MOVIE: X-Men The Last Stand

SPOILERS ABOUND, so be wary about reading any further if you wish to see the movie "virgin"...

Being that I am a huge comic book collector since the age of 10, I have a lot of feelings for the treatment of characters I've watched for (oh lord..) 28 years now. I will say in a nutshell that this movie was EXCELLENT. Now for the details...

Jean Grey's return was a given (and all over the commercials on TV) so that is not a big deal. The "death" of Scott Summers and Charles Xavier were a bit of a surprise, that's a certainty. Furthermore, the Professor USING the catatonic body shown at the beginning of the movie to save himself was also a shock (anyone who has seen the movie and has no clue what I'm talking about - SHAME ON YOU for leaving before the credits were done - that'll teach you!!). This is an obvious setup for future movies, if needed (and it will, since this movie made $44 million on it's FIRST DAY, setting itself up to make new records, possibly even rivaling the top opening of SW3:ROTS). Funny, though, that they're ripping off a Doctor Doom trick from the classic John Byrne days of the Fantastic Four to "save Charles" (for reference, issues of the Fantastic Four where Dr. Doom is coercing Terrax to fight the FF and the Silver Surfer, and Dr. Doom is destroyed, but transfers his mind into a nearby body before perishing).

The Beast: I enjoyed him, once he was in action. I don't think they could have done much better than Kelsey Grammer. I was more impressed with him in action, though.

Wolverine: Well, they've certainly turned up the healing factor on him, eh? It's been shown in the two previous films working "very quickly", but to have him losing sections of his flesh and body and they grow back instantly as he's losing OTHER sections of his flesh and body was a bit much for me. Creative license went a bit too far in my book.

Magneto and Xavier: The de-aging performed on them for the "first meeting with Jean Grey" was impressive. Very subtle but very well done. Magneto, however, was COMPLETELY OUT OF CHARACTER at the end after he lost his powers! "What have I done?" was just WRONG, especially when used in the context it was meant (not that he lost his powers, but that he had unleashed Phoenix). It was quite dumb.

Storm: Whoa! Kick some arse, Ororo!!

(lack of) Sentinels: The snippet they spread across the 'net and TV a couple weeks before the movie of an obvious confrontation with a Sentinel had me expecting some awesome 50' robot action! But alas, it was just a quick Danger Room segment (though it was a COOL segment). ;-)

Moira McTaggert: I would have preferred someone true to the character (Scottish sounding, not English sounding).

Morlocks (for lack of a better term): I admire the length they went to have so many mutants in the film (though in truth, it was more for cannon-fodder than anything). Either I missed it, or Callisto did not have a very big part in this.

IceMan and Pyro: GREAT fight, and even GREATER outcome for the finally iced-up IceMan!

Jean Grey/Phoenix: Interesting scaling-down of the Phoenix entity itself, yet at the same time... the fact that she "can do anything" in Magneto's words was interesting. (a) I assume she is not going to stay dead, and (b) that means any dead person or destroyed item is up for grabs for future movies. A Light Phoenix (or should I say Green?) from the classic X-Men days would be awesome (or, a cocoon at the bottom of the bay, found with Jean's real body, a la John Byrne's reinvention of Jean Grey when X-Factor was first introduced all those years ago in the comic books).

Mystique: I'm at a loss to think about why someone decided she would simply turn on Magneto. I know he dumped her after the "change", but this still seemed out of character. It was more likely that she would go off on a vendetta to get her powers back then backstab the Brotherhood, IMHO.

I'm probably missing a few things, but all in all, this was a GREAT movie. I will probably go see it again in a matinee (perhaps today).