Customer Reviews

X-Men - The Last Stand [UMD for PSP]

5 star:		(165)
4 star:		(165)
3 star:		(132)
2 star:		(73)
1 star:		(62)

 

 

The Collector's Edition was a let down to say the least. All they did was take a regular widescreen X-MEN THE LAST STAND in the regular DVD CASE and put it in some nicer packaging and throw in a COMIC BOOK and charge you about $10.00 DOLLARS MORE. You are better off just getting the regular version and save yourself about $10.00 DOLLARS. I would think if you are putting out a COLLECTOR'S EDITION you would think it would be a 2 DISC SET , especially for the price. I was not Impressed at all!!!!! 1 STAR for a BAD COLLECTOR'S EDITION , 3.5 STARS FOR THE MOVIE.

I couldn't figure out why this so called "Collector's Edition" only had one disc. Special editions usually have two discs, right? Was it a typo? No.

The ONLY difference between this edition and the regular edition (that is $8 cheaper!) is that there will be a reprinted comic and a special "collectible" comic included. So collectible that it will be included in the hundreds of thousands of these DVDs produced. No extra features, no additional content beyong what is in the regular DVD. The studio is obviously saving all that for another special edition to be released in 6 months (like X-Men 1.5).

Unless you're a huge fan of comics, get the regular release and save the money for Superman Returns on November 28th.

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

I may be among the few who liked this one better than the previous two. It probably was never going to be possible to create an X-Men finale that was going to please everyone. I'll confess that there were a number of things in the three-film sequence that I didn't care for. But give the team an "A" for effort in at least trying to do something interesting and compelling. My complaint with the first film was that it was so safe and tame. It didn't try to take the X-Men saga anywhere new or interesting. THE LAST STAND did. For the record, my complaint with the series is that it managed to make Rogue an unessential and uninteresting member of the team. Of all the incarnations of Rogue, this one was the least powerful and the least complex. Anna Paquin did a fine job given the script they provided, but she should have been far more empowered than she was.

Most movies based on the comics suffer from a failure of nerve. The writers want to play it safe, don't want to offend, and refuse to take risks. THE LAST STAND takes a world of risks and leaves the X-Men universe shaken from top to bottom. I loved that! I didn't think all the gambles paid off. The Phoenix story was not as interesting as it has been in the past. Part of the problem with the Phoenix is that they tried to incorporate it with too many other arcs, including the "cure" of the mutant gene.

Most of all, this film, unlike the previous two, really made me care how the story ended. In the previous two, one figured everyone would be alive at the end, so in a way precisely what happened wouldn't matter all that much. But in this one once Mystique had been "cured" and Scott and Xavier killed, there was a great sense of danger. Not every one was going to emerge OK in this one. Who would have imagined that the film would have ended with Xavier, Scott, and Jean dead, and Mystique, Magneto, and Rogue stripped of their powers?

I loved the fact that they included some of the X-Men neglected in the previous films. Kelsey Grammer was excellent as Hank McCoy, but I thought Ellen Page was perfect as Kitty Pryde, who has always been one of my favorite X-Men, mainly because her power of being able to pass through solid objects (or having solid objects pass through her) made her fascinating because employing it required so much strategy. The sequence where she and Juggernaut engage one another was a lot of fun. Vinnie Jones was almost unrecognizable, by the way, as Juggernaut. Sidenote: Many X-Men fans are bothered by the fact that traditionally Juggernaut is not a mutant. Therefore, in the scene where his powers are stripped temporarily by the mutant who robs other mutants of their ability, he should have been unaffected. But on narrative grounds I can understand why they altered this in the film.

I can understand why so many fans of the comic disliked the final movie in the trilogy. It was a sharp departure from most of the various versions of the X-Men saga found in so many of the comics and cartoon shows. But I was ecstatic to see them try something really different and risky. They didn't take the safe route. And I personally found the story far more interesting than the first two films precisely for that reason. Yeah, I wish Rogue had been conceived differently in the trilogy and I wish the Phoenix story had been handled better, but I realize that because there have been so many permutations of the X-Men, everyone is going to contruct their own private version. This isn't quite the version I would have come up with had I the ability to cherry pick the elements I like, but this one managed the most important task: it made the story interesting.

At long last, we have the third, and possibly final, installment of Fox's X-Men movie franchise, and it's been no easy road getting here. There were a lot of behind-the-scenes troubles that plagued the film which led to many online fansites predicting the worst. After seeing it, I can say that despite the backstage drama, this ended up being a pretty good movie. It's no classic, but it's good for what it is. And while it's not the best superhero film ever (that honor either goes to Batman Begins or Spider-Man 2), or even the best of the series (X2: X-Men United), it's nowhere near bad.
After Jean Grey's (Famke Janssen) death at the end of the last film, the atomosphere at the X-Mansion hasn't been the same. Everyone misses her, but no one as much as Scott Summers/Cyclops (James Mardsen), her husband, who can barely pull himself together. Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) has even resorted to having Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) substitute teach for him. Meanwhile, Magneto (Ian McKellan) is still at large along with Pyro (Aaron Stanford), his new lieutenant and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), who has recently been incarcerated. The new president (Josef Sommer) is much more tolerant of mutants, going so far as to appoint Hank McCoy/Beast (Kelsey Grammer) as Secretary of Mutant Affairs, but he can't ignore the threat Magneto poses, and when a drug company develops a "cure" for mutation, he sees it as an answer to Magneto's terrorism.
Unfortunately, shortly after the X-Men learn of the cure, which completely catches them off-guard, Prof. X receives a psychic disturbance from Alkali Lake, the place where Jean died saving the rest of the team. As it would appear, Jean was able to save herself, but in doing so, she unleashed a part of her subconscious mind that Xavier worked very hard to suppress. Jean is a Level 5 mutant, meaning that she is off-the-charts powerful, and Xavier recognized that if he didn't find a way to keep some of her more "animal" emotions in check, she could very likely destroy everyone on Earth. When Xavier and the X-Men try to bring Jean back to the mansion with them, Magneto shows up with some of his new recruits, including Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), who is an unstoppable brute and Callisto (Dania Ramirez), a speedy girl who can also sense other mutants. After a huge struggle against the nearly omnipotent Jean, now known as the Phoenix, Magneto's Brotherhood acquires Phoenix in order to use her against the humans in their campaign to "exterminate" mutantkind.
Now, the X-Men have to deal with the Phoenix, the Brotherhood, and the lure of the cure. While many mutants are appalled at the idea that they are a "disease", there are some who want to give up their gifts, either because they see them as a curse, or to end their persecution at the hands of humans. Rogue (Anna Paquin), for one, wants nothing more than to lose her powers. She can't ever touch another human without harming them; her touch sucks the lifeforce out of others. If the other person is a mutant, she temporarily acquires their powers, while she puts humans into comas. Fearing that her boyfriend Bobby Drake/Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) may be straying from her to be with Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat (Ellen Page), who he can actually kiss, she begins to wonder what life would be like as a human.
Eventually, the movie culminates in a huge battle on Alcatraz Island, which is definitely the most epic sequence in the entire series. While it is very good, there are a few times when I had to roll my eyes (though there were moments like that throughout the film). The ending of the movie seemed to wrap up most of the events and themes of the series, making an effective trilogy (though I can't urge you enough to wait until the end of the credits to see a scene that reopens the franchise for a fourth film, which many insiders say is a possibility should The Last Stand do well in theaters).
This film is directed by Brett Ratner as opposed to Bryan Singer who directed the first two. This was the source of all the controversy. Due to some complications between Fox and Singer, he left the project to direct Superman Returns for Warner Brothers. Fox then forced Ratner (who was not the first replacement) to get this film into theaters before Superman as a kind of "screw you" to Singer and Warner Brothers. This, along with a few pre-release photos of Grammer as Beast and Jones as Juggernaut caused a lot of fans to be skeptical of what the final project could be. Fortunately, in my opinion, the movie turned out well for everything that was standing in its way. It had problems (as I said, there was some dialogue that merited some eye rolls) including a somewhat poor explanation for the Phoenix. Cyclops is underused, but that is no different from Signer's installments. Unfortunately, he has always been glossed over, which is sad, seeing as how he is a really great character in the comics. Finally, there are just way too many characters. Many of them get very little to do, and this goes for both new and returning charactesr. Warren Worthington III/Angel (Ben Foster) does very little, Rogue doesn't even participate in the final fight, and many of the new Brotherhood mutants have one moment to shine then are forgotten. But all in all, the movie worked pretty well. The one thing I never understood is that Joss Whedon, the man who wrote the cure storyline in the comics and expressed a lot of interest for writing, and after Singer left, directing, was never even consdiered by Fox. Oh well, everything turned out well in the end.

....love it and i hope you will too..


The audience broke out in applause at least 10 times, though i must say X Men 3 the Last Stand does not follow any of the original storyline BY Marvel, but for those who are not the die hard fans it won't make a difference but hey I TAKE WHAT I CAN GET FROM THE MOVIE...
I was so happy that they finally gave Ms. Berry something to do for a change even though there was no nightcrawler. The movie was great. The visuals were phenominal


P.S: wait until the very end after the credits have rolled. There is a tiny scene that you must see

Rather than review the movie, which I like quite a bit, I'm reviewing the Collector's Edition package. All the CE includes is a slip box case and a mini-comic book compilation. In the compilation, only one is new, the remainder being old stories. The CE package also includes the standard widescreen package, clamshell case and all. It is EXACTLY the same.

Why exactly does one pay for the extra junk? I did because I didn't read the description carefully enough. You shouldn't. Get the standard WS version and save $10. The movie is the same and so is the transfer. Great movie by the way.

(spoilers....) The X-Men Last Stand, the Phoenix saga on the big screen... something a fan of the early Chris Claremont / John Byrne comic books have dreamed about but then it came out. I understand that things change for a movie, they have to make the transition to the big screen but this movie took a meat cleaver to the canon of X-men. The first two movies understood how to make a movie and appease fans of the comic. Singer was obviously a fan of the original material. Those earlier movies made some characters that were adults, adolescents; they switch things around but it still rung true. This movie, however, trounced what had made the original great. Where Cyclops was a main player in the comic he was cast aside, too insignificant to even show his death. Where the Phoenix was a messed up girl who struggled with her remaining humanity was instead portrayed as a zombie who would just as soon disintegrate you as look at you. Angel one of the original X-Men a throw away, the addition of Kitty Pryde was never explained, she just appeared, and so much more.

True there were some great special effects, and Magneto had a few moments but the lack of love of the project was obvious. Notice in the Golden Gate bridge scene that started out in the day then suddenly it was night... or how quickly everyone got over a character's death. This was a HACK job and I wish we could have a do over since I had been a fan of the early story and now I am left with my favorite character's in a shambles. They killed charaters off maybe due to actors contract rather then if they should die.

For those of you who do not read the comics, or care about the inner details of the story I am sure this is a fine movie. But do yourself a favor and pick up the complete Phoenix Saga at a comic book store and see what you were missing.

The second disk is just a DVD-ROM containing the digital copy, it won't play in a DVD player (I tested it just to answer your questions). And just in case you're wondering, it's DRM protected.

The mutants are back in the dark spectaular third movie X-Men: The Last Stand, A cure is discovered to remove mutation from them, while the X-Men search for a lost friend, Magneto leads a mutant uprising against the humans because of this cure and the X-Men must battle his army to stop his violent actions. It's an action packed thrill ride that is not be missed. The Best X-Men yet, emotionally powerful and thrilling, Kelsey Grammer is terrific as Beast. See the third amazing movie of the X-Men series. "Who will you stand with?"

First of all, I think this is a movie you have to watch two or three times to actually appreciate, since a lot of your experience the first time you watch it is "BANG! BOOM! CRASH!" In other words, this is an ACTION movie first and foremost, which means there isn't a lot of character development to speak of. Well, except for two specific characters. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Now for what I LIKED about X3:
-As screwed up as this version of Phoenix is, the Phoenix is my favorite X-Men villain, and I like the way it's been turned into an alternate personality of Jean's - it works, for the film. My personal favorite parts were seeing her pupils dilate so much that her eyes were completely black (just an AWESOME touch, as far as I'm concerned) and the way you could kind of see a firey outline around her hair when she was backlit - it's probably an accident, but I like the subtle touch that only a diehard geek would get.
-I really enjoy Shadowcat's character. In my first viewing I had no idea who she was, but then I found out more about her and now she's one of my favorite characters. Ellen Page played this version of her with a great mix of snarkiness and sensitivity.
-Angel and Beast. Just seeing them onscreen, even with virtually no backstory, is cool.
-Iceman iced up, an iconic moment. Let's hope in any future X-Men movies he'll do it again.
-The Pyro vs. Iceman fight is a great bit, particularly since Iceman wins. (I've never been a big fan of Pyro, especially movie-Pyro, although I'll concede Aaron Stanford did a great job with the character.)
-The big battle at the end is really great, visually.
-FASTBALL SPECIAL. Even though it didn't look quite right since Hugh Jackman is too tall. But still, `nuff said.
-The Danger Room is just cool-looking. And I loved the wink-wink-nudge-nudge reference to the Days of Future Past storyline.
-About the only part that I liked of the Scott-Jean scene was when Jean held back Scott's optic blasts with her telekinesis. Another iconic moment from the comics, though naturally twisted to suit movie purposes.

And what I DIDN'T like:
-Storm's hair. I really don't get what they thought they were doing there. I mean, Storm doesn't have SHORT hair. She had a mohawk back in the 80's, but it's not the same thing.
-I don't appreciate Kitty being shoved aside to be used mostly as the third part of a stupid love triangle that was basically pointless.
-Colossus kind of didn't do anything except punch people and lug a big-screen TV around. He had more lines in X2, for crying out loud!
-The Logan/Jean "romance" is played up WAY too much. I speak as a fan who hates that particular pairing, since I'm more of a traditionalist (IE Scott/Jean), but honestly. Watching them suck face in the medical ward is just awkward.
-Mystique, who's never been my favorite but is a fascinating character, got depowered. Honestly, what was wrong with the screenwriters? They've just lost the appeal of half their male audience!
...being serious now, I think they'll have a hard time doing X4 and beyond without Mystique in Magneto's group. And I was nursing a secret hope they'd do a reveal to Nightcrawler about who his mother REALLY is...
-Lack of character development. Essentially, all we know about Beast is that he's blue and a government official. Not a good start, if you ask me. Angel is a little better, with the opening scene showing him as a young child trying to remove his wings before his disapproving father discovers them, but still lacking in dimension. And there's NO hint of Shadowcat's genius-level intelligence, other than a short conversation she has with Professor Xavier in the classroom early on, and you wouldn't pick that up unless you were looking for it.

And what I absolutely HATED:
-Jean's killing Scott. Why is this necessary? IT ISN'T. Now, I speak as a biased fan of Cyclops, even movie-Cyclops, who is less than stellar as far as his role goes. But this 15-minute role just makes me very angry. I understand James Marsden had little time to devote to this movie on account of filming Superman Returns simultaneously, but honestly, killing off the supposed leader of the X-Men in the first half-hour is just not something you do. I wish, at least, they'd had some sort of memorial for him, even a small MENTION of him during the Professor's funeral. But no. He just disappears from everyone's minds. This is an example of bad storytelling, children. I mean, what did the Phoenix do, EAT him??
-Jean's killing the Professor. Now, I know he's not *really* dead, but I thought it was almost as stupid as killing off Scott. Honestly, in this movie THREE of the original X-Men characters, from the original team, are killed off. THREE. This, in my opinion, is inexcusable. And I don't just say that because the funeral makes me bawl like a baby every time I watch this movie either.
-Rogue's dismissal from the script. No, seriously, they gave her about 15 lines, I think. Being the character who interested me in these stories in the first place, I'm extremely irritated that she got so little screentime. And THEN she got depowered. This angers me so much that I refuse to watch the original ending, where she returns depowered, and instead opt for the deleted scene where she still has her power. I understand where the writers and director were coming from with their decision to have her take the Cure - after all, she's essentially isolated from all physical contact - but I think it was one of the stupidest moves they could have made. How will they justify her staying at the Institute in future movies if she's powerless? Or will they just have the Cure stop working, like it appeared to with Magneto in the end, which will render her choice meaningless? Or will they just kick her out and have her leave, making it less likely that some fans will go see the movies because she's not in them? (I admit, I'll be one of those fans.) There is a very simple, temporary solution to Rogue's powers: LEECH. One of the producers talks about a scene that possibly would've been included in the movie had they chosen to have Rogue keep her powers, in which we see Rogue return and kiss Bobby, and then reveal Leech sitting outside the door with a Gameboy. I think this would've been a much better way of solving Rogue's problem while still keeping her powers for combat situations. But, no, apparently a depowered Rogue is a good Rogue.
-The explanation for the lack of character development: this became "The Wolverine and Jean Show" (as opposed to "The Wolverine and Rogue Show" that was the first two movies). Roughly 85% of the screentime was devoted to Wolverine, and Jean, or Wolverine AND Jean, which annoyed me. The title is X-MEN, not LOGAN AND JEAN. Meaning the movies are supposed to be about a GROUP. But, no, they decided to focus on those two instead and move everybody else to the backburner.

Overall, I watch this movie for the excellent special effects and action sequences, but I can't recommend it to a diehard fan of the comics on basis of the deaths of three pivotal characters (as well as two others being depowered) and lack of character development. But it's a great wiz-bang action flick, if you like that sort of thing. I really think they should've just filmed Chris Claremont's novelization of X3 instead, because it would've been about 10 times better.

One more thing: Stick around for the end of the credits. You might see something important.