X-Men: The Last StandMovie Reviews


So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 58 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
11 Iffy for 11+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 80
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    Surprise, surprise. X-Men: The Last Stand, the third big-screen convocation of mutant shape shifters, weather changers, ice makers, energy suckers, healers and telepaths from Marvel Comics, has shifted the shape of the franchise from pretty good, if uninspired, to terrifically entertaining. Read full review

  • 75
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    Ratner is unable to maintain the emotional intensity that has made this series so deeply epic. But he sure knows how to put on a show. Read full review

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    The happiest news about the third (and final?) X-Men movie is actually quite sad: headstones. Yes, The Last Stand brings the lamentable deaths of several major characters. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    I liked the action, I liked the absurdity, I liked the incongruous use and misuse of mutant powers, and I especially liked the way it introduces all of those political issues and lets them fight it out with the special effects. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Though the picture is not without its wow-inducing, SFX-driven moments, that potent X-factor is considerably diminished in Singer's absence. Read full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    This is interesting stuff. So why does The Last Stand feel driven to dumb itself down, as if embarrassed by its own ideas? Read full review

  • 63
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Carrie Rickey

    While I didn't love it, I enjoyed The Last Stand because it made me imagine the mutant powers I want to develop. I'm thinking along the lines of merging Rogue's suction abilities with Storm's controlled-rain skills. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Has a couple of emotionally resonant scenes that build on the first two story lines. But it lacks the intriguing moody quality of the previous films. The mutants are more pumped up and angry this time, rather than misunderstood and conflicted. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Almost as mindless as "Fantastic Four," but more annoying in that this one has philosophical pretensions. Read full review

  • 50
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Last stand? My ass. Billed as the climax of a trilogy, the third and weakest chapter in the X-Men series is a blatant attempt to prove there is still life in the franchise. Read full review

View more reviews for X-Men: The Last Stand on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 11+ X-Men battle for their lives yet again. Tweens OK.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film includes comic-bookish violence: characters are repeatedly stabbed, shot, smashed, and variously injured (bloody gashes on faces or bodies, some -- on Wolverine -- healing themselves immediately), thrown against or through walls, exploded, burned, and frozen. Vehicles and buildings explode with fiery booms, the Golden Gate Bridge is lifted and crashed into Alcatraz Island, with violent shaking of humans driving on it. Human military units shoot weapons loaded with cure-bearing darts. In a flashback, a young boy tries to cut his wings off, causing bloody wounds. A passionate kiss leads to one character's death (off-screen), another passionate embrace leads to a violent clash. Mystique's blue suit looks painted on.
  • Families can talk about the theme of friendship and group unity, as well as the celebration of difference: The X-Men look after one another even when they are accused of being afflicted with a "disease" and offered a "cure." How do the X-Men challenge conformity and encourage creativity, even as they learn discipline and good manners at school? How do the several generations of X-Men come together to form an alternative, supportive family?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Good mutants encourage difference and individuality, bad mutants try to kill those who don't agree with them.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Comic-booky explosions, stabbings, shootouts, and fist/kick fights; brief scene of self-mutilation and upset as young boy tries to remove his "mutant" wings; Mystique assaults her police interrogators; police/military use guns with cure-carrying darts; characters explode into bits (including paternal Professor X, which might worry young viewers who are fond of him); Magneto breaks up the Golden Gate Bridge.; showdown at film's end includes fire, walls collapsing, electrocution; Jean sucks Wolverine's skin off him in patches; up-close stabbing.
  • sex false0 Sexy stuff: Passionate kissing; one becomes an all-body (legs included) embrace; Rogue is visibly jealous of boyfriend's flirtation with another girl. One mutant uses her powers to undo a man's pants. Mystique is more or less naked (in a non-sexual way) at all times, though she's usually covered in blue, scaly skin. One scene shows her naked without that covering, but the crucial bits are covered.
  • language false3 Language: Fairly mild: "bitch," "hell," "ass," "dick," etc.
  • consumerism false4 Consumerism: Tie-in to vast quantities of related merchandise.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false0 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Wolverine smokes a cigar.
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