The “Dark Phoenix” saga is one of the biggest X-Men stories in their mythology. The story of Jean Grey being used by the all powerful Phoenix Force and turning her against all who stand in her way is riveting stuff.

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But they still haven’t gotten it right on the big screen. X-Men: Dark Phoenix tried in 2019 and ended the “New Class” era with a boring thud before the pandemic got here.

And the film we’re talking about today, took an even more popular cast and still got it wrong.

X-Men: The Last Stand, now playing on Hulu, was the final film in the first trilogy that starred Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and many others, including the wonderful Famke Jannsen as Jean Grey.

In this film we see our favorite mutants recovering from the events of X2, and we get the return of Grey using the Phoenix Force against the X-Men and even aligning with Magneto (Ian McKellen also crushing it here).

While all of the effects and combat were done right here, the story is just a jumbled mess and ruins the film. We don’t get a proper explanation to why Jean is acting this way, and they also try to stuff a cure for mutants in here as well.

If we’re being honest, this may have been the beginning of superhero movies trying to do too much. Spiderman 3 would fall into the same trap next year, and while Iron Man and the MCU would right the ship, there are still super hero movies still doing this to this day.

While it’s still fun to look back at this now 18 year old movie, it’s still not a good film. And there are better ways to relive the old X-Men glory days. Like the first two films (X-Men and X2).

Maybe one day they’ll get Dark Phoenix right. But that day is no time soon.

X:Men The Last stand

Grade (2006): D

Grade (2024): D

What did you think of X-Men The Last Stand? Let me know in the comments.

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