Written by Old Bluffer 25th May 2007

Written by Mad Movie Mathew(I haven't seen this film so I've added this review unread for typos as I don't want to spoil it any more for myself! - Old Bluffer)Poor ol' Scott. He took Jean's apparent death "so hard" (according to Xaiver). In addition to his guilt and pain, he is being tortured by horrible visions of Jean trapped underwater and her voice calling for him. He decides to make a hasty ride to Alkali Lake, site of Jean's death, to try and stop the pain.

Walking on some rocks that overlook the lake, Scott starts to hear the voices once more. "Stop it!" he pleads repeatedly, each time growing more enraged. He claps his hands over his ears, but the voices grow ever more in intensity. Not taking it any more, he screams into the air, "STOP!" He rips his sunglasses off and blasts the river with his eyes. He shuts his eyes and collapses onto his knees. The voices and cries stopped, Scott calmly places his glasses back on. Suddenly, a hole tears open in the water. Scott can only stand in awe as a large gaping chasm opens. The water in the whirlpool spectacularly bursts, creating a shockwave that sends Scott flying onto his back.

As leans forward, a bright light engulfs him causing him to shield his eyes. A figure is seen through the piercing light. As the light eases, Scott gets to his feet. We see on his face both joy and amazement at the off-camera figure. As he walks towards it, the camera swoops around to reveal Jean Grey, resurrected.
"How?" Scott asks, lost for words.
Jean looks around and thinks: "I don't know..."
Scott doesn't care, though, and he lovingly hugs her. When he finishes, Jean requests something which takes the overjoyed smile right off Scott's face: "I wanna see your eyes."

"Take these off," Jean tells him, moving her hands towards the glasses. Scott naturally grabs her arms, as his superpower is that he fires high-energy blasts from his eyes. He obviously doesn't want to turn his beloved Jean into Swiss cheese just after getting her back. "Trust me, I can control it now," she seduces. Scott reluctantly accepts and allows her to take them off. This might not go well...

Scott's eyes are firmly shut. "Open them," Jean orders. "You can't hurt me." At this point, Scott opens his eyes and the red light retreats back into his pupils before finally disappearing. For the first time in the trilogy, we see his real blue eyes. And when I say 'his', I mean James Marsden's. They then passionately kiss. As the camera sweeps acrosss the pair, Jean suddenly opens her eyes. When go around the other side, Scott's face is bubbling and swelling. He opens his eyes in shock, the music hits a climax and...

Cut to Xaiver sensing a disturbance in the mutant force and sending Logan and Ororo to the lake. Yep, Cyclops, despite being a very popular main character, is not even treated to the luxury of an on-screen death. As Logan walks around the lake, he discovers, among the various rocks floating in the air, Scott's sunglasses with no body to put them with. They take Jean back to the mansion, and for some reason, Logan doesn't bother to mention the glasses to anyone else. Later on, when Jean wakes up, Wolverine quizzes her on the glasses. She looks at them and suddenly Scott's face can be seen in the reflection of the glassses. She comes under great stress as images of their encounter fly past (including a long shot of their kiss, which wasn't used the first time). "Oh God," whimpers Jean, as objects around the room fly out of control. Suddenly the glasses burst apart in Logan's hand. I'm kinda guessing from that less than subtle shot that he might have been disintegrated...

By reading that write-up, you can already tell why this ticks all the boxes of an 'Unsatisfying' death. Now I understand that Mr. Marsden had very little time to shoot his role (he was engaged with 'Superman Returns'), but was this really the best they could come up with? Cyclops is a major character and has a huge fanbase and the fact he was so easily dismissed (yep, he dies ahead of 'Prison Truck Guard #1') shows how rushed the film's production was. What I have a hard time believing is that no one actually seem to care if was dead or not. I know he was acting like a bit of an ass lately, but could you at least feign upset when Logan tells you Scott's dead, Xaiver? The lines in the lake scene could do with a good polish too. Regarding the offscreen death, I understand why they did it (to increase the shock for Xaiver's death) but it also makes this an unsatisfying end to a memorable and well-liked character.

I'd also like to point out there's a possibility of a false advertising lawsuit considering the posters and DVD cover show him in his X-Men costume - which he doesn't wear in the film...

Reviewer Comments:
It should be noted that the Two-Disc Special Edition (currently only available outside the US) contains a computer-generated animatic of this scene. It should be noted that in this version, Scott is actually seen exploding and the Phoenix flames (seen at the end of 'X2') can be seen rising out of the whirlpool. Also seen in storyboard form is a brief shot of a shocked Scott withdrawing from the kiss before the explosion. It is unknown whether footage of Scott actually being killed was shot. The teaser trailer also includes an high-angle shot of Scott of screaming before blasting the lake. This moment is only seen from a long shot in the final film.