​Patrick Wilson – You know, the guy from The Conjuring.  This is more of a guilty pleasure pick for me since he has been in a couple horror movies, along with comedies. I know that the next Bond will have to be able to provide some levity and there is no one better that can put a smile on your face when needed. He has such a dead pan approach to the characters, it would be interesting to see how 007 would be able to evolve with him taking over the helm. You may scoff at this choice, but you might need to take another look at what he has left on the screen and see what he is capable of.  ​

“This review contains spoilers” is a line that I usually try to avoid when writing movie reviews. However, I absolutely, sincerely, and totally suggest that if you’re interested in watching this movie, that you go and see it before reading anything. 

Do you know how I remind people that they’re old? I tell them that the very first X-Men film came out in the year 2000. Yep, sixteen whole years ago, in a time before we had cinematic universes, banked on their being at least three superhero films per-summer, and before there was even a Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man. A plucky little movie that could, albeit one based on a comic book franchise loved by an entire generation, paved the way for our modern-day movie landscape.

So here we have a sequel to that movie, made by Bryan Singer, the same director as that original movie, released during a summer blockbuster season that contains a pedigree of its format (Captain America: Civil War), and a lackluster attempt at achieving its formula (Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice) and you’re left with a film that seems destined to occupy the middle ground. One that you just know people are going to say, “Well it’s good, but not as good as Civil War, and it’s not really that hard to be better than Batman vs. Superman.”

But X-Men Apocalypse deserves more than that simple write-off, and all it takes is a trip to the theater to realize that. Once the credits rolled at my Friday, pre-noon, matinee showing of the movie, the reasonably full theater crowd actually applauded, hand to God, honest truth. That proves, at least, that this is an extremely entertaining movie, but it begs to ask: what had happened during that single non-descript, showing to elicit such an enthusiastic response?

Before I get to that, though, there are a few elephants in the room to address. A great deal of the standing opinion of this film was created by a large amount of absolutely scathing reviews that came out weeks before the release, and I’m forced to admit that there are a few points in those reviews that are totally accurate: Yes, the first act bamfs wildly from set piece to set piece like Nightcrawler on blood pressure pills. Yes, the prosthetics for Oscar Issac as Apocalypse, and a few other characters are incredibly cheesy looking. Yes, the CG in the movie manages to look even phonier than the prosthetics. Absolutely, there are characters wasted to the point of them merely being scenery, the worst of which being Olivia Munn’s Psylocke. Her first-act screen time basically amounts to her standing wide-legged on top of boulders as though she’s posing for an extremely expensive cosplay shoot.

There’s a pretty glaringly different second act that seems almost cut completely cut out from another film. Just after Apocalypse’s actions end up destroying the entire X-Mansion, we get what seems to be only about 40 minutes of Josh Helmen’s William Stryker kidnapping four of the main cast, leading to a rescue mission helmed by Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The pay-off of the entire scene is essentially a cameo that can be described as “open box, release Hugh Jackman.”

If the movie is judged on these merits alone, then it absolutely deserves to be as critically panned as it was before release, but she simple fact of it is that the entirety of this film is so keenly choreographed, and the scenes surrounding the less-than-favorable decisions have so much great connective tissue that I’m simply…impressed by how well they actually managed to put it all together. We long time viewers know that X-Men is NOT an easy franchise to work with: there are always at least two-dozen characters each of whom have their backstory, motivation, and emotional gravity on screen at any time. Singer has done a pretty good job keeping the connected threads intact, and we know that when other directors handle it, like Brett Ratner did in X-3, that the whole thing could easily fall apart and leave us with 2 ½ hours of completely unwatchable dreck.  

When you go back and look at those initial criticisms, and see how the film ultimately dealt with them, you begin to appreciate the total package that this movie represents. We naturally begin with a pre-credits sequence that explains both Apocalypse, and shows the ceremony he undergoes to steal powers from other mutants, an important plot point. We go from there to Germany, where Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) rescues a kidnapped Nightcrawler from a cage match with Angel (Ben Hardy), but not before he accidentally damages Angel’s left wing, beginning a contrasting rivalry between the angelic-looking but brutish Angel, against the demon-faced but benevolent Nightcrawler. Cut to Poland where Magneto (Michael Fassbender) has been in hiding, attempting to raise a family, he has a moment with his daughter that in one swoop reminds the audience that he lost his own parents in Auschwitz, and where he makes a promise never to leave his daughter. Final cut, to New York City, where a young Scott Summers has his powers manifest just in time to toast a school bully and be taken to Xavier’s School for the first time.

Then we get a literal world-shaking event: Rose Byrne’s Moira MacTaggart investigates the ruins of Apocalypse’s temple in time for the locals to complete a ritual, awakening Apocalypse and causing an earthquake. The earthquake is a Deus ex Machina, resonating through Poland, and setting off a chain of events that gets Magneto exposed as a mutant, having his family killed before his eyes, and returning him to his vengeful ways. Jean Grey then senses the earthquake and has a psychic premonition that shakes the X-Mansion, bringing the whole event to Professor Xavier’s (James McAvoy) attention. Thing is, we’re only being told by the movie that this is all an earthquake, it’s really Apocalypse awakening, and just by getting out of bed, he’s already setting into play the events that will lead to his decimation and dominance of the world.

While you are in the midst of watching the film, there’s an appeal to continue to snicker at the giant blue Oscar Issac the film is posing as its main villain, but the plot itself will constantly remind you that Apocalypse is no joke. He gets taken in as a drifter by Alexandra Shipp’s Storm. She has a poster of Mystique on the wall of the slum she lives in, as a token to remind her to be a powerful ‘out’ mutant. Apocalypse then turns her into the first Horseman. He wastes no time doing the same for Psylocke and Angel, but he takes his time with Magneto, teleporting him once again to Auschwitz and training him to use his powers to magnetically manipulate the entire Earth in a way that will surely trigger, well, an apocalypse.

I could go on and on about how the movie grounds its plot, but I’d need to summarize the whole thing from front-to-back and I’m sure you may be interested in seeing this by now. Long story short, the film’s ability to connect and unite all these supposedly disassociated events is what ultimately redeems it as a film overall. At no point does it ever stop motivating its plot based on character. The only reason Mystique is involved is because she hopes to rescue Magneto from Apocalypse’s influence, a motivation she shares with Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who in turn becomes the one to rescue all the children of the exploding X-Mansion with his incredible speed. Even the aforementioned, supposedly filler, scene with Stryker isn’t completely wasted, because it allows the previously established inner circle of Beast, Mystique, and Moira to accept Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler as the “new” team of X-Men. 
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Like I said, I can go on and on, but I consider this to be the best moment to leave the film for its viewers to discover. Don’t let the initial criticism squash your enthusiasm for seeing an X-Film that is at least as enjoyable as the series has been in the past few years, by a director who has spent more than a decade making this series his very own. You’ll be immersed. You’ll enjoy it, and if you were like the audience that I saw it with, you might even applaud. 

The stress of getting a new job can be overwhelming for many people. I still get an upset stomach when I go for interviews since it is always hard to talk about myself and my accomplishments from the past. For some people, this comes easy, but for many others it is one of the most difficult things to have to do and makes the job look easy in the long run. With so much competition on the streets these days, the right job might seem like it is more difficult to find, but in reality, you just need to focus on who you are and what you can bring to the table for the employer, as training can be provided for what you do not know.

As eight candidates file into a testing facility, they are greeted by The Invigilator who gives them their directions for their final exam for a very sought after job.  Being the best of the best, they all have to come up with one answer that can change their lives for the next eighty years. The group is only given three simple rules to the test, they cannot soil their papers, they cannot try to engage himself or the guard in the room and if they leave the room, they cannot come back in.  The group has eighty minutes to come up with their answer and as the clock starts ticking and their papers are turned over to reveal the question at hand.

Seeing that the back of their papers are all blank, the group does not know what the question is, much less how to answer it.  Thinking back on the rules that they have been given, they find out that they are able to talk and move about the room without being kicked out. Being led by White, everyone in the group is trying to find a way to figure out what their question really is. Seeing that writing anything on the paper gets you disqualified from the test, the group is forced to try many different methods to find out what to do next. Believing that the question is somehow hidden on the paper, the group messes around with the lighting in the room and even tries to use water to bring out the hidden message.  When those methods do not work, the few survivors start to turn on each other believing that they are all plants for the test and that causes a state of distrust in the room while they are all fighting for a life changing event.

These are the movies I tend to like the most these days, more of a psychological thriller that messes with your mind. Starting off as friendly acquaintances, the group succumbs to the pressure about not knowing how to answer the unknown question. As the clock ticks down, it is great watching how each person starts to crack in their own way and while some of the candidates do not want to harm anyone else, they are forced to take a stand.  Seeing how far people are willing to go to get a job, no matter how prestigious, it is an insightful look at how people react to the unknown. Being willing to listen to reason may be the only way you will understand why you are selected or why you are not, but most people these days believe that their entitlement outweighs everyone else’s.  Happy Viewing.

Well, the time is finally upon us, the end of my reviews for the existing X-Men movies and now I anxiously wait for Apocalypse to take the screen. One thing that I must say about this franchise is, thank goodness for Wolverine. He has singlehandedly, or maybe single-clawed the X-Men out of the abyss that they were quickly falling into. Now with the original cast coming back and teaming up with the new members, we have a movie that both sets of fans can enjoy. So let’s get this show on the road, since there will be plenty of death and destruction on the horizon.
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The X-Men, along with all of the other mutants on the planet are fighting a losing battle. With the birth of the Sentinels, their powers only work momentarily as the new machines are able to adapt to any force they are hit with.  Kitty Pryde has become an essential member of the team and being able to send someone’s mind back in time before the attacks take place, the X-Men have time to prepare for their next battle.  But time is running out and their tricks are not proving to be as effective as they were before, so something more drastic much take place to save them. Knowing that this battle was started back in 1973, Xavier and Magneto agree that one of them must go back to their young bodies to try and stop Mystique from starting the war. But neither of them would survive the trip back as their minds could be pulled in half, but Wolverine was alive back then as well and he can heal as fast as he can be torn apart.

Sending Logan back in time, he needs to find the younger version of Charles Xavier, but when he comes upon the school that he remembers from the future, he sees that it has not been kept up at all. Meeting Hank McCoy at the door, Logan is told that there is no professor on the premises anymore, but being Logan he is able to get into the mansion without too much trouble. Finding that Charles is more of a wreck than he could have foreseen, Logan has to prove that he is from the future, but finding that the medication that Charles is taking to battle the pain in his back has impeded his powers, it will be more of a task than expected. But convincing Charles is just one piece of the puzzle, since his counterpart and former pupil Erik has been locked away under the Pentagon for killing the President. Needing more help, Logan calls on an old friend, Peter, who has the ability to move faster than anything on the planet.

As their plan is ready to move forward to stop Mystique from killing the creator of the Sentinels, Dr. Bolivar Trask, the shapeshifter has a plan of her own. Freeing mutants from around the world is an act that Erik would have approved of, but with him being imprisoned, Mystique is on her own. Finding the schematics to the new mutant hunting machines, she is ready to put an end to their design before they can be activated and kill her mutant brothers and sisters. But she does not know what problems this will cause for the future of mutants on the planet. While she is able to infiltrate a World Leaders meeting in Paris, she is shocked to see that her old mentor, along with his new friends are there to stop her. After Erik takes a shot at her, she knows that there is no place she will be safe until her wicked deed is fulfilled. 

The world is starting to take note of what they see as the ever growing mutant threat and the President of the United States has approved the activation of the Sentinels to eradicate the problem before it grows out of hand. Slowly regaining his powers, Charles tries to contact Raven to keep her from doing what she believes needs to be done, but she will not listen to her old teacher, she believes that killing Trask will end all of the world’s problems. As the mutants go their separate ways, Charles has his own team, but Erik has chosen to join Raven’s cause, since it is what they both believe in. While the President is making an address to prove to the nation that he and the Sentinels can keep the citizens safe, he is thrown into a battle with powerful mutants that he, nor Trask can defeat, especially without any help from their machines. While in the future, the few remaining X-Men are in a battle for their own lives and losing. Knowing that the only thing that matters is getting the past changed to stop the construction of the mutant hunting machines, they can only hope and pray that Logan has been able to make a difference in the past.

This movie caught me off-guard when it came out and I am ashamed that I did not get a chance to see it in theaters. Reuniting the original X-Men cast with the new members was pure genius and to whomever thought of it, good job. I am very happy by how this movie changed the rules for the franchise just a bit, and it played out great, even with the time shifts from present day to fifty years earlier. Watching as Charles and Erik are forced to become friends once again and how Raven has chosen her own side, there is a lot of story to cover in such a short time. With the addition of some more mutants in the past and present day, it is great to see more of them getting some screen time, and I was blown away by Blink, who although had little to say, could use her powers to the fullest to try and defeat the Sentinels attacks. This will be a hard movie to follow up and while seeing some of our favorite charters being torn limb from limb could have been traumatizing for most, it should only get worse as one or both generations will face off against Apocalypse.  I can’t wait to see what happens.

There is no worse feeling than being an outcast. Most of the time it is not your decision to become one as some groups of people from your youth have deemed you as such and it is difficult to get away from it. But when you find out that there are people out there that have open minds, it is difficult to stay in the same lifelong rut and you can explore yourself a little bit more. All it takes is finding that one person that can help open the door back to the world for you and they don’t even need to be a friend, just a gatekeeper.

Jack lives alone in his small apartment and keeps to himself. But everything changes for him as people keep coming to his door and interrupting his sleep. Being visited by two men who are looking to beat him up for his interactions with Jeremy, Jack is able to take care of the threat with little effort, but gets shot in the hand while doing so. Heading down to his favorite diner for breakfast as he does every day; Cara, his waitress notices the injuries he has sustained, but since she knows so little about her customer, she is not able to pry too deep to find out what is really happening with him. 

Being a man of very little words changes quickly for Jack as he finds out that he has a daughter. Picking up his little girl Andrea from a stranger's house, he finds out that she is a chatter box and wants to know everything about him. There are secrets that Jack does not want to give up just yet, but seeing that his little girl might have some of the same traits that he was born with is worrisome to him and hopefully she has not developed the hunger he has tried to keep suppressed. As a group of men are trying to kill Jack for what he has done in the past and in the present, the battle hits closer to home than he would like when his little girl is kidnapped. Only wanting to feed on the guilty, Jack has to keep his strength up while scouring the streets for the evil doers that are looking to do harm to him or his remaining family.

I really enjoyed the story that this movie was getting across.  As Jack knows he can never die, he does not want the world to know about this, much less trying to be a hero to anyone but himself. Not wanting to give into temptation, he sticks to his normal areas that have good people at them so he will not be a little bit tempted to take a bite. But the hunger does get best of him and after being forced into a battle with a gang, Jack goes back to his roots since he is never able to void them completely. My favorite scene in the movie is where Jack is trying to find a person to feed off of during the night. Only wanting to take the wicked, seeing his reaction as there are so many good walking the streets, his faith gets challenged. The addition of Andrea to his life makes him have to change his ways a little bit, but when she gets caught up in the battle between good and evil, Jack is forced to make the decision to save her or let her go, but has to do this for himself and nobody else. Happy Viewing.

With only a split second appearance in X-Men: First Class, it is good to see the old man back in action for his second full length movie. The Wolverine will never die in many people’s minds and since he is one of the most popular characters of the X-Men Franchise, why not try and keep him in front of the camera for another couple of movies. It was difficult to see where the overall storyline would take the X-Men after the lack of a post credit sequence in First Class, so thank goodness Logan still has a fanfare to get us to what might be the last of the series to feature the team if X-Men: Apocalypse doesn't do well.

Living in the woods, far enough from society, Logan has enjoyed his time out of the limelight, but this is only short lived when he sees that a couple of boozed up hunters cheated their game and left it to die in the middle of the woods. Taking the fight to town with poisoned arrows, he is ready to make a point, in more than one way, but is stopped as Yukio steps in. Being able to see things in the future, Yukio is able to convince Logan to let the poor hunters die by their own accord and instead join her on a trek to Japan to visit her employer. Although Logan does not want to leave his current lifestyle, he sees a relic from his past that encourages him to make the trip.

Arriving in Tokyo, Japan; Logan sees Yashida on his death bed and while he was brought here to say goodbye to his old friend, Yashida has other ideas. Wanting to give the man who saved his life in Nagasaki an honorable way to die, Yashida has found a way to make it happen. Not believing that this can be done, Logan says his goodbye and shortly after, the old soldier passes on. Knowing the old man’s love for his granddaughter, Logan takes the next step in trying to do right by him and keeps an eye on Mariko. While at the Yashida funeral, Logan sees that something is up and tries to alert Mariko of what he believes is a threat, but before he is able to make his move she is taken by the Yakuza. Chasing the gangsters in his normal fashion, Logan finds out that his healing powers have been stopped and now instead of being able to run through gun fire, it slows him down. Not allowing this to keep him from achieving his goal of rescuing Mariko, Logan is forced to battle through the pain, along with the unknown.

Being able to rescue his dead friend’s granddaughter, the two try to run south, but the Yakuza are never too far behind. Having to kill several more members of the gang, Logan is starting to run out of steam and needs a place to rest and allow his body to heal. While Mariko’s father is searching for her, only a select few understand what he means to do when he finds her. With the help of his future son-in-law, he is able to locate Mariko before she inherits the Yashida fortune and becomes the most powerful person in Japan. Having her brought back to the family palace, Shingen does not have time to fulfill the need of ending his daughter's life as a group of ninjas faithful to the Yashida dynasty have taken over the palace. Taking Mariko for their own needs, Logan has to find out what is going on with his body that is keeping his healing factor from regenerating and once healed, go to the mountains and find Mariko before any more harm can come her way. But little does he know that Mariko has never been the target, they have always had their sights set on bringing in The Wolverine.
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This is a great follow up to X-Men Origins: Wolverine and does little to hit on what First Class did. I was a little surprised that they were not trying to tie this in somehow, especially with how First Class was originally received. But Logan is back and badder than ever and the Wolverine will not let the evil people of the world conquer it, even if he is without his healing ability. Throughout the movie, Logan has dreams with Jean Grey being next to him, begging him to take the cure and die so they can be together once again in the afterlife, but he is stubborn and will not go down without a fight. Once he finds out what Yashida really wants with him, Logan is quick to turn his back on his old friend. Being told that his powers are a curse does put the Wolverine in a hard spot mentally, but there is so much he has been able to do with his gifts and when breaking his promise to not harm anyone anymore, he still knows what the difference is between right and wrong. Needing to keep people safe is what the Wolverine is good at and now with Yukio at his side to watch his back, I pity anyone that gets in their way.  Now on to Days of Future Past, and I cannot wait to wrap this up and see what happens in Apocalypse.  

Well here we go, into the new generation of X-Men.  When I saw the trailer for First Class, I decided that I was going to forgo watching it in theaters because it was missing everything that made the first series of X-Men films a success.  I am kind of saddened that I did this on one hand, but not too upset after seeing it on cable a year later. I was a huge fan of the original cast and reading reviews from when this movie first came out, I was not the only one. But you have to remember that this is a reboot and there will be many people that are not willing to accept the new storylines, so I am ready to put my complaints in my back pocket and take a good look at the next generation. 

Charles Xavier is working on his thesis for his graduate class. He is focused purely on mutation, which he and his best friend Raven have had to deal with all of their lives. Not many other people in the world know that there are mutants out there, some of them hiding in plain sight. When being approached by Moira MacTaggert from the CIA, Charles is ready to step up to the plate and help the nation battle its next threat. With the head of the CIA not willing to accept that mutants are all around him, he passes off the responsibilities to keeping them locked away to the Man in the Black Suit. With a facility away from the CIA, he is able to give Charles and his friends a place to train and find a way to use their abilities to their benefits.

Erik Lensherr is focused on revenge for the loss of his mother years ago and only has one target, Sebastian Shaw. Watching as his mother was killed in front of his young eyes, Erik has been able to harness his power and control any metal object that he focuses on. Asking the right questions and getting answers in one form or another, Erik is able to pinpoint the yacht that Shaw is on and tries to make his attack, only to be thrown overboard by one of Shaw’s henchmen. Not ready to give up the fight, Erik is able to disable the yacht, but not before Shaw and his crew make their way to freedom in a nuclear submarine. Being picked up by Charles, Erik sees that he is not the only one with powers and decides to join the CIA to try and find Shaw and keep him from running through with the plan he has worked so hard at disguising. 

Sebastian Shaw has only one thing on his mind, to take over the world and kill all of the humans. Being able to manipulate and pay off high ranking officials in the military of both the United States and Russia, he is setting up his pawns to start the first nuclear war. Knowing that mutants have been born from the atom and the new masses of radioactivity have caused these powers to evolve in several of his brothers, the war could eradicate most of the world’s weak and give the planet over to the evolved. With his army of mutants at his side, he is surprised to see that there are others with the same abilities that do not see what will happen in the future to their race. Not wanting to fight with his own kind, Shaw is forced to take his fight to the next level and being able to absorb any type of energy, he is ready to start a war that no human will ever forget.

As Charles becomes familiar with his surroundings at the CIA, he finds a new toy that will help him locate mutants all around the world that can help him and his team stop Shaw from playing out his plan of world domination. As each recruit joins the team, he quickly finds out that they will need to be trained to harness their powers in a productive way. But time is a factor as Shaw and his team have arranged for nuclear missiles to be delivered to Cuba, while the United States is ready to launch several of their own if the delivery is made. With each member of the team using their unique talent, they are able to locate Shaw, but will they have enough time to stop the two superpower countries from destroying each other in World War III?

Let me just come straight out and say it, I am not a fan of reboot movies, especially when the original series did not need one.  With that being said and getting past my dislike for them, this is a great rebirth of the series and you get to find out a little bit more about Charles, Mystique and Erik that you never saw in the previous movies. I was especially happy with more of a back story for Erik Lensherr and watching how he was able to harness his powers, even with the help from his friend Charles. But my hats off to Mystique, Emma Frost and Moira MacTaggert for stealing the scenes that they were in, strong performances were what this movie needed and they carried it most of the way. I also liked seeing a couple of new mutants that I only remember from the comics making an appearance, specifically Riptide, Banshee and Havok. They were great additions and hopefully they will be noted as a good start to the X-Men crew in the future movies. I still have my problems with some of the storylines in this movie, but what’s done is done and now we have a new band of X-Men that we will rally behind for the future movies.

Sometimes in life you need to take a step back and make note of where you came from. It is easy to forget and if you are successful with your future, you may forget the little people that helped you get there. Now with X-Men movies, that is something that is pretty easy to do since there are so many mutants out there, you never know who to thank when all is said and done. But one character is pretty standard in all of these movies, the Wolverine, and now he has his own feature, so sit back, grab a cigar and a glass of whiskey and let’s jump into X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Young James 'Logan' Howlett gets the surprise of his life when he finds out that he was born out of wedlock to his best friend’s father. Killing and running, James and Victor know that if they want to make it, they will have to stay together and wind up being recruited by Colonel Stryker after the Vietnam War. Being part of a team of mutants James and Victor are able to excel at their jobs, which mostly involves killing, but things are starting to get a little uptight in the group as they are being commanded to kill innocents and not for the greater good. As James knows what they are doing is wrong, he urges his brother to quit the group as well, but Victor being head strong will not let a good thing go to waste and decides that killing is what he wants to continue doing under Stryker’s command. 

Years later, Logan has found the love of a beautiful school teacher, Kayla, who has captured his heart. While Logan works at a logging company, he is happy to be away from the world, but his bliss will be short lived. When Stryker shows up and warns his old solider that someone is killing the old team, Logan shakes it off, but when he finds Kayla dead in the woods, he is ready for revenge. Knowing that his brother Victor is behind the killing, Logan tries his hardest to eradicate the problem, but Victor is too strong and defeats his brother for the last time. Waking up in the hospital, Logan is approached by Stryker once again and this time is offered the materials to kill his brother once and for all.

Having his bones covered with Adamantium, Logan has now become something more powerful than he ever imagined. Being nearly indestructible, Weapon X is ready to take to the streets to exact revenge on his brother, but Stryker has other ideas. Wanting to erase Logan’s memory, he finds that his new creation will not go down without a fight.  Escaping the lab, Logan takes to the road and is able to shack up for a night with Travis and Heather Hudson. Being treated like their son, Logan sees that they do not judge and are kind people, but they do not know that Stryker and his team are hunting for the animal that was released and are killed in the process.

Knowing he will need help, Logan turns to some old friends and finds out that Stryker is experimenting on mutants on ‘the island’. Needing more information on where to find this island, Logan enlists the help of Remy LeBeau who was a visitor a couple years back. Getting into the research facility, Logan sees the young mutants that are being held captive, along with Weapon XI who is on the operating table. Finding out what Stryker is really doing, Logan wants nothing more than his head on a spike, but when he sees Kayla again, he understands that Stryker is holding all of the cards. Wanting to leave, Logan’s love for the woman, along with the need to free all of the mutants that are being held against their will, he re-enters the facility and prepares for the battle of a lifetime, even though it will not be against who he expected.

This is the first X-Men movie dedicated to one character and it delivers a little backstory to Logan, The Wolverine, something most of the fans have wanted over the years and it did not disappoint. The biggest win in this movie is the interaction between Logan and his brother Victor as the two come from the same bloodline, yet have two completely ideas about what is right and what is wrong. Then you still get some more mutants that you have not seen on the big screen and the biggest one of course was Wade Wilson a.k.a., Deadpool. I know a lot of Deadpool fans were disappointed by this rendition of the character and they just got their own movie, but this one was just fine. He had the mouth to start the movie, lost it when he was being operated on and now it is open again as the credits start to roll, so it's fine, just let it go. But as far as characters go in this movie, how could you not love Fred Dukes, a.k.a The Blob?  He stole every scene and should have been given more screen time, just saying.  After watching this movie, it was truly a surprise as since the franchise took a turn that nobody expected.  Next, First Class.

As one story ends, another one is written and The Last Stand has come to pass. With the loss of Jean Grey, the X-Men are having problems in coping, but none more so than Scott Summers (Cyclops). With the woman that he loved gone forever, Scott withdraws from his former post of being Professor Xavier’s right hand man and tries to find a reason for going on. Not being able to find this in the mansion, Scott takes a drive up to the lake that swallowed his life, only to find that there is someone in the depths that is looking for him. Jean is alive and well, but the fire within her is greater than ever before and since she does not have the control of the Phoenix inside of her, Jean has become one dangerous being.

Hearing about the loss of Scott, Xavier knows that Jean is back and sends the X-Men to find her before she falls into the wrong hands. As she is brought back to the mansion, Xavier lets out a secret that nobody knows, he has been controlling Jean, keeping the Phoenix at bay in the back of her mind. Logan does not agree with the Professor’s admission, but Xavier knows that what he is doing is for the best of mankind. When Jean wakes up however, she is not the same woman that Logan knew and after questioning what happened to Scott, he sees that she is much more powerful than she previously was. Wanting to find a way to break through the barrier that the Phoenix has built, Logan sees that there is still a little bit of Jean left in the shell and he is the only one that will be able to release her from her fiery dark side.

The government is working their hardest to keep their captured mutants behind bars and has been lucky enough to add Mystique to their collection.  Knowing that Magneto will be looking for her, they have mobilized the prison cars so they will be next to impossible to find, but they know that nothing will last forever. But the biggest news coming out of Washington D.C. is that they have discovered a cure that will suppress that mutant gene for good. Releasing the information worldwide and opening up the island of Alcatraz for treatment, the mutant community is torn on how to respond. With plenty of mutants not willing to acknowledge that there is anything wrong with them, there are a few that would like to live a normal life and will line up for the cure.

Magneto is gearing up for war and this is more of the fuel that he needs to throw onto the fire. After Mystique is shot by a cure weapon, there is little to keep other mutants from joining his Brotherhood to end the cure. Hank McCoy is trying to take a different route and when talking to his fellow X-Men about what to do next, it turns out to be too late and Magneto is already targeting the cure offices. Knowing that he cannot win the war on his own, Magneto is able to convince the Phoenix to stand by his side while making humanity pay for what they are planning to do. But the X-Men will not stand idly by and watch as Magneto kills the innocent and take a stand with the humans once again, but this time the battle may be more costly than ever before.

The third move of the franchise has come and gone and it is sad to see the end of Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Professor Xavier and countless mutants and humans alike. With so many more mutants that you have ever seen in a movie, it is a nice change of pace to see how they are all making it through such troubling times.  Even though they are outcasts, many have formed their own groups and have meetings about what to do next, especially when news of the cure comes out. The one thing that I did not like about this movie is that all of the X-Men seem to be angry with one another. I don’t understand what the driving force of this was, but even Xavier is snippy and taking out his frustrations on Wolverine, while Rogue is mad at Bobby for having a female friend in Kitty. 

Overall the movie was not that bad, being made out to be the final film in the trilogy, they were trying to end the story, but there was still too much to tell. I really liked the little back story on Jean Grey and seeing how powerful she was as a youth and then later seeing it all unleashed in her childhood home and on the Golden Gate Bridge. Watching as Magneto has to deal with the loss of his dearest friends in Mystique and Xavier was also good for his development. The showdown between Bobby and John, Iceman vs. Pyro was a long time coming and even though it was kind of short, it did not disappoint. It was sad though to see that Rogue had given up on her powers and chose the cure over being who she really was to be able to touch the boy she loves. With so many storylines going on in this movie, it is hard to latch on to one, and the action is spectacular, but you know what, even though this should have been the end, we have a some more movies coming up. Time to watch the origin story of Wolverine.