In Defence of X-Men: The Last Stand

An increasingly common practice in cinematic circles of social media is to “reclaim” a movie. That sounds odd, and sort of pointless, on the surface; what makes a movie that wasn’t received well for the extended period after release worth redeeming five, 10, or even 20 years after release? The answer isn’t exactly clear, yet it’s happening constantly. Waves of film fans are traveling back in time, digging these things up, and finding new value in them.

Perhaps the most surprising example has been the reclamation of Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the story of which hardly needs to be re-told. The film received a critical clobbering when it released in the summer of 2014, disappointing moviegoers and fans and, as a result, underperforming at the box office. This debacle led to the third film in the series being canned and, at the time, meant the nail in the coffin for what felt like a failed experiment. It was like that for a long, long time.

The Amazing Spider-Man series never reached a third instalment

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the film started to pick up steam on the internet for the first time in nearly a decade, and this time for good reason. Viewers, specifically die-hard Spider-Man fans, began touting defenses of the sequel effort. Not only that, but they reconsidered the merits of the Amazing series on the whole, too, and the trend ballooned rather quickly into ardent calls for a third Amazing Spider-Man film to be made. This led to multiple popular video essays on YouTube, a spike in favorable reviews on apps like Letterboxd, and, arguably, Andrew Garfield’s eventual return as the series’ web-slinger in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Now, by no means am I trying to reclaim X-Men: The Last Stand to that extreme, but I am a tad surprised that not one single soul has made a similar effort for the film. With Hugh Jackman’s upcoming return as Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s about time for the original X-Men trilogy to roll back around into cultural relevance once more, and I figured I’d try and get at the front of that with a swing from The Last Stand’s corner. The movie isn’t a masterpiece in technicality or adaptation, not by a long-shot, but I’d like to argue that it does a whole lot more right than most folks give it credit for. I won’t blame you for sharpening your claws and heading to the comment section, but please, hear me out for a moment.

Wolverine, Beast, and Storm prepare for battle in X-Men: The Last Stand

The Last Stand exhibits two qualities that have basically disappeared from the superhero cinema space as we know it now: confidence and vision. The film is structurally confusing, considerably messy, and maybe even a tad inconsiderate, but it never falters from the altar at which it stands. When The Last Stand pulls a trigger, it stands by the consequences in the scenes that follow; there’s no effort to clean or cover anything up. Director Brett Ratner runs with a stifled runtime in comparison to X2 (the film is a whole half-hour shorter) and rolls with any punches that follow. That brings up another point.

Brett Ratner did all he could do with this one, and the film’s unbothered confidence is owed greatly to his creative presence. It’s the only film not directed by Bryan Singer in the trilogy (a few extra points for that) and the difference can immediately be felt. From the legitimately perfect opening flashback wherein Professor X and Magneto meet Jean Grey for the first time, to the finale that turns a parking lot into a chaotic battlefield wherein Magneto lifts and replaces the Golden Gate Bridge. The Last Stand is firing on all cylinders, or at least it’s trying to.

Magneto wreaking havoc on the Golden Gate bridge

Ratner’s commitment to a campy aesthetic and proper “final fight” scale do more to set this one apart than most people so much as mention. Overall, he manages a memorable expression of steely colors and solid set-pieces. Notably, his work to frame these heroes as figures much larger than life sets a compelling tone.  Situating scenes against busy public backdrops while interrupting normalcy with bursts of supernatural action, goes a long way to grounding the film in our world while still being (somewhat) faithful to the source material.

Of course, one of the biggest gripes consistently leveled at The Last Stand is the way it treats the comics that it was based on. A simple search of the film’s title online will reveal droves of stricken fans tearing the film down for this same reason. Even all these years later, the film’s undeniable leniency in adaptation remains its biggest blemish.

Jean Grey in X-Men: The Last Stand

That point specifically is something I’d never challenge, hence this being a “mild” defense. It’s crucial that comic book films stay true to their source material, and The Last Stand, from Warren Worthington III’s near-non-existent role to Cyclops’ sudden death (among much, much else), does a lot wrong there. What I would make a case for though, is that the film successfully maintains the comic-like spirit that not only made the first two films so special, but seems to be missing in comic book films today.

On that matter, I’d go back to The Last Stand ten times over before I’d revisit pretty much anything from the MCU’s past two phases even once, save for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, only for those films’ particular sense of directorial passion. A strong statement, perhaps, but The Last Stand clearly stands head and shoulders above the grittier, grayer sensibilities of the majority of modern comic book cinema to me, even considering how messy it gets in the process of translation.

Iceman and Pyro face off in X-Men: The Last Stand

If you go into X-Men: The Last Stand following a rewatch of the two films before it, you’ll more than likely be disappointed by what it changes up. Despite the nauseating character twists and glaring tonal shift, I think it’s about time to revisit the film on its own merits, as a maligned piece of superhero cinema that truly had the right intentions. Brett Ratner’s trilogy-tying finale is, nearly two decades later, due some long-earned credit for being an unashamed piece of melodramatic creativity that does more than enough to clean up all the loose strings, even if that meant cutting a few of them off entirely. Not perfect, not even great, but better than its reputation suggests… and certainly better than much of what would come after it under the same X-Men namepin.

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