Movie Review: X-Men: The Last Stand

One of the hallmarks of a geeky youth for people my age was reading comic books. I pretty much gave up on reading comics a few years back, but I still greatly enjoy the good movies that have been coming out over the past few years about comics. Some filmmakers have finally realized that it's never really been about the costumes and the powers, but about using those to tell stories covering timeless themes such as alienation and responsibility.

The X-Men movies have been especially good at telling interesting stories while remaining true to the essence of the comics. X-Men: The Last Stand is no different. The movie is a worthy sequel to the first two movies. If you liked the first two then you'll like this one. If you didn't like the first two, then this one won't change your mind.

It's hard to talk about any aspect of this film without revealing spoilers, so I'm going to keep things pretty general. All the main good guys from the previous films are back (except Nightcrawler), at least for a scene or two. We get some new ones as well, including the Beast and the Angel, which means we've now seen the complete original comic book team on screen, although not all together as a group. It handles the ensemble of characters well and gives old fan favorites from the comic books just enough screen time to show their stuff. This time around we get to see Hank McCoy (the Beast), Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), and Warren Worthington III (Angel) in action in addition to most of those from the previous movies.

Since this blog is supposed to be aimed at people with lives, and that includes having kids, I'll mention that there is a great deal of death and violence in this film. More so than in the previous two. It's not played up for blood and gore, but Wolverine has claws and uses them, and the main antagonist of the film kills dozens. It earns the PG-13 rating for violence.

Oh, and if you do go see it, then stay until after the credits have run. There's another scene at the very end.

I'd talk more about some of the details of this film, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Maybe I'll post again about it after it comes out on DVD.