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Comic Book Rewind

The Last Stand

By Alexandrea CallaghanPublished about a year ago 3 min read
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Welcome back to comic book rewind, where I watch older comic book movies and see how they hold up. Now I’ve got to round out the original X-Men trilogy so here we go with The Last Stand. This used to be my favorite X-Men movie as a kid, let's see how adult Alex handles this.

The CGI to make Ian and Patrick younger actually looks pretty good though a little plasticy on Patrick, also young Ian and Patrick are super hot.

Now one of the things I hate about the shifted timeline trilogy is the inability to stay consistent with its own established canon and continuity, that is a problem the original trilogy doesn’t really have. It definitely has some overall writing problems but continuity isn’t one of them.

Kitty and Bobby bother me, I know people have problems with Rogue’s adaptation but that criticism fails to acknowledge how emotionally traumatizing it can be to be unable to have physical contact especially from people that you love. All she wants is to be able to touch her boyfriend without killing him, that doesn’t overpower her character, it informs it.

Like I’ve said before the rivalry between Wolverine and Cyclops was actually adapted very well, and seeing them both grieve the loss of Jean and seeing the relief after her return is something James Marsten and Hugh Jackman played so incredibly well.

God, Mystique will always be one of my favorite characters, the woman is incredible and I feel like her portrayal transcends the fact that in the shifted timeline trilogy they reduced her to a catalyst for Charles and Erik.

Erik’s dedication to Raven has always been one of my favorite things about these movies, their relationship is just so well portrayed. That is the reason that after she is “cured” and Erik turns his back on her that scene is so heartbreaking. Raven found safety in Erik and in not being alone, and then he abandons her because she is turned into a human.

The scene where Professor X explains to Logan how the Phoenix works is very expositional and is really the only glimpse into accuracy that we see from the Professor's portrayal. Comic book Xavier is kind of a holier than thou ass-hat and the adaptations were far too kind to him.

I do like the commentary on the cure for mutantism, it's portrayed as a very divisive issue with some believing that it will benefit them and others realizing that they aren’t defective the way that they are and that “curing” them is something that is unnecessary and disrespectful. The original trilogy kept the integrity of the X-Men themes intact and for that I say they are good adaptations regardless of what fans think about each individual character portrayal. The X-Men has always been about acceptance, tolerance, racism and social justice and the original films did that very, very well.

Still really wish they didn’t drop the “evil” part of their title, Brotherhood of Mutants just doesn’t sound as good.

Now the reason I think this movie wasn't very well received is because depicting an overpowered hero on screen is extremely difficult, especially if you don’t understand the character or the source material. The Phoenix, in literally any of it's forms (dark, force, white) is one of the most powerful entities in the Marvel universe and you need to first understand that before trying to write it. The other thing that is missing is that they didn’t seem to understand what her powers actually were, they just made her all powerful, which the Dark Phoenix is not.

This movie may have had some cheesy effects but it did have quite a few emotionally impactful scenes, none topping Logan tearing himself apart to save Jean. It perfectly embodied why I have always rooted for Logan to be with Jean and why they make such beautiful friends. That scene is pure love and it was written and portrayed beautifully.

So I stand by my original statement, despite the writing missteps with Jean, the overall story and development makes it my favorite of the original trilogy.

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About the Creator

Alexandrea Callaghan

Certified nerd, super geek and very proud fangirl.

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