X-Men: The Last Stand wasn’t liked much by critics, but it is one of the favorite X-Men movies of many fans. This is the first X-Men movie not directed by Bryan Singer, who made the previous two X-Men movies. This film was made in haste, but there are many moments you cannot forget, such as Rogue searching for the mutant cure, Juggernaut’s famous dialogue, Jean stopping Cyclops’ beam, Magneto lifting the entire bridge, and Logan confronting Jean with his incredible healing factor. X-Men: The Last Stand didn’t impress the critics much, but it had a lot of promise. Welcome to the third episode of Road to Deadpool and Wolverine, where today we are discussing X-Men: The Last Stand from 2006.
This third film in the X-Men series saw some actors from the previous movies in smaller roles, but those who were there were spectacular. The film was released in 2006 on a budget of $210 million and earned $460 million at the box office. This budget made it the most expensive movie of its time in this franchise, a record that hasn’t been broken since then; if you consider inflation, it would be $525 million today. Sadly, this movie didn’t bring the joy to critics that the previous two movies did. It has an IMDb rating of 6.6 out of 10 and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 57%.
The story is simple: the government made a cure for mutation, and at the same time, Jean Grey became an uncontrollable persona, Phoenix, which led to an all-out war between X-Men and the government with Phoenix and Dark Phoenix being the main characters. Despite being a main character, Cyclops only appeared for 4 minutes and 40 seconds. Mystique also lost her powers in the movie and didn’t appear for long. These two characters were given less time because the actors, James Marsden playing Cyclops and Rebecca Romijn playing Mystique, were working on other movies during filming. The movie was initially going to be directed by Bryan Singer, who had his plans for the Dark Phoenix, which did not show the mutant cure part but had Jean joining the Hellfire Club where the movie would end with a three-way battle between the Hellfire Club, X-Men, and Magneto’s people.
Bryan Singer signed a deal with Warner Bros. to direct Superman Returns and told Fox he would return after directing Superman Returns, but Fox didn’t wait for him. Then Matthew Vaughn joined the production but stepped back when Fox said they wanted to release the movie a year later; then Brett Ratner was called to direct.
This was supposed to be the final X-Men movie, completing the trilogy like the Star Wars franchise, after which individual character spin-offs would start, beginning with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. However, during post-production of The Last Stand, the studio changed its mind. Director Brett Ratner re-edited and reshot the movie to keep it open-ended. Considering the mixed critical reception of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 20th Century Fox decided to reboot the franchise.
Colossus was supposed to have a major role where a fight scene between him, Juggernaut, and Magneto was planned, but his entire role was deleted, which is why he appeared as a background character in the movie, though Colossus was later shown fighting Juggernaut in Deadpool 2. In this movie, we saw Kelsey Grammer as Beast, who didn’t need to audition for a role for 20 years before this movie, but he specifically auditioned for this role to ensure he got it. He has gone on record saying that Beast is one of his favorite roles in his career, so much so that when he was called at the last minute to reprise his role for X-Men: Days of Future Past, he immediately agreed. At 1 hour and 18 minutes into the movie, you can hear him say Beast’s famous comic book line, “Oh my stars and garters,” which Kevin Feige insisted on. Seventeen years after this movie, Kelsey Grammer appeared again in this role in the post-credit scene of The Marvels.
Halle Berry was not going to return for her role as Storm, saying that her character was not properly developed in the previous two movies, plus there was bitterness between her and Bryan Singer. However, after Bryan Singer left the project and Catwoman flopped, she agreed on the condition that her role be expanded. Fox agreed, and Storm was given the team leader role in place of Professor X and Cyclops, which also happened in the comics when Xavier was absent.
The opening scene shows de-aging effects on Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, which visual experts achieved using photos from their youth through the computer program Lola. This type of de-aging was used for the first time. Originally, the Golden Gate Bridge sequence was supposed to appear in the middle of the movie, where Magneto would join the bridge to Alcatraz to free Mystique, and the final battle was going to take place in Washington D.C., where Magneto was going to destroy the mutant cure and take control of the White House. However, Brett Ratner changed this to add more drama to the climax, making Colossus’ move of catching Wolverine and throwing him, known as the Fastball Special, an iconic move in X-Men comics based on Amazing X-Men issue 6. X-Men creators Stan Lee and Chris Claremont appear in the movie as Jean Grey’s neighbors, credited as the Water Hose Man and Lawn Mower Man. Chris Claremont wrote the Dark Phoenix Saga, which this movie is based on. Summer Glau auditioned for the role of Kitty Pryde, where she went to Joss Whedon for advice since she had worked with him on Firefly and Serenity, and she knew he was a big X-Men fan, but she didn’t know that along with being an X-Men fan, Joss Whedon had written the Astonishing storyline about the mutant cure, which was used in this movie.
In the movie’s last scene, when Magneto regains his abilities while playing chess, the initial draft of the script had him playing chess with Professor X, but Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart were not available together, so two separate scenes were shot, leading to Professor X’s post-credit scene where Dr. Moira MacTaggert discovers that Charles’ mind has entered his twin brother’s body. Plus, if Magneto’s powers returned at the end of the movie, then Mystique’s powers must have also returned, which is indicated when Mystique loses her powers and her hair color changes from red to black, a hair color called raven in English, Mystique has worked under many identities in the comics, one of which is named Raven Darkholme. Matthew Vaughn, who directed X-Men First Class, was hired for a while to direct this movie, and during that time, his impact on the movie was significant. He cast Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut, kept the mutant cure part, and the ideas of Cyclops’ death, Professor X’s death, and Magneto’s powers permanently going were his. The opening scene where Angel cuts off his wings was Matthew Vaughn’s contribution. Ben Foster, who played Angel, is actually afraid of heights. With the appearance of Beast and Angel in the movie, the original X-Men team from 1963, consisting of Professor X, Cyclops, Phoenix, Beast, Iceman, and Angel, was completed. In the movie, it is shown that as soon as Juggernaut reaches the mutant cure child, his mutant powers go away, but in the comics, Juggernaut is not a mutant. Juggernaut is Professor X’s half-brother who gets his powers from the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, meaning his defeat in the movie was incorrectly portrayed. Above all, Cerebro, a device we have also seen in the MCU, where the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak are used by Doctor Strange, was shown in the movie.
The Danger Room, which Bryan Singer wanted to show in X-Men 2 but couldn’t due to budget issues, was shown in this movie. The scenario in the Danger Room was an homage to the Days of Future Past comic storyline, where time-traveling Sentinels were shown. Anna Paquin, who played Rogue, and producer Lauren Shuler Donner were not happy with the idea of Rogue taking the mutant cure. Above all, Rogue disappears with the mutant cure because Anna Paquin was not available for this movie. Plus, there was a debate among Fox studio heads about Rogue’s final scene, where one side wanted Rogue to kiss Iceman at the end and the other side wanted her to be shown holding hands. Both studio heads showed both scenes to female marketing executives, and hand holding won.
That was the third episode of Road to Deadpool and Wolverine. Lots of memories are being refreshed with this series, and now be ready for X-Men Origins: Wolverine next.
