X-Men - The last Stand (2006)

You don’t need to watch the first two movies of the series to appreciate the last movie in this trilogy. Nor do you have to be an ardent comic superhero fan to appreciate the movie. For the newbies, let us first understand something about X-men. Simply put X-men are a genre of superheroes who possess superpowers due to mutation in their genes, and hence they are also called as mutants. Now, if you appreciate this idea, armed with this knowledge, you can safely watch an X-men movie, and I can promise that you will enjoy it. But no better than the third.

Like any other movie, there are two groups of mutants - one good, and the other evil. The good ones are led by Prof. Xavier (the bald one on a wheelchair, who controls minds) and lend their name to the movie series, being known as X-men. A few notable X-men being Wolverine (aka Logan), Storm, Iceman and Beast. The evil ones are led by Magneto (one having magnetic powers) and his group has a wide array of mutants like Multiple Man, Fireman, etc. The movie is about the battle of these two factions. At stake in this version of the movie is a "Cure", that can heal the mutants and make them human again. Also at stake is the very powerful mutant "Dark Phoenix".

The battle leads to an action extravaganza laden with a variety of never-seen-before unbelievable special effects. While I can put them in words by saying flying men, blazing cars, the destruction of Alcatraz, breaking of LA bridge, etc. you need to see them to believe and appreciate them.

Ardent X-men comic fans have lambasted this part compared to the earlier ones, the principal points of argument being the lack of emotional build-up in this part as against the first two. Another area of complaint being the blatant ignorance of some comic concepts and storyline by Ratner (the director), while Singer (director, for the earlier parts) upheld all the concepts and the original storyline. So, unless you have been reading X-men comics since your childhood, you won't notice. I would hence suggest that you watch this as an action movie.

Relationship with the earlier parts: The movie stands clear from the earlier two parts. There are a very few linkages to X-men 2, and none to the original X-men movie. The characters introduce themselves well in this part and the plot is largely independent of the earlier parts.