X-Men: The Last Stand (DVD, 2009, Widescreen; Movie Cash)

I had this horrible awful dream the other night that someone took the two of the greatest X-Men storylines of all time and reduced it to a terrifyingly bad encapsuliation, written and performed about as ineptly as anyone could ever imagine. Unfortunately this dream turned out to be real. And the more I thought about this film, the more upset I became. This is just an awful AWFUL film that, for some inexplicable reason, people continue to defend by saying "At least it was entertaining!". This jerkwad excuse does NOT work. There is very little fun and almost nothing funny about this film. It works hard to hold your interest but fails miserably. I do not actually blame Brett Ratner so much for this failure as much as I do the writers, Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn. They have little-to-no respect for the source materiel and even less for the characters. What's even worse is the performances in this film. Halle Berry couldn't be more wooden if she had roots firmly planted in the ground. Hugh Jackman... when did Wolverine become such a wuss-bag? When have we EVER seen Logan shed a tear in the comic? If you've found it, you're more of a fan than I. Hugh Jackman seems to want to turn Logan into the Melancholy Dane. And it works not one bit. The only outstanding performer in this film really is Sir Ian. McKellen is one of the greatest actors to have ever lived and he continues his great work here. Kelsey Grammer as Henry "Beast" McCoy also is quite good, because his performance is one done with great affection for the character. I don't know if the direction that they decided to go with for the creation of The Phoenix is interesting or absurd. It does fit in with more of the "real world" stuff that they're looking to do (having Phoenix be a repressed dominant personality rather than a cosmic lifeforce is definitely more realistic, but this is a COMIC BOOK ADAPTATION...). Anna Paquin, who has been my least favorite character of the entire series, not that I disliked Rogue, but Paquin ALWAYS seems to be on the verge of tears. Rogue was someone in the comics, who, at times, revelled in her power, whereas Paquin's Rogue is sooooo incredibly saddened by her abilities (understandably, but COME ON... let her have some FUN once in a great while) that we're meant to empathize with her ultimate decision, which is also something that really bothered me. Most people in this film are just wasted... none more so than James Marsden aka Cyclops. His character is given the WORST of the fates in store for the mutant heroes, and no respect is given to him other that a passing moment at the end. That was the worst part for me because Cyclops was always my favorite X-Man, and his treatment in all of the films (worst of all this film) is upsetting to say the least. For the better part of the first decade that X-MEN was in print, the main focus of the group was Cyclops, even though they did have the foresight to have the team have an actual TEAM dynamic, as opposed to this film where it seems it's Wolverine vs. the world. It ranks amongst BATMAN AND ROBIN, ELEKTRA, and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN as one of the worst comic book films ever made, and I recommend to read the comics and skip this film entirely.