Hey X-Fans, I’m pleased to announce that my X-Men project “The Dark Stand” is now up on IFDB and available to download.

This is a top-to-bottom rebuild of the original version I posted back in 2019, back when it was called “Dark Phoenix, Dark Stand”, I’ve went with a far less clunkier and more straight forward title this time around. This edit also took a few pointers from another edit that was directly inspired by my original (“Rise and Fall of the Dark Phoenix” by jimbojka)

For those not familiar with it, this is a merging of Dark Phoenix with X-Men: The Last Stand and a little bit of X-Men: Apocalypse.

An idea I brain-stormed in between sorting out other edits, it occurred to me just how easy it is to merge the two storylines together by simply removing the involvement of the aliens as well as everything after Jean leaves Magneto’s island. I feel merging both films helps in some small part ‘redeem’ them for their otherwise large flaws in storytelling and adds extra weight and dimension to Jean’s struggles rather than the random heel turn from the original third movie.

If you’re looking for a movie that serves as the third in the trilogy that began with X-Men Days of Future Past and continued with Apocalypse, you’ll find some difficulty here, due to the conflicting continuity with Angel’s inclusion and backstory here, I would rather you see this as the third in the trilogy begun in X-Men First Class and continued in Days of Future Past instead

Changes from the original movies are

Film opens with Warren Worthington as a child and his father discovering his son is a mutant, setting up his involvement in the cure storyline later
‘Last Stand’ Titles, followed by young Jean from the 1970s (Dark Phoenix), we follow her through the car accident and meeting Charles
Flash Forward to Jean and the team meeting Wolverine/Weapon X during his rampage in 1983, Jean calms his mind (X-Men: Apocalypse)
Cut to space shuttle rescue/Jean is empowered by the Phoenix (Dark Phoenix), movie plays out as normal until Jean departs Eric’s island and Xavier is cut off from the white house, we cut out the aliens
Not too distant future/Danger room sequence opens the second half of the film
References to Jean dying are cut (Last Stand)
References to Logan and Beast not knowing each other cut (Last Stand)
Scenes and references to Raven in The Last Stand cut as she’s dead
References to Xavier being killed cut as he doesn’t die in this one
A good chunk of the cure storyline cut to quicken the pace
Logan’s pep talk to the remaining X-Men cut as he mentions losing Scott and Jean
Logan saying “I Love You” to Jean before he stabs her cut, he is simply grateful to what she did for him during the Weapon X rampage
Jean in med bay scene moved to just after Jean is stabbed, she does not die, she is wounded, and Xavier is seen putting the mental blocks in place
Scott and Jean’s reunion moved to the very end. Film cuts to credits while they kiss. Scott’s grizzly murder cut. Happily ever after for the whole franchise.

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