware! If you have not seen the film, there are spoilers ahead. Stop reading now and know that if you are a fan of the X-Men series you will be very dissatisfied. Stick with the first two and pretend this film was never put to celluloid.

In an opening scene, we see Professor X walk to the Grey’s door. Prof. X was paralyzed before he started the School for the Gifted and so would have been in his wheelchair at this point. Instead of using clever dialogue to establish that we are in the past, the writers and director chose to cop out and remove a prop that should have been present if they had back checked their facts.

The Phoenix kills Scott in the first twenty minutes of the movie. While the Phoenix side of Jean might not get along with Scott, she never would have outright killed him. Not only is this anti-climatic, but clearly, the only reason for his death was that the actor (Marsden) had other obligations i.e.: Superman Returns.

Where was the Phoenix? Jean looks more like a goth girl gone wrong rather than the fiery entity of the Phoenix. We never get to see her rise from the ashes in a blazing inferno. Singer had clearly laid the groundwork in the second movie; her eyes had fire in the them and at the end of the film, we saw the Phoenix fly across the lake. That idea was obviously trashed when the new director took over.

There should not be a relationship between Bobby (Iceman) and Rogue. Most X-Men fans will agree that her real love interest should be Gambit, a character that has been woefully missing from the movie franchise.

Even on his worst day, there is no way that Professor X would be defeated by the Phoenix entity. This again was another tactic by the writers/director to evoke some kind of emotional response from the audience.

The scenes involving Wolverine and Storm debating/arguing are forced and tiresome. It seems as though the director gave up on accents in this film as Ororo went from having a strained Kenyan accent in the first movie to none at all by the third. Of course, it may be that Ms. Berry had difficulty acting her part or was asked to stop attempting the accent.

The entire middle of the film was unnecessary. There were too many scenes of Magneto rousing the troops, too many cut scenes to the forest (yes we get it, he is in the woods!) too much of the President babbling “God Help Us” or gathering the troops. Where were the scenes of Jean/Phoenix struggling with the fact that she had just killed her lover/husband and her mentor/father figure?

Magneto moves an entire bridge to Alcatraz. It would have been more interesting to see him fly everyone across the bay using only the metal from their jewelry or buttons. When he moves the bridge to Alcatraz it is daytime, when he gets off the bridge, it is nighttime – an inexcusable continuity and film editing error.

Why bother introducing characters like Callisto, Psylocke, Spike (who are not mentioned by name) and Archlight if only to kill them off unceremoniously at the end of the film?
Why kill off Jean - again.

One creative point of the movie was Jean's split personality disorder creating the Phoenix rather than an alien entity. It would have been more poignant, however, if Jean had lived, having to face that she had killed the people she loved most in life. There is no real justice or even remotely successful conclusion to this film. Warning! Fans may feel gypped emotionally and financially after seeing this film.

Director: Brett Ratner

Writers: Simon Kinberg
Zak Penn

MPAA Rating: PG–13 parents strongly cautioned, violence and adult themes