X-Men : The Last Stand (2006)



Director : Brett Ratner


The movie opens up with Charles and Erik walking up to a house, with a caption of twenty years ago. They are going to recruit Jean Grey. Ten years later we see a young mutant trying to cut the wings off his back.

Fast forward to the present. Rogue still can't touch Bobby. Jean had died and Scott hasn't healed. Mystique is a captive and Hank has been appointed the Secretary of Mutant Affairs.

When a pharmaceutical company comes up with a way to suppress the mutant anti-body, line are again drawn. Should mutants be cured? Magneto begins recruiting mutants for his brotherhood.

Jean appears to Scott at a lake, but she is changed. Wolverine and Storm head out to the lake and find Jean. Another side of Jean called the Phoenix may come out and the Phoenix has no control. Scott has disappeared.

A mutant named Angel's father has arranged for him to take the cure but Angel breaks out. Magneto breaks Mystique out and some other mutants too, including the Juggernaut. Mystique then gets shot with a dart holding the cure : she is no longer a mutant.

Professor X tries to control Jean, but he can't, she is too strong. Magneto's mutants fight Wolverine and Storm. Then Jean seems to make Professor X explode. At the Professor's funeral service Storm talks.

Magneto leads his forces in to get the boy who is the key to the cure and it seems as if they are going to win the day, but the X-men, led by Wolverine, try to hold the line. The Beast sticks Magneto with darts with the serum and he becomes human. Jean then starts destroying everything, but Wolverine talks her in to stopping. At the end there are also tombstones for Jean and Scott.

The movie is deeper than it may appear. If a pill could be developed to prevent someone from being gay, should we force it on the population ("for their own good")? The Last Stand can also be seen as pointing to the fate of the Native Americans. Should the Indians have tried to get along with the white man or try to fight him? The Indians may have won the Battle at the Little Bighorn but their fate was sealed. They were different, and they were going to be eliminated.

The movie that brings up some interesting points, especially in terms of historical reference. The ending wasn't as good as it could have been, but still a good superhero movie.