I finally got around to watching X-Men: The Last Stand and learned something along the way. Not from the movie itself, but the fact that I should NEVER ever listen to what the general public says. For years I have been putting off watching X3 based on the overall consensus that this was a horrible movie. I really don't get why X3 is universally  s h i t  on by everyone. Sure, it's not a perfect movie and I will agree with some of the criticisms about how Brett Ratner kind of dropped the ball in parts of the movie. I do think it would have been wise if Bryan Singer had remained on this instead of going off to make the dreadfully boring Superman Returns.

In the hands of Brett Ratner, I knew he would messed up some, if not all of the X3. The biggest complaint is that he more or less  f u c k e d  up the Dark Pheonix storyline, which he did in a way. Also, I don't understand the need (and very shocked at) to kill off Scott Summers / Cyclops as well as Charles Xavier. The other thing that really made no sense and was just dumb was having Rogue accepting the "cure" to become human. I couldn't believe that these three had very little screen time in the film. Also, they really should have focused on just the Mutants Vs. Human storyline instead of having two competing stories vying for screen time. They could and should have save the Dark Pheonix arc for another film altogether. These are my biggest peeves with X3.

Having gotten that out of the way, on a visceral level, this was a very entertaining movie. Way more Set pieces with the finale leaving me wanting more. The action and the FX were fantastic. Based on just these criteria I would rank X3 as the best. More bang for your buck. But as an overall story arc goes, it does come in last behind X-Men and X2: X-Men United. Gotta give a shout out to Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy / Beast. He was awesome in the role and can't see anyone every topping what he brought to it. I had no idea that Ellen Page was in this one as Kitty Pryde. Very cool. I have no qualms about adding this to my personal DVD library at home. Definitely a Buy for me.