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Certain metaphorical touches of a serious nature found all throughout The Last Stand will likely resonate deeply with gay audiences. Especially poignant is an opening scene in which the young, pubescent Angel locks himself in the family bathroom and tries to cut off his newly sprouting angel wings (the first sign of his mutant identity). The discovery of his mutant-self terrifies him. Making the scene all the more traumatic, Angel is caught in this act of self-mutilation by his father. The parallel between Angel and a young teenager discovering his own homosexuality could hardly be more clear.

Another nice touch is the location where the “cure” is offered to mutants. It is the prison island Alcatraz, converted into a medical facility by the drug company that invented the cure. Mutants are led inside its walls where they are injected with the mutant vaccine, forever shutting away the mutant part of themselves. It is a chilling scenario.

Street scenes in The Last Stand depict outcast mutants picketing in protest, some holding hand-written signs that read “No to the Cure!” For many gay men and lesbians this will undoubtedly recall the dark and desperate days of Act Up! and AIDS demonstrations.

Of course, the most disturbing metaphor in the entire film is how the “cure” for mutants resembles the attempts by anti-gay forces in our real world to “cure” homosexuals. Even the terminology is similar, with ex-mutants and “ex” X-Men sounding eerily a lot like “ex-gays”.

Gay viewers will notice similarities in the characteristic emotions of both mutants and queers - especially their shared loneliness, alienation, self-guilt and self-doubt. The Final Stand even explores both sides of the “cure” issue - via several of its troubled mutant characters.

Anna Paquin's character is a mutant called Rogue (whose terrible mutant power is that she kills anyone she touches). Rogue flirts with the idea of freedom from her mutant self, of being “reborn” a human. In the film's press release, Paquin says of her character, “With the cure, she (Rogue) has an option. She can either be cured and change her life forever, or accept who she is and continue living with the feelings of isolation that accompany her mutation”.

Actor Hugh Jackman also weighs in on the thorny ethical issue, “Look at Rogue. Her mutant ability is amazing, yet she lives a very lonely life. She can never touch anyone, have physical contact, or have children. As politically abhorrent as the cure is, it's also understandable that someone like her would consider taking it”.

There are a few moments of hokeyness in The Last Stand that distract a bit from its otherwise well thought out plot and serious emotional content. Some scenes are a bit over obvious in their comparing Magneto and his mutant army to Osama Bin Laden and international terrorists. Certain moments in the film – like when Magneto appears on television to threaten humanity, and when the U.S. president makes typical “response-to-terrorism” patriotic statements – drew giggles from the film's screening audience.

Gay fans will get a kick out of the “X” tra abundance of he-man mutant beefcake in The Final Stand. Hunky heartthrob Hugh Jackman returns as the reluctant (and often shirtless) hero Logan/Wolverine. So popular has his portrayal become with fans that producers have given him what is arguably the lead role in The Last Stand. Jackman's Wolverine certainly has eclipsed James Marsden's Cyclops in X-Men 3. Marsden and his matinee idol looks do return, but only appear briefly.

The Last Stand also features Tom of Finland-esque Daniel Cudmore as Colossus (who can change his flesh into organic steel), the Arnold Schwarzenegger-like Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut (who can ram his wrestler type head through anything) and Eric Dane as the dapper, handsome Multiple Man (who can multiply himself ad infinitum).

Directed by Brett Ratner (Red Dragon, Rush Hour 1 & 2), X-Men: The Last Stand remains faithful to previous openly gay X-Men director/writer Bryan Singer's themes of alienation and individualism. For Ratner, the conflicted character of Angel “sums up what the X-Men are all about: “we all feel like we are different, and that the only course is to accept those differences. If we don't, the results can be ruinous”.

Sadly, gay men didn't need a movie to tell them that.

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