The basic truth of the matter is that the film needs another half hour. As it is, X-Men: The Last Stand feels scooped out. Theres barely a second act here. The characters take the loss more often than not the trend towards making these films Wolverine and His Pals The X-Men is essentially completed, which is a shame because so many characters and subplots have been already built in to the franchise. By spending too much narrative on Wolverine, everyone else gets the shaft. The other problem with focusing on Wolverine (and this is going to be spoilery) is that the entire film becomes imbalanced when it comes to the Phoenix storyline. In the original comics, Phoenix destroys an entire alien planet, killing billions. Thats her crossing the line moment, and its not one that would fit in the film universe. The movie wisely knows that while it cant replicate that moment in scale, it can actually trump that moment in emotion Jean kills Cyclops. The problem here is two-fold: Cyclops death is too perfunctory to mean anything, and by removing him from the equation the film has placed all the burden on Wolverine. While the first two movies had Wolverine and Cyclops as dark mirrors of each other and rivals for Jeans affection, the loss of half of that equation throws everything out of whack. Its especially annoying as the dichotomy of the two suitors is paralleled in Jean herself, who is suffering from schizophrenia she is occasionally Jean Grey, but is mostly Phoenix, a beast of the unconscious. The storyline tames Wolverine into a sappy romantic and team-oriented do-gooder, the parts Cyclops needed to play.
