The Mind Lounge

X3 : The Last Stand - a review by a comic fan



May 26th 2006 is a sad and shameful day for comic book inspired movies . In Marvel world , there are few titles you should never ever mess with .. and that's Spiderman , Avengers , Hulk and especially the X-Men ! . I believe FOX , Brett Ratner and even Marvel themselves have a committed a crime to us fans of the comic book .

I was pretty psyched up when I heard they were making X3 . As explained in X2 , Bryan Singer perfectly laid out the foundations at the end of the movie for a possible 'Phoenix Saga' for its next installment . I was ecstatic , because this would mean that my favourite character Cyclops is finally going to be given the proper treatment he should've gotten , which were lacking massively in the first two X movies . So I started investigating online to find out more on updates regarding the movie .

So finally its clear and 100% accurate as explained in some websites about the plot of the story . I knew about the plot months before its screening . So it centers around a cure , Magneto's waging a war and Jean's return from the watery depths of Alkali Lake . I went to see this movie with my fellow hardcore comic buddies and let's just say we all felt absolutely betrayed . What I'm about to write next from here on might come as a spoiler to those who haven't seen it ..so I strongly advise you to not continue reading this if you haven't seen the movie .

Remember the crime I was talking about ? ok , they have committed a crime by killing 3 most influential and pivotal characters that us fans grew up with since the 80's in just a matter of minutes !

Prof Charles Xavier
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Phoenix killed him . Now this is like killing Yoda in Star Wars . How could you kill him in such a manner ? Yes , there are versions in the comics where he was deceased but the writers in the comics did a good job explaining why and threaded very carefully around this idea to not upset the fans . But in this movie , he died cheaply . At least he got a proper funeral service compared to the other two .

Scott Summers a.k.a Cyclops
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My favourite X-Man . How I pity this first X-Man and LEADER of the X-Men being treated in such a shameful way by the movie writers . As if he never existed in all the X movies you know . He NEVER dies in the comics ! even if there is , it would definitely not be in a 'Phoenix Saga' !! to me , the 'Phoenix Saga' is one of the best chapters ever written in X-Men folklore and it provided us an insight into Cyclops and his struggles . Non-fans might not understand it , I don't blame them . Imagine a Star Wars movie without Luke , a Power Ranger robot with no head , a bus full of people with no driver , a compass with no arrow .. you get what I mean ?

Imagine a toy where you need to assemble them with a glue . But theres no glue , the toys will fall apart , rite ? see that's who Cyclops is . As their leader , he's the glue that sticks everyone together , the driver that steers the vehicle , the arrow of the compass to give it a direction . Sadly , this was not evident at all in the movies . In more lame-man terms , think of him as the strict 'Penolong Kanan' teacher in your school . Although he might not have a lot of fans , but deep down you need him and imagine your school without him .. havoc rite ?

And yes , he dies in the movie .. at the hands of Jean , the woman he loves the most . He was the only one still mourning over her death unlike the rest , but gets killed by her first . WTF ??

Not only that , the writers added more salt to the wound by adding a steamy scene involving Jean and Wolverine !! not only you killed the guy , you let his girlfriend kiss another man after that ?? It didn't stop there . Wolverine is given by the writers one true thing that Cyclops supposed to have that the other X-Men did not have - leadership . Imagine a Romeo & Juliet play , but Romeo gets killed early in the story , only to be replaced by some other character to be with Juliet . Yes , that's how ridiculous this is . And for Wolverine to be the center of focus in a freaking 'Phoenix' storyline instead of Cyclops is just plain wrong .



Tell what's wrong with this scenario - Good Guy loves Girl , Bad Boy also loves Girl , Girl kills Good Guy , chooses Bad Boy , Bad Boy kills Girl ..... ??????

Jean Grey / Phoenix
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Gets skewered like a kebab by - again , Wolverine :P at the end of the movie .

I feel like all the X movies shouldn't be called X-Men , instead 'Wolverine And His Amazing Friends' would've been a more appropriate title . What's the point of making a movie about a team when the main focus is on one individual ? wheres the teamwork that was so evident in the comics and cartoons that people have grown to love ? . This is exactly like Tom Cruise in MI . Everything is about Wolverine . FYI to non-fans : He was not even an original member of the X-men in the first place . Instead the line up was : Cyclops , Jean , Beast , Iceman & Angel . Period, the original 5 . Not even Storm , not even the rest .



I know many neutral moviegoers would find this a very entertaining movie with all the special effects . By now , 'normal' people would have the assumption that Wolverine is the hero while the rest are all just extras .

I feel like the movie was done in a rush . Every clip seems to move at a quicker pace compared to X1 and X2 . A lot of errors and misleading information were portrayed in the movie .

1) Juggernaut is not a mutant . He's Xavier's brother . Magneto knows it . However , in the movie , especially during Magneto's 'rescue' and the visit to Jean's old home ... Xavier and Juggs didn't utter a word to each other .. like they don't know each other . Another one was when Magneto released Juggs from his cell ... again .. they act as if they just met . ???

2) Why is Beast the first X-Man ? it was written everywhere in Marvel pages that Cyclops was the first .

3) Angel was supposed to behave like a flamboyant rich playboy , not a wimpy teenager . Bad casting and character direction .

4) What happened to Phoenix's flames ? Bryan Singer perfectly set up those at the end of X2 .

5) Multiple Man was never a baddie . Why is he a villain in this movie ?

6) Callisto has an eye patch and is very lesbian , gothic looking . Not a sexy latino babe who has Quicksilver's powers .

7) Psylocke never ever joined Magneto . In this movie she does .

8) Wolverine does NOT heal that fast . An injury such a your flesh being taken off would take him days to heal , not in minutes !


I just feel that a lot of attention has been given to Wolverine already in the previous two films . I expected him to take a back seat on this one and let the others shine . How I would treat his character is that he will have his moments with those claws ... but let the emotional roller coaster ride being taken cared of by Cyclops and Storm .

I would love to see Cyclops' reaction if he finds out that Xavier , his mentor and father figure, has been manipulating Jean all these while and whether he would have what it takes to kill the woman of his life , after all the mourning and suffering . Sadly , Angel had very little part to play . I would be jumping for joy if theres a scene involving the original 5 in action . The teamwork . An ode to the classics :) .



Too bad . Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn - writers for this movie , supposedly comic book fans just couldn't even think of that .



This is a pipe dream , but deep down here's hoping that someone would translate X-Men into movies that way it should be . Instead of making a movie for the sake of marketing purposes and profit , maybe what viewers want is not just a movie with special effects galore , but a movie with good storytelling .