It has been confirmed that X-Men: Days of Future Past, the next instalment in the X-Men film franchise to be released in 2014, will feature Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman and Kitty Pryde from the original film trilogy. It is also very likely that Professor X and Magneto from the original trilogy will also reprise their roles.
In preparation for the next X-Men film, this article looks back at the last instalment in the the original film trilogy, X-Men: The Last Stand, and how a great final fight could have made the film much better.
Anticipation was high for the release of X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006. It was to be the conclusion of the X-Men film trilogy based on the greatest X-Men story of all time, the Dark Phoenix saga. It was the most expensive film ever created at the time, with a budget of $210 million. It was also finally going to show an all-in battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood.
Sadly, The Last Stand did not live up to the expectations placed upon it, receiving an aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes of just 57% compared with 82% and 88% for the earlier films in the trilogy.
There were a lot of things that were done really well in the movie. All of the action pieces prior to the final fight were done really well. Ian McKellen is once again fantastic as Magneto and all of his scenes in the lead up to the finale are great. The new additions of Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde are inspired. There are some neat little comic references scattered throughout the film. Stylistically, the film is spot on with the other films in the trilogy and it looks great.
The film only really began to fall apart when Wolverine started to change into Cyclops in the final act. His pep talk to the the team and instant conversion into a leader seemed very inconsistent with the character we know and love from the comics and prior films. The final fight itself was very disappointing with all of the heroes and villains failing to demonstrate their awesome powers which had been shown in previous films, and even earlier scenes of The Last Stand.
I have a vision in my head of how the final fight could have played out and it could have been absolutely spectacular. I would have forgiven all of the shortcomings of the film if the final battle delivered the goods. Here are 10 changes to the final fight that could have saved X-Men: The Last Stand.
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4 Comments
Where do I start? They tossed Cyclops away. If the actor couldn’t do more than a couple scenes they should have saved him for the finale. In the second movie I jumped when they showed Colossus, but in the third he was barely used. He should have owned that movie.
The thing I was bummed the most about with all the movies was Rogue. They could have gone an easy route and made up some super-villian with powers similar to Captain Marvel and she accidentatlly absorbed them all, similar to what happened in the comics. Then she would have had powers like we all remember. Give her something to do, you know?
I think what they did with Angel was okay – he’s a weak character with no real powers other than flight. Beast was the best part of the movie. Too bad in the new one they made him awful.
I’m very bummed about Cyclops and Colossus, if you can’t tell. Those are probably two characters that cost a lot to do effects with, but they were throwaway characters. In the comics Cyclops IS the X-Men.
I like this movie because it’s got superheroes fighting with a good budget and decent ideas, but it could have been so much better. I am very curious as to what they are going to do with the new one. It’s going to have all the characters from the previous movies practically. The storyline is awesome.
Thanks for your comments David.
I agree that they should have used Cyclops in the finale if he couldn’t be in the film. That being said his scenes were not too bad. The “not everyone heals as fast as you Logan” line and Jean taking of his glasses like in the comics were nice touches.
I was also disappointed by the lack of Colossus. If he had an awesome fight with Juggy I wouldn’t have minded the fact that he has no lines.
It is very possible that Rogue will have powers in Days of Future Past. There is a good story to be written there where Rogue discovers that the “cure” is not permanent.
Awesome job Tristan. You’ve got a great imagination!
Thanks Amon