X-Men 3: The Last Stand

X-Men Novelizations #3

by Chris Claremont

A novelization of the major motion picture!

TAKE A STAND.

The world has acquired a lethal new weapon against X-gene mutants, whose superhuman powers separate them–for better, for worse, forever–from ordinary mortals. Now, for the first time, mutants have a retain their godlike abilities, though their powers may isolate and alienate them, or surrender them and become human. The mutant antibody is called a cure, but its invention may trigger a struggle that destroys every living soul on Earth.

As Magneto declares all-out war against humanity and its dreaded cure, the U.S. president mobilizes the military. But it is Charles Xavier and the X-Men who truly must brace for the ultimate battle, for they alone are powerful enough to determine the outcome.

Lessons of the past are useless in the coming life-and-death conflict, as new players–mutants possessing unprecedented, unearthly skills– take center stage. With so many joining forces with Magneto’s evil Brotherhood, the X-Men will face their ultimate test against an enemy whose forces far outnumber their own.

Now, as the world trembles, the Phoenix slowly rises. . .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, X Men, Superheroes, Marvel, Media Tie In

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the third X-Men film, but it has several differences and adds a lot to the depth of the characters. It's based on a screenplay by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, which was based on stories and characters, of course, which were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and expanded by many comics writers, the most notable of which had to have been Chris Claremont himself. As in the novelization of the second movie, I was a little surprised that Claremont stuck so closely to the script rather than changing it to the way he would have chosen to write it, though I shouldn't have been since he was obviously hired to do an adaptation, not an original. On the other hand, had he simply novelized what was in the screenplay the book, which is well over three-hundred pages long, would have been less than half of that. He provides a lot of background and insight into motivation and history... which is quite valuable to a X-comics fan and is probably somewhat boring to a casual movie buff. The film isn't as good as the second movie, in my opinion, and so this book isn't as good as his first novelization. I liked the novelization better than the film itself, probably due to the changes I mentioned. Logan, particularly, is significantly more... perhaps "lusty" is the word. The big differences are a slightly different ending, and I wonder if Claremont was given an earlier version of the script to use or if the film company wanted to keep the surprise intact. All in all, it's not just a quick summary of the film, but rather a rare eXpansion of a movie. eXcelsior, true believers!

[clumsyplankton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not the worst novelisation of a movie I’ve ever read

[Sammm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review WIP Honorary 5-star.

I never finished this book (bought it when the film came out); now adding it to the currently-reading list and truthfully placing it to the on-hold list cuz I've put it on-hold for a decade (lmao, time flies).

BTW, although the edition I selected indeed has the ISBN as what's indicated on my copy; my book actually does not have Angel on its cover, but just Jean, Logan, and Ororo.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is one chapter from Jean's POV that is a nice addition but mostly this makes even less sense as a book than as a movie

[Kent Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it's nice to read a novelization written by an author who knows the characters, it's a two edged sword. I think he went overboard with the lust between Logan and Jean. Not to mention Logan and Ororo. And then, towards the end, it all got so 'cosmic' as to feel incomprehensible. All the cameos were fun but the omission of the end credits scene was disappointing.

[Colin Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book, I like The Last Stand so much more. Claremont is as capable a novelist as he is a comic book writer.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!!! After a great job in adapting X-Men 2 - X-Men United, Chris Claremont continues to tell a good story in adapting X-Men: The Last Stand.

I absolutely adored how Jean had discovered her power when she felt her friend die when she was a child, but it was more than mere telekinesis, it was practically elemental as if she was actually at the point between life and death with her friend.

I have to admit that at first when the Mutant Cure was brought up I thought it was a trick but when it worked on Mystique it was really cool and could see how it could become a major story point. I love how they dealt with Rogue wanting to live as a normal human. I liked how it was done in the movie, but I didn't so much appreciate the difference in the book. There are some mutant powers that are terrible and I can understand why the mutant would want to rid themselves of it.

The Phoenix story was pretty badass in Jean tapping into the primal psychological being that manifests itself as the Phoenix. It's not fully explained how Jean becomes the Phoenix. But if I had to guess, ever since the Liberty Island incident in the first movie with the machine that released energy that caused mutations in humans while causing nothing to happen to natural mutants was probably not so with Jean. The psychic blocks Xavier put in place from years of sessions were probably eliminated by the machine and caused Jean to become Phoenix. Many fans disliked this because Jean didn't have the complete Phoenix look, the costume or the power. But what I think Singer/Ratner wanted to do was keep it as realistic as possible.

I loved reading the chapter on Xavier's demise, done better than in the movie, showing just how loved and valued Xavier was. I shed tears at the scene.

The epic fight between The Brotherhood and the X-Men was cool, but I preferred the movie better. Still, when Phoenix is defeated I thought it was a very dramatic scene and was amazed by it.

The ending of the book is slightly different from the movie, I do like how Magneto lives up to the line in the DC film The Dark Knight; "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Xavier's sacrifice made him the martyr and Erik the failure. After what happens to him it feels fitting that he ends up living the rest of his days as an ordinary person... or does he? Maybe it was the wind.

I love orchestral movie scores and stay until the movie's credits finish, I can't help it. So when I sat through listening to the music and reached the end credits and saw what Marvel fans know as the first of its many post-credit sequences and heard "Hello Moira..." I WAS FLOORED!!!

Only problem? It's not in the book. But everyone should ask themselves the question; why was that comatose man shown at all, to begin with?

Great movie, great adaptation. A-

[TDCbookreviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A war is brewing between humans and mutants. That could all change when a "cure" is found. Who will take the chance at a normal life? Who will fight for the right to stay just as they were born?
A book adaption of the movie by the same name any X-Men fans will love this book. While it follows the movie pretty closely you also get more in-depth answers to some of the original X-men's origin stories, along with some new characters. A nice easy read with a wonderful flow, its definitely worth your time! Also check out the first two books, X-Men and X-Men 2!

[Ysabet · Rating 1 out of 5]

IIRC it was better than the movie, but that's really not saying much.

[Renata · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean...it does a fine job of expanding on a nonsense movie.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers...

[Mudpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a so-so book for me. I had a lot of interruptions reading this book because of the crowded train so my focus was low. I don't recall watching the movie. I found it a waste that some good and strong characters have to be killed off. I know it was that way in the cartoons but why does marvel have to kill the good guys? Anywayz, it was ok an read for me. I can't really say if the movie was better than the book but all the same the movie played in my head as I read along. Makes me wonder do we really have mutants in the world?

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading novelizations of films. There are always little nuggets of extra information in them <3

[Kendal Connors · Rating 2 out of 5]

On point novelization but I hoped for more tbh

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite popular opinion, The Last Stand is my favorite of all of the X-Men flicks. The first two were good, but the original was a bit low on action, and the sexual content of X-Men United messed things up a bit for me; I didn't really care for the two non-trilogy films. The Last Stand's huge melee and smattering of humor made it the best, in my opinion. I'd hoped that Chris Claremont's novelization would do it justice, and it did...but only in some ways. There were some bonus scene, most of which added to the characterization of Jean Grey/Phoenix, Professor X, and Erik Lensherr/Magneto, and all of them were quite enjoyable. It was also interesting to read the thoughts of some of the characters, from Marie/Rogue to even the SUV-driving dad on the Golden Gate Bridge. However, some significant problems existed. First off, the amount of both language and sex was higher than that of the movie. Additionally, some of the best scenes, such as the post-credits shocker or the "Regrow that!" bit, were either left out or implied and not shown. If you're a fan of the movie, you might find this a moderately enjoyable read; still, I would suggest checking this out from the library, because, unless you're an X-Men maniac, once you've finished it, you most likely won't read it again.

[Kobye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way it makes you able to connect with the charecters like wolverine and cyclops is great, but the setting is changing alot makeing it confusing at times because I dont know where the event is happening.The storline is confusing making you think, and I realy like that about the book because it makes it at times you want to keep reading until tommorow and at other times you want to throw the book away.The villan's personality is very hard to tell because some time he's calm and other times he is breaking pepol out of prizon by teariing the jail apart.The main charectors are the X-men and there not there half the time so you dont know much about charectors like collosus and shadow cat.The overall story line is great the way each charecter feels is strong (ecept the villan) so its easy to deside if you agree with their point of veiw.Overall a good but not great book.

[Katherine Hayward Pérez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with a lot of what other readers said about the book being better than the movie, but the movie was still enjoyable and had great special effects. I'm a huge Star Trek : The Next Generation fan, and so think Patrick Stewart, who plays Charles Xavier in the Xmen films, is a great actor. As with a lot of movie novelisations/ adaptations, there's a lot of detail in this book that was missed in the film - I think this as I read , and own, a lot of movie adaptations . I saw the movie before reading the book which helped bring the book more "to life" for me, although the storyline was good but a lot of it was just as it was in the movie. I'd say this is worth the read if you've seen the movie, but not one of the most memorable books I've read.

[Anthony McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The finale of the cinematic X-men trilogy, if you enjoyed the movies like I did then you should enjoy the novel as well. The book expands on the movie mainly by going inside Jean's head. Sure there's plenty more descriptions I could mention, but Jean's story feels like a tragedy to me, and while I never really cared for her character in the 1990s cartoon or the movies, seeing inside her mind in these three novelizations has been awesome. The Wolverine delivers as always, and getting to see Rogue's internal desire (and jealousy) when it comes to Bobby was also fun.

[RumBelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, for a movie adaptation, was very well written. The characters were lively and intriguing, the plot was non-stop action and adventure. What I did not like, and it was more of an issue with the screenwriters, was the plot itself. It seemed as if so many major level characters died, and so many minor level characters were not portrayed as their were in the comics storylines.

I was sad that they chose to portray only the Dark Phoenix storyline, and how it played out. Overall though, the book was very fast paced, and the climax was incredible.

[Moe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A three star novel adaptation of a one star movie. You get a bit more with Chris Claremont's novelization of X-Men The Last Stand in the way of character development than in the film but to me it didn't stand on its own as an X-Men novel there are just better ones out there. Very,very loosely based on Claremont's now legendary comic storyline The Dark Phoenix Saga this book failed to capture and resonate with me as an X-Men fan it wasn't bad it was just sort of blah.

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I was nine, I've been a huge X-Men fan. I was really disappointed with the 3rd movie because my favourite character died. I actually enojoyed this book much more than the actual movie, although the book was based on the movie.

-Lulu

[Franck Rabeson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do agree with the reviewers who found it better than the movie. The book actually kept (or added?) scenes that allowed the plot to make more sense and feel less contrived than what was shown on the big screen.

[bluetyson]

X-Men - The Last Stand by Chris Claremont (2006)

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending to this was significantly better than the movie, I think,even though the movie was "truer" to the character of Rogue.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes much more sense than the movie does.

[Sho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought the book to prep for the X-men First Class as well as wipe the bad memory of the movie!

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as good as the movie. I really enjoyed the flashbacks to young Jean, Storm, Cyclops, and Beast.

[Simone]

Possibly better than the movie? Lol