The Last Stand

I managed to catch X-Men on Saturday night, and while most of it was good, some of it needed more work. And I'm not talking about the effects, which were spectacular for the most part! It was lack of story and character development. As well as with the termination of several big characters in the film, which I guess, were appropriate for the story, means that there hopefully won't be an X-Men 4.

Even with the lackluster story, the film still managed to break $120M this weekend.

As this is a visual effects blog, I've got to hand it to the guys and girls that accomplished so much on the show! From the de-aging of two of the main characters (will we be seeing this in future films?), to beautiful water and fire simulations and renderings, to some sweet work on the Dark Phoenix, it was all good.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Shattering boxoffice records faster than Magneto can bend metal eating utensils, 20th Century Fox's X-Men: The Last Stand sat in first place at the end of the four-day Memorial Day holiday session, debuting with an estimate of a staggering $120.1 million -- the biggest opening weekend in history. The third film in the Marvel comic book X-Men franchise, helmed by Brett Ratner this time out, vaulted past even the most optimistic expectations heading into the holiday frame. The PG-13 Last Stand bolted past the previous holder of the opening-weekend title, Sony's Spider-Man 2, which bowed during a four-day July Fourth holiday frame with $115.8 million from 4,152 theaters. Last Stand was in fewer theaters with 3,690 sites and had a per-theater average of an out-of-this-world $32,547. On opening day, Last Stand grossed a sensational $45.5 million, marking the biggest Friday of all time and the second-biggest single-day gross ever, behind only Fox's Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, which took in $50 million on its first day in theaters. The Friday-Sunday share of the holiday bounty for Last Stand was an impressive $103.1 million.