Additionally, Elliot Page[b] appears as Kitty Pryde / Shadowcat: A mutant with the ability to phase through matter and walk through solid objects, her clear affection for Iceman further adds to the tension already present between Iceman and Rogue. Maggie Grace was considered for the role,[28] before Ratner invited Page, who impressed the director with his performance in Hard Candy. Page initially declined, not wanting to yet jump to Hollywood filmmaking, but accepted after reading the script.[29] Page said part of his motivation was having a new experience: "I thought, well, when else am I going to have a chance to wear a leather suit and run through exploding things? Why not be a superhero for a change?"[30] Daniel Cudmore appears as Peter Rasputin / Colossus: A mutant with the ability to transform his body into an organic steel, while also granting him superhuman strength and a resistance to physical damage while in that form. Cudmore wore a foam latex muscle suit covered with a chrome-plated plastic plus a hard plastic head to have the metal skin on the set, with some digital augmentation being used to enhance the facial expressions. A digital double was used only for stunts that could not be achieved practically, such as the Fastball Special where Colossus throws Wolverine at Magneto.,[19] Ben Foster appears as Warren Worthington III / Angel: The mutant son of an industrialist, who has feathered wings which allow him to fly. The static wings were models with a 15 feet (4.6 m) wingspan and 5 feet (1.5 m) height glued to Foster's back, replaced with computer-generated ones when movement was required.[19]
As the studio was simultaneously developing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, limitations were set on which mutants could be used for cameo appearances in X-Men 3 in an attempt to avoid risking character development for Wolverine.[66] Gambit was considered for both the convoy scene being freed by Magneto and the Battle of Alcatraz along with the X-Men, but the writers did not want to introduce a fan favorite character and "not be able to do him justice." Kinberg reasoned, "there just wasn't enough space", and considered Gambit would only work with as much screentime as Beast.[32][61] Alan Cumming had been uncomfortable with the long hours he had to take with the prosthetic makeup as Nightcrawler in X2, but still planned to return for the sequel. The part of Nightcrawler was so minimal, however, that the studio felt it was not worthwhile to go through the long and costly makeup process, and the character was cut.[67] Kinberg felt that "there wasn't much left to do with the character. It also felt like he might tread a little bit on the terrain of Beast, in terms of similarities in the characters and their political standpoints in terms of dealing with their mutancy." Nightcrawler's absence was later explained in the tie-in video game.[61] The introductory scenes tried to emulate the Auschwitz opener for the first film, going with different scenes that resonated later in the plot instead of an action scene like in most blockbusters. Afterwards came a scene in the Danger Room, which was considered for the previous X-Men films but never included for budget and writing concerns. The writers tried to make the simulation not feel extraneous by showcasing some of the character conflicts and abilities in a "Days of Future Past"-inspired battle with a Sentinel. Another repurposed scene was Magneto attacking the convoy to free Mystique, Madrox and Juggernaut, which Penn had previously envisioned for X2.[32]
Justin Chang of Variety said the film was "a wham-bam sequel noticeably lacking in the pop gravitas, moody atmospherics, and emotional weight that made the first two Marvel comicbook adaptations so rousingly successful."[128] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly called it a "diminished sequel, a brute-force enterprise" and said it was an example of "what happens when movies are confused with sandwich shops as franchise opportunities".[129] The Minneapolis Star Tribune characterized Ratner's approach as "Forget subtlety! Let's blow things up!"[130] David Edelstein of New York magazine called it "just another big-budget B-movie. It's a fast and enjoyable B-movie, though."[131] Foreshadowing X-Men: First Class, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "Last stand? My ass. Billed as the climax of a trilogy, the third and weakest chapter in the X-Men series is a blatant attempt to prove there is still life in the franchise. And there is: just enough to pull a Star Trek and spawn a Next Generation saga."[132]
In February 2006, Ratner said that The Last Stand could be the final X-Men film: "We wanted to make sure the audiences knew that this was a trilogy. Even though they weren't made together like Lord of the Rings, this is really closure for the X-Men series. ... This is the last stand for sure."[148]
The next two X-Men films, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and X-Men: First Class (2011) were prequels that took place before the events of the first X-Men movie. The first film set chronologically after The Last Stand was The Wolverine (2013), a standalone sequel,[149] that shows Logan heading for Japan to escape the memories of what occurred during The Last Stand. Jackman and Janssen reprised their roles, while McKellen and Stewart appear in a mid-credits scene.[150]
So strong is Leech's anti-mutant power that a mutant need only stand near him to lose his or her abilities; maybe the antibody works through pheromones. Meanwhile, Mutant Cure Clinics spring up around the country and are picketed by pro-Mutant militants. Extremists arm themselves with guns that can fire the antibody, and go out to shoot themselves some mutants. Beast, as the administration's Cabinet minister in charge of mutant affairs, is caught in the middle.
"X-Men: The Last Stand" raises all of these questions in embryonic form, but doesn't engage them in much detail, because it is often distracted by the need to be an action movie. Consider, for example, the lengths Magneto goes to in order to neutralize young Leech. The kid is being held on Alcatraz? Very well then, Magneto will stand on the Golden Gate Bridge and use his powers of industrial-strength levitation to rip loose a whole span of the bridge and rotate it so that it joins Alcatraz with the mainland and his forces can march on Worthington's fortress.
One of the distractions in all the "X-Men" movies is that the X-Men are always getting involved in local incidents that have little to do with the big picture. They demonstrate their powers during disagreements and courtships, neighborhood emergencies, psychological problems or while showing off. After three movies you'd think they would have learned to coordinate their efforts, so that Storm (Halle Berry), for example, is not suddenly needed to brew up a last-minute storm and save the neighborhood/city/state/world.
At Worthington Labs building in San Francisco, Worthington's son Warren arrives to take the cure, but changes his mind at the last minute. He breaks free and flies away to New York with his big, feathered wings.
The next morning in San Francisco, Magneto leads his Brotherhood to Worthington Labs. Magneto uses the full force of his powers to move the entire Golden Gate Bridge and his army over to Alcatraz Island. The battle begins, but the soldiers have the upper hand. They now use plastic guns and a lot of mutants are being cured. The guns are destroyed by Arclight and the soldiers are now losing. The X-Men arrive just in time and help the troops fight off the Brotherhood. The fight goes well until Magneto sends Juggernaut in to kill Jimmy. Shadowcat manages to slow him down and make it to Jimmy first, but his powers prevent her from phasing through the walls. Juggernaut arrives, but gets knock out when trying to get Jimmy. Storm defeats Callisto and Iceman defeats Pyro.
Mike, Kevin and Bill were extremely disappointed to learn that X-Men:The Last Stand even lies with its name, as the franchise continues to stand to this day, despite repeated requests at ever escalating volumes to please, PLEASE, in the name of all that is holy, take a seat!
NC (vo): It looks like Wolverine is the only one who can approach her due to his fast healing. (The Phoenix stands still in a menacing manner, with fire next to her and her hair blowing) I guess that kind of looks like a firebird, even though you promised us an actual firebird... (The closing scene of X2 is shown briefly) ...but I guess that meant a symbolic firebird.
And so they made that the plot too. So all of a sudden, they had two plots they were working on, and they combined them, and I have to say, they did a better job of it than I remember. They build to a big fight, a last stand, as it were, of the X-Men on the side of the humans versus Magneto and violence.
Logan is a love letter to longtime X-Men fans, but also stands on its own as one of the best superhero movies to date. The grief incited by this film rivals that of Manchester by the Sea and delivers an Oscar-worthy swan song for Jackman, Stewart, and their respective characters.
For every successful moment though, there are several severely stupid ones. Fans of the wider X-Men canon must have been thrilled to hear that the beloved Phoenix saga was coming to the screen. Then they must have been highly disappointed to see it sacrifice centre stage to the cure arc and to see Jean relegated to killing her lover off-screen and standing in the background looking grumpy for huge chunks of the movie.
The movie begins with a very sad Cyclops. He is still very sad because he lost his girlfriend Jean Grey at the end of the last movie. He goes out to the lake, where he sees Jean Grey, who is somehow not dead. She has a lot more powers now. She kills Cyclops and then leaves. Wolverine and Storm find Cyclops' visor in the water when they go looking for him. They also find Jean Grey and put her inside the Xavier Institute.
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