The Last Stand may not be as bad as Origins: Wolverine, but it still burns strongly thanks to the sheer amount of wasted potential. After two great entries in the series, Bryan Singer left to fulfil his real superhero dream of directing Superman, leaving Brett Ratner to pick up the pieces of pre-production under a wave of cresting hype. Knowing he was up against extreme expectations, Ratner tried to live up to them the only way he knew how; shock factor. Cyclops dies. Professor X dies. Rogue is cured. Magneto is cured. Jean dies. Magneto is uncured. Professor X didn't die. The narrative is a run of fan-baiting moments that carry shock when you write them down, but have no emotive impact and barely effect the story (evidenced by how two of the biggest shifts are undone in the final five minutes), all intercut with a rotating roster of obscure one-trick mutants from the comics. And, with all the faffing on condescendingly pleasing geeks, the story proper was butchered; the Pheonix Saga, which Singer had spent two movies lightly seeding, was reduced to a glorified subplot in lieu of a handling of the mutant cure story that got rid of any semblance of subtext. On a side note, while Ratner is an embarrassment to the directing profession, he's not solely to blame for The Last Stand's problems - before he jumped on board Matthew Vaughn was in the director's chair and many of the questionable decisions (including Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut) were his. This movie was doomed no matter what.
