X-Men: Days of Future Past

[JohnC]

I have no idea what the post credits (at the very end rather than having it after the first credits bit) bit was about.

I assume it was actually ancient Egypt, not someone making a new pyramid, Tetris-style. Who was that?

[MardiganX]

I have no idea what the post credits (at the very end rather than having it after the first credits bit) bit was about.

I assume it was actually ancient Egypt, not someone making a new pyramid, Tetris-style. Who was that?

That was supposed to be the original incarnation of the character Apocalypse with his four horsemen standing watch in the distance. Doesn't make any real sense in the context of the movies so far but it's a nice nod to the potential plot for the next movie.

[letsbook]

Well I guess opinions are like arseholes... Here's mine (serious spoilers ahead):

What a complete let down, a waste of a film. Where is an X-Men film that shows the team fighting together as a unit consistently throughout the film? This is the FIFTH film and I still need to sit through the gang getting back together, in-fighting and just 5 main mutants in the story? The best thing about the whole movie were the future Sentinels and their ability to counteract anything the mutants threw at them, and their adaptation from Mystique's DNA, which was awesome. Everything else in the film seemed like a bunch of stars all phoning in performances on an individual basis, not once in one-on-one conversations or interactions did it feel like people were actually in the same room together. There was no chemistry when there needed to be, just too many stars all needing a little bit of screen time to fulfill their contractual obligations. Then the biggest slap in the face is that at the end it all just resets back to the team from the 2000 film! So we have a cast that is FOURTEEN YEARS OLDER than their original roles in exactly the same state as the first movie.

It should have ended with a complete team... they should have been new faces, perhaps new faces in old characters, but something to liven up the cast, something to inject life into the franchise and also to set up the new movie so it's not another case of half a movie wasted on getting a group of mutants together AGAIN for a fight with a rumoured Apocalypse. It tied up all those loose ends in the universe. I get that. It did it with a decent attempt at a story and while it made some sense, it really shouldn't have gotten to the point where a multi-million dollar franchise needs a movie like this.

Just disappointing... really really disappointing.

[MardiganX]

Most of the future battles had them working together, especially Blink using her portals to assist everyone. Hell even Storm and Magneto buddied up for mass Sentinel takedown so there seemed to be plenty of the Mutants fighting together. The historical stuff always has both sides of the Mutants against each other in some way. From what Xavier says at the end it sounds like they will all be together next time round and from what I remember of the Apocalypse storylines I expect that to be the case.

In terms of the action I felt it had the best battle scenes of the series, especially the future stuff. Maybe what we need is more of that kind of setting and I would fully support that. First Class was good to refresh things after the awful Last Stand but the problem they now have is how to continue with the 2 character sets they have created or decide which one to drop.

[Vin]

[makkuwata]

Just saw it; literally. Sitting here on my phone while I wait on the post credit sequence. Immediate impression is that it was amazeballs and I'm probably going to head to the high seas tomorrow morning to relive some of the more epic lines and sequences in shitty cam quality.

Was a bit distracting anytime Stryker/Stifler was on screen tho!

[Stig]

Little tidbit, the guy who plays Stryker in this in uncredited as Stryker in Amazing Spiderman 2 too

[MardiganX]

For those that seen it...

Was anyone else totally giddy to see Marsden as Cyclops again? Even though the talk is off his character being recast as a younger version I would fucking love to see him return to the role for Apocalypse. His banter with Jackman was always a highlight of the movies so to see that little rivalry again just for that few seconds was an awesome moment.

Original cast returns along with some of the new guys and I will be stupid excited for Apocalypse!

[Harsin]

This was a pleasant surprise, every bit of pre-release material made me fear the worse, but this was actually great fun.

I laughed with everyone else when those terrible photos were released of Quicksilver, but he's actually one of the highlights of the film, now I'm actually more worried about Avengers' version after Aaron Taylor Johnson's woeful performance in Godzilla.

Anyone who hated X-Men 3 (so that's pretty much everyone apart from Brett Ratner's mum) should be happy with this film.

[JoeK]

Bare in mind I haven't seen the new one yet, but what's the deal with the how Last Stand fits in with the rest of the films - inasmuch as First Class kind of completely changes how Prof X loses his walking ability and all that stuff.

Have they kind of just 'forgotten' about it and moved on, or is there some sort of odd other universe thing going on?

[Mr Cochese]

That was proper good.

[Harsin]

That was proper good.

Now are you just saying that due to it having Patrick Stewart in a hover chair?

[Tetchy]

Don't know if anyone's interested but the iTunes film version of this is already up for preorder at £9.99 HD or £8.99 SD.

[Broker]

First Class was good to refresh things after the awful Last Stand but the problem they now have is how to continue with the 2 character sets they have created or decide which one to drop.

They're dropping the future ones, Gandalf, Pickard and Cat Woman have all already said they're not coming back. I'd expect Apocalyse to grab a few people from the future one and have them settle in whatever year that's set.

[HarMGM]

The moment the theme from X2 came up I knew this was going to be awesome. And it delivered. I will say that after hearing Ratner became the director for X3 I never bothered with that film. At the very least I had my two good X-Men movies from Singer along with First Class and last years The Wolverine.

I will say that it is not quite as good as First Class but this does so much right I can forgive a few missteps.

For me the bad comes in with Quicksilver who, while having the best sequence in the movie, just leaves after his big scene. Bit of a letdown of what was by far the best new mutant introduction. At the very least I was pleased that Marvel has some real competition with this version of Quicksilver. It's a minor thing to critisize but it did bug me just a tad.

Because when the good is this good, who cares! Fantastic cast, great musical score, beatifully shot. It is by far Singer's best X-men movie and it is very clear right now that Marvel isn't the only studio that can deliver on their comic book material. All of a sudden I find myself looking forward to X-Men Apocalypse, The Wolverine 3 and even X-Force.

Really loved the little call-backs and nods to the comics and Singer's past X-men movies as well. Quicksilver remembering his mother used to date someone who could control steel, the relationship between Wolverine and Xavier. By far my favourite is the fact that Mystique still has the hots for Logan considering she picks him up in what I thought was going to be a different reference to X2 alltogether.

[Harsin]

For me the bad comes in with Quicksilver who, while having the best sequence in the movie, just leaves after his big scene. Bit of a letdown of what was by far the best new mutant introduction. At the very least I was pleased that Marvel has some real competition with this version of Quicksilver. It's a minor thing to critisize but it did bug me just a tad.

Quicksilver has the same problem as the motherfucking Flash ( http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/repost-funny-superhero-rant-the-motherfucking-flash/ ) in that he's so overpowered he'd be able to pretty much instantaneously solve any problems they have, so they had to artificially remove him from the board.

[Chocky]

Really pleased to hear that

Marsden pops up as Cyclops. Is it a newly shot thing or footage from X1/X2?

My only fanboy gripe with the franchise is the First Class not being the original X-Men. I would love Marsden/Janssen to come back for Apocalypse but understand that a recast makes more sense if they introduce a younger Scott/Jean in the 80's set movie.

[MardiganX]

Really pleased to hear that

Marsden pops up as Cyclops. Is it a newly shot thing or footage from X1/X2?

My only fanboy gripe with the franchise is the First Class not being the original X-Men. I would love Marsden/Janssen to come back for Apocalypse but understand that a recast makes more sense if they introduce a younger Scott/Jean in the 80's set movie.

Completely new scene for this movie. It really is a fantastic moment and is one of my favourite parts of the whole film.

[deerokus]

Cineworld in Glasgow managed to fuck up spectacularly - the film froze three times during the big climactic sequence, eventually crashing entirely. They had to reboot the projector and skip ahead. Took twenty minutes all told.

Really very much enjoyed the film, best execution of time travel shenanigans I've seen in some time. Although that fuck up took the wind out of its sails somewhat.

[MardiganX]

What showing were you in Deerokus? I was at the 1030 showing in the Dbox screen. Apart from some wee turkey being in my seat when I arrived and forcing me to eject him it was plain sailing all the way through

[deerokus]

Half 7 in screen 7. A friend who went earlier in the day had the same thing happen, so it would seem they have a hardware problem somewhere.

[kensei]

This was great. Miles ahead if Spiderman, and a very different 'feel' to the Marvel studios movies. At least as good as first class.

[Glasgowchivas]

oh my god

[makkuwata]

For those that seen it...

Was anyone else totally giddy to see Marsden as Cyclops again?

And Kelsey Grammer! Last person I expected to pop up. So many fun little moments crammed in. I loved the symmetry of their use of their only F word!

[Mr Cochese]

What an ace film. Thinking back, there wasn't a single duff scene that didn't work, even when they were having to explain silly time travel mechanisms. A lot of the concepts, like the serum Beast and Charles are using, could easily have been dreadful, but under the paedo guiding hand of the original X-Men director they seem effortless. The Last Stand might even have worked if he had stayed on board.

Instead of sinking the film, the massive cast of mutants are mostly there to be special effects in action scenes, but they are handled much better than in the aforementioned cinematic abortion, as each one is given a chance to shine, as well as a hint of personality. The future war stuff is actually pretty cool. It massively evokes the Terminator films, from the opening pile of dead bodies though to how much the sentinal robots resemble the T1000 with their ability to morph their arms into spikes. Weirdly, despite the past being set at the close of the Vietnam War, there is no overt attempt to analogise the old pyrrhic war with the new.

As much as the grim meathook future is laugh free, the seventies sections have a lightness to them that you'd expect more from a Marvel Studios film. This is mostly due to Quicksilver, whose ridiculous outfit that the internet spazzed out about when leaked a while back turns out to be homemade and entirely befitting his character. Charles is comically washed up in this film, spitting out excellent British swears that will probably require subtitles in the states. Meanwhile, Magneto is as much of a dick as ever, and the two get to continue their excellent quasi-homo-erotic spat from First Class before things take their natural course.

Unlike many recent blockbusters, the film has a story to tell and moves from the start to the end without any magic box bullshit. At no point does the villain get captured-but-he-planned-to-be all-along-really. The only slightly dodgy bit of logic, without anal levels of nitpicking, is the ending, but it still works in context. Also, the final scenes will be mega satisfying for fans of the series.

Probably the only major flaw is that X-Men neophytes might have no fucking clue what is going on, but frankly the best superhero films are often the ones that skip the origin story and get down to business. I hope they can continue this level of quality for the next one, even if it means that all the scenes have to take place in nonce prison.

Best line:

I don't know karate, but I do know kerazy!

[Harsin]

I proper lolled when they did the first cut to McAvoy about to shoot up in his dingy bedroom. They left it just long enough before Beast explained it was a sci-fi serum that I thought for a moment we were going to get a 12A film with Professor X: Smackhead!

[Glasgowchivas]

I don't mind being spoiled so can someone who's seen it explain something to me about the continuity of the series, which I understand this film attempts to correct / reboot:

How the fuck does Peter Dinklage become Bill Duke?

[Mr Cochese]

I don't mind being spoiled so can someone who's seen it explain something to me about the continuity of the series, which I understand this film attempts to correct / reboot:

How the fuck does Peter Dinklage become Bill Duke?

Peter Dinklage Trask has been dead for decades by the time of X2, so basically it's not the same guy.

Alternatively, a wizard did it.

[makkuwata]

Yeah, they don't worry about it. It's a little fast and loose with continuity in a "It's a comic book movie, shut-up" sort of way.

Unless I'm completely blanking on a scene they never actually address future Xavier being alive and in his own body. It's up to you to fudge the post credit sequences of Last Stand and Wolverine together and write your own explanation. Which in my opinion is perfect. This movie needed Patrick Stewart, and an explanation through exposition would have been a load of bollocks.

[Glasgowchivas]

Yeah, they don't worry about it. It's a little fast and loose with continuity in a "It's a comic book movie, shut-up" sort of way.

Unless I'm completely blanking on a scene they never actually address future Xavier being alive and in his own body. It's up to you to fudge the post credit sequences of Last Stand and Wolverine together and write your own explanation. Which in my opinion is perfect. This movie needed Patrick Stewart, and an explanation through exposition would have been a load of bollocks.

I read just yesterday that Brett Ratner explained that via a deleted, end credit scene on the X3 dvd.

It showed Moira McTaggart going into the hospital room with the comatose patient in it, the one who had been shown on the news earlier in the film. As she checks on his papers we hear Xavier's voice say hello to her and she reacts in shock before saying his name. We don't see the guy in the bed by Ratner says that he's Xavier's twin brother and that's why Charles looks the same in DoFP and The Wolverine. Presumably this mysteriously brain-dead Eddie Xavier was also paralysed.

COMIC BOOK LOGIC.