6 Reasons Why X-Men: The Last Stand Isn’t As Bad As People Say It Is (& 4 Reasons It Is)

After the genre-defining success of Fox’s second X-Men movie, expectations were very high for their final part of an assumed trilogy, and X-Men: The Last Stand quickly became a byword for abject failure within the genre after its release.

The threequel was considered a massive disappointment considering the strength of its predecessor and the foundation of the beloved ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ of comics that it drew most of its inspiration from. Let’s look at some of the best and worst qualities of X-Men: The Last Stand to determine whether it really is as bad as people say it is.

10 Isn’t: Magneto is Still a Great Villain

Ian McKellen’s run as the fan-favorite villain Magneto gave movie audiences not only a perfect depiction of the character but an iconic performance in its own right.

The villain’s journey from a Holocaust victim to a de facto fascist is completed in The Last Stand with a fitting test of the seemingly-unbreakable character’s resolve.

9 Is: A Directionless Plot

So much of what made the second X-Men movie as beloved as it is originated from the fact that it had such a clear sense of direction to its plot.

The events of the movie lead all of the main characters to their confrontation in the finale but the showdown in The Last Stand feels more mandatory than anything and the road to get there meanders through scenes where even the main heroes have no idea what they’re meant to be doing.

8 Isn’t: Interesting Concepts 

X-Men: The Last Stand extracts a decent throughline about abuses of power from the Dark Phoenix side of things but that isn’t the only comic that it draws inspiration from.

The idea of a ‘cure’ for the mutant X gene is one of the most philosophically interesting wrenches that’s ever been thrown into the gears of the X-Men movies’ heavily moral universe and it introduces a dynamic to the central concept that most of the characters, and audience, had never considered before.

7 Is: Disappointing Interpretations of Classic Characters

Aside from the underwhelming handling of the cosmically huge Dark Phoenix aspect of the story, there are a number of characters in X-Men: The Last Stand who aren’t done justice.

Franchise mainstay Mystique is quite literally abandoned in the movie, while fan-favorite character Juggernaut becomes an unfortunate joke.

6 Isn’t: Unexpected Major Character Deaths

Fans not getting what they want out of a story isn’t necessarily a bad thing and X-Men: The Last Stand rips the rug out from beneath both the audience and its own characters quite frequently.

With superpowered characters who seem invincible (or are invincible, in some cases), it can be difficult to do something genuinely unexpected and alter the tone and The Last Stand is pretty shocking with the deaths of major heroes in a way that no comic book movie has been since.

5 Is: The Story is Too Rushed

There’s a certain delirious, even nightmarish, quality to X-Men: The Last Stand that would go on to be repeated in the second adaptation of the Dark Phoenix story.

There are huge shifts to the core of the narrative and there’s never enough of a break in the pace of events for the audience to properly process the massive changes.

4 Isn’t: It Set Up the Next 13 Years of X-Men Movies

So much of what made X-Men: The Last Stand so disappointing at the time of its release was that fans had no idea when, or if, they’d ever see the X-Men on screen again.

Of course, that seems quaint now but this was years before even the beginning of the MCU, let alone its major successes. What was impossible to know then was just how much the X-Men movies would pay off on every little detail in The Last Stand, resurrecting and repowering Professor X and Magneto, fleshing out Wolverine to his fullest extent and even revisiting the Dark Phoenix story from a different angle.

3 Is: It’s a Step Backward for the Franchise

No matter how you look at the progression of superhero movies, or just Marvel movies (or even just X-Men movies), The Last Stand is an undeniable step backward from what the franchise itself had proven to be possible within the genre.

The rich performances and satisfying plot arcs of the previous movie were gone and replaced with something a lot more focussed on providing spectacle over emotional impact.

2 Isn’t: Effects

While some of its more practical aspects may leave much to be desired in action sequences, many of X-Men: The Last Stand‘s digital effects have aged very well.

Magneto and Jean Grey’s displays of power are visually fun and even still a little awe-inspiring without the movie ever going overboard with a particular sequence.

1 Isn’t: It’s Aged Better Than Most Superhero Movies

A hard lesson that comic books fans have had to learn, particularly over the past few years, is that superhero movies do actually get worse than The Last Stand.

In fact, now that Fox’s sole reign over the X-Men movies has come to a close, X-Men: The Last Stand is arguably not even the worst movie adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga.

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