A Geeky Viewpoint

X-Men: Last Stand

Released 2006

Final Score: 18/34

Jeff: 18/34

Critics: 15/34

Audience: 13/34

Rating: 17/34

2014: 16/32 - Up One

When a cure is found to treat mutations, lines are drawn amongst the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier, and the Brotherhood, a band of powerful mutants organized under Xavier's former ally, Magneto.

What the critics said: Director Brett Ratner has replaced the heart and emotion (and character development) of the previous X-Men films with more action and explosions. The film should still provide ample entertainment, but viewers may truly wish this to be the Last Stand.

What I said: Not a great end to a trilogy of films.

Of all the films the final placement of this film caught me off guard, hard to believe this film actually ends in the positive territory on the chart.  This film has moved up slightly this year in both Audience Ranking and Critic Ranking, which usually indicates a typo.
I have written about X-Men: Last Stand several times including here and here. 


 

Last week when I wrote about the issues surround X-Men: The Last Stand I didn't realize I was going to be writing a two part story; however I saw some new (or at least new to me) information.    I was channel surfing when I came across a documentary concerning X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Origins: Wolverine, I think it was on Fox Movie Channel but it couldn't find it in the channel listing.

 

The documentary was interesting because it appeared to be made up of two panels, the first with Brett Ratner, Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg, and the second panel had Gavin Hood and someone who didn't say boo so I couldn't identify, since I didn't catch the beginning I was trying to get the drift of what is going on.   I never did figure out if it was two panels edited together or if Gavin was teleconferenced in or what the deal was.  If someone knows what documentary I am talking about please email me.

 

The documentary was interesting because the four primary participants were basically slamming 20th Century for who poor a job was done behind the scenes on these two movies.   I would say no punches were held, but as brutal as it was its not the case.

 

When talking about the script for X-Men: The Last Stand [TLS] I learned several things.   I knew the movie was originally intended to be two movies under Bryan Singer, what I didn't know was that even when Brett Ratner was brought in there still was possibility that it was going to be two movies, the final decision occurred while filming.   The fourth movie was going to feature Bolivar Trask and the first encounter with the Sentinels as the bad guys.   There are a number of scenes even in the final cut of TLS that make reference to the next movie but a hand full of scenes were filmed and cut completely or a few more edit heavily to drop the references to the next movie. 

 

Once the decision to go to a single movie was made TLS had a major rewrite.   The final sequence of the second act of TLS was supposed to be Magento breaking his fellow mutants out of Alcatraz via moving the Golden Gate Bridge.   The CGI  work for moving the Bridge was already complete and since there wasn't going to be X4, Worthington Labs were relocated from Washington DC to Alcatraz and a large number of plot holes opened up.   Ratner owns up to this decision as his decision.   However in my review I am not sure he had much choice.

 

The decision to have the final battle to Alcatraz required a new prison break, hence the mobile prison.   It was a scene original written for X-Men (2000) and now incorporated into TLS, the original mutants were supposed to be Mystique, Juggernaut, Gambit and Multiple-Man.   Gambit (Keanu Reeves) was cut at the last moment, too many one off Mutants.     It was unclear whether or not it was filmed.

 

Nightcrawler was cut on Fox's orders, I had long been under the impression that it was Alan Cummings decision to not do the film, but it was the other way around.

 

Wondering why Angel was in the film, how about the Morlocks, how about the precursor view of Angel trying to cut off his wings.   The story line for those that need to connect the dots in the Comic books have the Morlocks torturing Warren Worthington III and tearing his wings offs, he gets artificial wings and becomes the ArchAngel.   That storyline was supposed to be in the film and the end scene with Angel flying above San Francisco was supposed to show off his new artificial wings.

 

James Marsden filmed his scenes in two weeks while on break from filming Superman Returns, Anna Paquin was on set for under two weeks because she was filming two other films.   Olivia Williams (Dr. Moria MacTaggert) had to be flown in from England for her two weeks.   The scheduling issues were driving the crew nuts.   Whole sequences for those three actors were never filmed. 

 

One of the challenges that Brett Ratner identified was getting the script in the morning for what they were supposed to be shooting that day.   He had little or no time to block out the action and many scenes were shot with one camera and only a couple of takes because that is all the time they had.

 

Many of the CGI shots were ordered before Brett Ratner was hired as director, I have already talked about the Golden Gate Bridge, but other like atomization of Charles Xavier in the Grey house.    He had to block his take around someone else work.

 

So even though the film had a $210 Million dollar budget in 2005, many effects had to be practical and done on the cheap.   The floating rocks at Alkali Lake, the objects in Jean Grey's house all we floated using string at best.    The follow up question, where was the money spent?  Remember my comment about pulling punches, here is a case where they really held back.

 

Previously John Bruno, Visual Effects supervisor, estimated that 1/6th of the entire films budget was spent on the Golden Gate Bridge sequence ($35M) all before Matthew Vaughn was even hired, let alone Brett Ratner.   He continued that the next most expensive sequence, tens of millions, were spent on the film grafting of Patrick Stewart and Ian MacKellan for the prologue scene.   That's $50 to $60 million on TWO scenes.  

 

Finally there were a several scenes that were filmed but never used, there is no real explanation on why these scenes were cut, Pyro running through the woods to bring the news of the Cure to Magento in his hidden fortress.   Jean Grey becoming the Dark Phoenix in the Mutant Camp.   I have seen those but there is a scene with Jean Grey on the Bridge, refusing Magento's orders.  

 

One must wonder what might have been....    

 

Finally as I wrote last week there is a lot of the story being told as "Easter Eggs" behind the actors.    It's estimated that there are between 75 and 100 such things in the back ground, guess I am going to have to pull out my copy and review. 

The X-Men was originally conceived as a Trilogy of Films way back in 1990 and the head of 20th Century Fox Studios, Thomas Rothman, was extremely and actively involved in these movies.   It is Rothman's decision to ditch Sentinels, X-Men Uniforms, X-Copter, ....  The idea was that if the first movie was successful than there would be three movies.

The year was 2006, the top movie in the box office was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest by almost 2 to 1 over second place Night at the Museum, followed closely by Cars and X-Men: The Last Stand.   How did a movie with such success financially become so notoriously bad that people utter the director's name as a verb to describe bad movies?

Even before a director was named Simon Kinberg was hired by 20th Century Fox to pen the third installment of the X-Men universe.    A this point it is time to put in some issues that were going on concerning the script.   While it was about to change but at the time Dark Movies were failing, the paying audience wanted light and happy films.   

 

X-Men: The Last Stand was originally set to be directed Bryan Singer.  Director of the first two installments, he suggested filming two movies in essence back to back to have a bigger story arc an a conclusion to the story that were being told in the X-Men movies.  20th Century Fox was watching a budget that was too big at $110 Million for X2 double for X3 an many elements were being red flagged for cost reasons.   However in December 2004 he backed out to take on the Superman sequel Superman Returns for Warner Bros.   20th Century Fox quickly lined up Matthew Vaughn who was signed on in January and out by June due to "personal" issues.   Brett Ratner was a last moment replacement.

Avi Arad, President of Marvel Studios at the time, was immediately put on the defensive by the decision to bring in Ratner.   He defended the Ratner Choice by pointing out Ratner was the other finalist when Bryan Singer was hired for the original X-Men, he made Red Dragon, Rush Hour, the Family Man.   It was inferred that at this late date he really wasn't going to have much power anyways.   I never understood the hiring of Brett Ratner, hew was doing well in his Action Comedies but that wasn't what X-Men as about, it was almost a desperation hire, anyone with a pulse who may have considered film an action movie.

Principal filming of X-Men: The Last Stand in August of 2005 for a May 2006 release dates, a mere 9 months.   Contrast that to X-Men filming started in December 1997 and X2 November 2000 both of which had about 2 years to complete yet X3 had 9 months.

X-Men: The Last Stand had another problem, who's in who's out of filming.   Halle Berry was the first of the principal characters to sign in March 2005.  Ian McKellen (Magento) didn't sign until April 2005, and he was a primary villain, because he wasn't asked.  Allen Cumming passed on returning as Night Crawler, Patrick Stewart and Famke Janssen in Mid May.   Hugh Jackman signed somewhere June/July.    Can you imagine the difficulties assembling a script without knowing who was going to be in it?

The script however had other problems.  When people look at X3 today we automatically assume the "Dark Phoenix Saga" is the central story being told.  The original story laid out all the years ago was the conclusion of the  Xavier vs. Magento with the Civil Rights duel in mold of Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Malcom X mold set around "the cure".     The studio had to finish that story, but Bryan Singer had presented the Dark Phoenix saga and the Studio wanted that too.    Hey its going to be the conclusion...   The Dark Phoenix storyline is the bolt on not "the cure".

As have always wondered if the Danger Room scene with Sentinel head at the beginning of X-Men The Last Stand is  "F U" statement to Thomas Rothman.

The other problem with the script is 20th Century insistence not to waste time telling the viewers what was happening, the audience had just watch X2 of DVD for crying out loud.

So you have 9 months to create a movie with a director who holds little actual power, an incomplete script that supposed to be two movies at least, telling a dark story in a nice happy way, with no idea who is acting to be in the movie, and while we are giving you $210 Million budget it had better come in well under budget.   And just in case you forgot; no Costumes.  See the problem? Did I forget to mention that Rothman wanted no pop culture references in the movie?

The other problem that is often forgotten is X-Men: Evolution, the TV series which by the time of filming had concluded its TV run of Four Seasons.   The show created as a "Teen Drama" had introduced the next generation of fans to the X-Men.   The show spent multiple years setting up and telling The Age of Apocalypse story line, and when the show ended the fourth season there was a strong indication that the next season was meant to be the Dark Phoenix Saga.   20th Century Fox clearly took notice and whether or not they forced the issue many of the characters from the show, Spyke, the Morlocks, were added to the X3 movie.  

So with all those limitations, requirements, and other activities we got a movie; X-Men: The Last Stand.   Many people blame Brett Ratner for the failings of the movie, I look at Thomas Rothman and Avi Arad as the principal players in this fiasco.     I could post a review of the movie and tear it to shreds for all its problems but there is more to the story.

 

I personally rated X-Men: The Last Stand as the 18th best out of the 32 Marvel movies released (19th of 33 as of today) and will honestly say that if the final climatic fight scene, which is what the three movies had been building towards, had been better it would have moved up this list immensely regardless of the rest of the films fault.   I know many people think I am crazy rating the movie this high, but I am not alone, Audience and Critics place this movie at 13th to 15th of 32 as it clearly has the top score of the bottom group of films when you look at the composite scores from multiple sources.   It was the 5th most seen movie in the Marvel Universe in terms of domestic tickets sold, and when you factor in finances it was just above the middle of the road.    

 

That's not saying the film couldn't have been better or that it shouldn't have been better.  I have jokingly suggested I would love to see the B-Roll film for this movie, would love to have access to the CGI to improve the climatic fight scene and this movie has the potential to be top 10 in the Marvel Universe.   I have always wondered why there isn't a extended version of this film out there.

What if you include box office, or meta critics or ...

So here is my personal list.