10 Comic Book Adaptations That Messed Up Iconic Stories
2. X-Men: The Last Stand
What is it with the third installments in superhero franchises being so disappointing?
The second X-Men film is still considered by some to be one of the greatest comic book movies to date, and its ending also laid the cards for what should have been a fantastic follow up, telling the classic comic book story of the Phoenix.
Unfortunately, the director of the first two X-Men films, Bryan Singer, was seduced by DC and went off to make Superman Returns, leaving Brett Ratner to fill his boots. The results were less than perfect, to say the least, and while the Phoenix story was adapted, it played second fiddle to another X-Men comic book saga based around a cure for mutants.
Both The Cure and Phoenix arcs are solid and deserve their own dedicated outings, not to be meshed together in a movie that doesn't give either plot enough time or justice. The Cure should have been held off for the time being, allowing the Phoenix story to breathe and flourish.
Of course, Fox would eventually have another attempt at telling the Phoenix saga, yet still failed to bring the space hopping epic from the comic pages to life in an accurate and meaningful way, making similar mistakes that they clearly hadn't learned from.