The change in directors between this movie and the previous two is something that can be felt almost immediately. The opening scene where a young boy mutilates himself in an effort to hide his mutation certainly carries the same kind of dark gravitas Bryan Singer brought to the franchise prior, but from the action sequence with a soundtrack (that remains inappropriate throughout) and tone more befitting of the Star Wars prequels than X-Men that follows to everything that occurs afterwards, it's evident that this closer to the trilogy is missing the qualities that truly made its predecessors so good. This is the rare case where more action and less plotting would have been beneficial. On top of not forcing the viewers to have to suffer through so many long-winded conversations, it could have helped cover the fact that the writing is not as smart as it thinks it is. It's true that the much loved X2 also struggled with being a little too chatty, but it made up for it by using all of that dialog to explore it's characters and conflict further, which in turn added a lot of extra depth. Last Stand certainly has a wonderful premise that can be used to draw comparisons to any number of real world acts of discrimination, but it's all very surface level. At no point do Ratner or the script dive into the motivations of its heroes and villains or the effects of their struggle. While this can be somewhat forgiven due to the extensive work done on this front in the Singer entries, it still feels like it's cheapening out in a way. The "Dark Phoenix" storyline being adapted here probably could have been left on the cutting room floor. The only thing it really contributes are a bunch of character deaths that wreck the team dynamic. With so many familiar faces getting the axe and a handful of those remaining like Iceman and Mystique having their roles reduced, this largely becomes the Storm, Wolverine, and Magneto show with a heavy emphasis placed on the latter two. There are a lot of fan favorites that have been brought in from the comics to fill out the cast, but these new additions are some very bad takes. What they did to Juggernaut ranks just below the butchery done to Deadpool in Origins. Also, where the heck is Nightcrawler? His absence is never explained. When the final battle finally arrives it proves worth the wait. It's big, chaotic, and full of spectacle. Showing that while the subtext and nuance are gone, the blockbuster thrills are not. It won't make up for the writing deficiencies for everyone though, as unlike Origins it saves all the excitement for the final act rather than spreading it throughout its running-time. Plus, it's no secret that the themes and metaphors are what had set the rest of the series apart from the other superhero films of that era. So without them the film is undeniably missing something. Whether or not that will hinder your enjoyment just depends on why you watch these.