X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014 film directed by Bryan Singer)

[BloodBoal 7,538]

11 questions about X-Men Days Of Future Past answered

Spoilers, obviously.

[Jay 37,373]

Wow, some of these are baffling to think about....

4 Creepy and Baffling Implications of the X-Men Films

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Wycket 36]

Wow, some of these are baffling to think about....

4 Creepy and Baffling Implications of the X-Men Films

SPOILERS AHEAD, if only to counter the terribly snarky article posted. Some of the logic in this article is just mind boggling.

1. In the comics Xavier survived death by transferring into the body of his twin body who has been in a coma nearly his entire life. Yes, ridiculous but at least the idea has comic basis. Him not being able to walk can be explained that since the body was comatose for so long, the muscles were beyond the ability. Not completely realistic but at least it makes enough sense if you don't think about it.

2. So Mystique and Azazle had a kid, and she abandoned him as she had the goal of mutant liberation on her mind and didn't want the responsibility/endanger the child's life. I don't see how this is a problem or anything nor how it has a big impact on anything.

3. Logan was in love with Jean. Just because she never reciprocated those feelings doesn't mean that he did not possess them.

4. Magneto having sex and getting someone who was on vacation pregnant somehow is a big deal? I'm sure it happens quite a bit, and its not as if Magneto doesn't have urges and that all of his days were devoted to hunting Nazis. Clearly he had stress he needed to relieve and things happen.

[Mr. Brown 91]

Wow, some of these are baffling to think about....

4 Creepy and Baffling Implications of the X-Men Films

These "baffling implications" just go ahead to prove that the writers of these films had no idea what the fuck they were doing.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

How so?

Two of these "implications" are not even implied in the film, and a third one was just there as an in-joke.

[Wojo 2,453]

Magneto certainly has many bastards worldwide. A man with such a magnetic personality, why....

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Regarding the continuity issues that developped in this franchise.

The first 3 films were all fine in this regard. There wasnt anything major in terms of continuity errors. This really only started with X-Men Origins, which drastically rewrote certain aspects of Wolverine's past, and made him grow up with Sabretooth, who he didnt know if the first film. It also featured "for the fans cameo's" of characters that didnt have much relevance to its story.

Even less attention was payed to continuity for X-Men: First Class, which is highly contradictory in many instances to what was established before. Charles and Erik fell out far sooner then we saw in X-Men 3. Charles lost the use of his legs far earlier, he grew up with Mystique, Scott, Jean, Storm weren't his first students etc etc...

But in the case of First Class, it was intended as a sort of a reboot, so these continuity differences really didnt matter all that much at the time.

The Wolverine is mostly a stand alone film, but it does contain one significant change from what was established. Logan can remember events from WWII. It was well established in X-Men and it's follow up that Logan lost his memory 15 years earlier. X-Men Origins confirms this.

By deciding that X-Men: First Class isnt a reboot after all, the continuity of the franchise goes right out the door. As was mentioned in posts above. Years don't add up. Different characters get the same names, character history doesn't match at all... It really is a rare mess.

What X-Men: Days Of Future Past does about this is both simple and slightly brilliant. It makes all of this irrelevant by changing time so that nothing before the 1973 part of that films happened.

Essentially, X-Men, X-Med United, X-Men The Last Stand, everything but the earliest parts of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and The Wolverine didn't happen. (apart from the WWII scenes) Not like we saw in those movies.

At the end of the film, Logan wakes up. Jean lives, Scott lives and Logan is a teacher. This mean the events in the X-men 3, and probably the first and second film didn't happened as we saw because of the changes in the timeline.

In 1973 Logan gets taken. Not by Stryker, but by Mystique posing as Stryker, meaning the events of Origins cannot transpire the way they did in that film.

Of course it's not really like that. Those movies were made, we paid money to see and own them, no one is going to disregard them and never watch them again.

But from a perspective of future films of this franchise, really only First Class and the 1973 parts of Days Of Future Past are now canon!

Singer did essentially the same thing that JJ did with Star Trek (2009). But that film was very careful to state categorically that the events of that film created an alternate timeline, therefore not actually destroying the one where every other film and the TV shows take place in.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past doesnt state that there is some alternate timeline though. The only small hint is has is that Logan still remembers the events. (which doesnt make any sense from a scientific standpoint, or the films internal logic, but no matter)

Brian Singer is a huge Trekkie, it showed in his previous X-Men films, and even more-so here.

[Wojo 2,453]

The continuity errors in the X-Men films demonstrate what happens when different creative teams are put in charge of sequels and prequels in a film franchise that lacked any kind of initial notes about story arc. It shows they just made it up as they went, after Singer left, and if they found a previous film had painted a certain character or event into a corner, they either accidentally or deliberately, but still carelessly, chose to walk through wet paint to make the new movie.

This means that Charles' lines about building Cerebro and his first students becomes either an outright lie and deception or shows this man is losing his mind. No, it's just a goof that takes the nerds out of the film but nobody else notices. The changes to Sabretooth, I actually liked because he deserved to be a more complex character and foil to Logan than the mindless henchman shown in the first X-Men movie, but now you've tampered with film canon.

I'd like to think the people responsible for the Avengers and other Marvel Cinematic Universe films learned from the X-Men franchise how not to plan a multi-year film series. Don't just make it up as you go, hoping that box office returns finance future installments that may or may not jeopardize continuity, which nobody cares about, right? No, have a plan in place before you start filming, and use that plan to sell the movies.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I agree, Marvel does a pretty good job with their "Avengers" movies in keeping things from becoming a mess.

Anyway!

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Contains spoilers

Singer returns for a film which is a sequel, a prequel and a reboot all in once.

I do have a thing for time travel stories and this is quite a good one. Starting in the future, which feels like a cross between The Terminator and Blade Runner. (why is it always night time and stormy in these kinda futures)

The scenes show an Earth where human and mutant kind are on the brink of destruction. It never really feels apocalyptic though. It's all dark and stormy and atmospheric, but it doesnt really feel like the faith of Earth is in the balance. We only see a handful of characters in these scenes.

After the opening fight scene the plot kicks into high gear and Wolverine travels back in time via a method which is quite ingenious, but has no scientific plausibility what so ever (not needed for a film series which includes a guy with bone claws, and another guy who can manipulate all metals)

While Logan isnt really the main focus of this film, he is the common thread on which much of the film is hung. He's more of an observer and gets less involved with the action this time round (which will disappoint fans of the berserker Wolverine). Hugh Jackman is very very effective in the role. He has fun with the comic stuff, and convinces when things get a bit more serious

Macavoy is an improvement over the rather dull, preening Xavier he played in the first film. He is a character who's deeply hurt, but also feels more sorry for himself then he should.

Fassbender gets a bit less to do as Magneto this time, but is strong in the scene where he blames Charles for abandoning his fellow mutants.

Lawrence is far nbetter as Mystique this time round. I found her boring and weirdly tame after the very effective performance Rebecca Romein gave. Lawrence is undoubtedly a better actress, but Romein, a former model used her posture, her gait etc etc to turn Mystique into a very dangerous mutant.

This time Lawrence has a more interesting role to play, and she does exude menace. Physically though she's not up to Romein's standards yet.

Even Peters has a small but memorable role as Quicksilver. The slo-mo escape scene is a bit of a tour da force,and the best action scene in the film, if it can be called that.

Peter Dinklage has the most memorable non mutant role as trask. It's a nice touch to cast a dwarf as a mutant hunter.

Other then that there really isnt much to say character wise. There are a lot of mutants in the film, all of them mere cameo's. Storm has 2 or 3 lines, McKellen's magneto a few more. Rogue only gets 3 seconds. Only Patrick Stewart really gets anything to do here.

Their job is mostly to die, so they can come back after the timeline has been changed.

(It does beg the question how they convinced some of these actors to come back. There must have been a ton of deleted scenes.)

Singer actually does something clever here. Ever-since the third film, there movies have been stuffed with mutants who are basically defined by their powers rather then seen as characters. Singer uses them as window dressing in this film, but cuts their appearances to the bare minimum required for the plot and focuses on the characters who are important for the story (I'm sure fans will complain about not enough Iceman...not enough Storm....Kitty Pryce's powers are all wrong etc etc...but I really dont care.)

The meat of the story lies in the 70's. Singer has fun evoking that decade without going over the top with it. I loved the constant switch between 70's camcorder footage and normal film.

He does repeat beats from his previous films though. Mystique posing as someone to sniff around in an office is straight out of X2. As is her seducing a guy to achieve her goals. And of course Magneto has escaped before.

But no matter. with 7 films done and number 8 on the way this is fast becoming like the James Bond franchise. It's hard not to repeat yourself. And Singer's return does greatly benefit this film. I'm far from a devotee, but he did always have a handle on this material. He knows how to do an X-Men film. For the first time in years the moral underpinnings of the difference between human and mutants has some actual substance again. It's more then just a plot point.

It's a good looking film with strong effects that at no point overwhelm the story or characters. The 3D is quite good, though Singer isnt a visual master ala Spielberg, Cameron or Scorsese.

The score...apart from the cool theme I was never that impressed by John Ottman's X2 score. It works well in the film without being memorable. And this one felt exactly the same. With a more modern twist to it.

Ruminations:

The teaser at the end of The Wolverine showed the world fairly normal, I wonder how much time passed between that and the apocalyptic earth of this film.

McKellen...could have gotten a scene or two extra, right? I mean his Magneto was always fun because of the ways McKellen chews the scenery (as opposed to the more lean, intense style of the Fassbender one). He actually had more to do in The Wolverine teaser.

That Xavier survived was already knows in the very end of X-Men 3, but...how? One example of the film being a bit too focused on its own plot.

Logan regains his metal claws! Not a nit. there seems to be a long time passed between The Wolverine and DOFP, but it's noteworthy. The moment when Logan passed though the metal detector without setting it of is fun!

For the first time Logan is actually able to take on Magneto. But gets dealt with in much the same way as usual by having some steel wrapped around him.

The sentinels were cool. I preferred the more "analog" looking 70's ones over the impossible powerful CGI from the future ones though.

Stryker is seen again. A bit too young to be the character we saw in X-Men Origins, but at around the right age to later be the older version from X2. (I can understand Singer sticking to his film rather then someone else's.)

I think this film contains snippets from every single X-Men film that went before it. And it's actually quite successful in bridging the gap between Singers established films and the once but no longer reboot X-Men: First Class.

The changes in the timeline are so dramatic that they can basically disregard any specific events from all these films apart from First Class. The fact that Wolverine remembers them gives them a possible get-out clause.

It was interesting that after the film finished (and I did see the post credits teaser promising an enemy of yet more awesome power and destruction) I wondered what the next step would be. Brian Singer embraced the First Class chronology and it's cast in this film by featuring them over his established actors. But his ending leaves one with a wealth of possibilities.....

Like Star Trek (2009) and Casino Royale this films helps to wipe the slate clean for it's franchise.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Pretty much agree completely with all that. But I preferred the future (present?) sentinels over the past ones. They were very well designed, and genuinely frightening.

I do wonder where the next one will go. Is there any information on casting yet? Is it going to focus on just one group or the other, or somehow bring them together?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Seems to be more of a First Class sequel

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Which then renders all of the newly-alive characters, Jean/Scott etc., useless... unless they plan to age them all down to fit with McAvoy and Fassbender.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I doubt they plan to use these actors if they are gonna use Jean Grey and Cyclops in the next film. I think that was just done to really show the changes to the timeline, and how dramatic is was.

I just read they plan to set the next film in the 80's. When Professor X should really already look very much like Sir Patrick Stewart!

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Bald James McAvoy is actually a very convincing replacement!

So the Apocalypse encounter will take place before the final scenes of DOFP. Which means we already know everyone escapes unscathed. I smell more retcons coming!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It just occurred to me that we never exactly know in what years X-Men, X2, X3 and the future scenes in DOFP take place. We only have dates from the "prequel" films.

With Singer returns the CGI camera circling around organic/metallic stuff in the main title....what was the point of that anyway?

Bald James McAvoy is actually a very convincing replacement!

He is, though this probably means we wont see a bald Xavier anytime soon....

[KK 3,307]

[crocodile 8,018]

I doubt they plan to use these actors if they are gonna use Jean Grey and Cyclops in the next film. I think that was just done to really show the changes to the timeline, and how dramatic is was.

My guess is they are going to re-introduce those characters in younger incarnations.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

And as long as they dont kill them again, they wont need to retcon anything again.

[crocodile 8,018]

Funnily enough, they die and get resurrected on a daily basis in comics. It's more complicated that bad soap.

Karol

[Jay 37,373]

I don't think there's anything in here we didn't already know, but:

Here’s Rogue’s X-Men: Days Of Future Past subplot and why it was cut

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Singer is a far more merciless an editor of his films then Peter Jackson is LOL.

I understand the reason though. The meat of the story lies in the 1970's. They really left characterization and plot of the future scenes as bare-bones as possible.

Any confirmation yet if the deleted film will be used for an extended cut of the film, or will they be released as bonus material?

[crocodile 8,018]

Say what you want about his abilities as a composer but Ottman usually knows what he's doing while editing a film.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It's usually the director who decides what scenes stay and what goes, Karol.

[crocodile 8,018]

And? What does have to do with my point?

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Oh, I'm sorry. You had a point?

[crocodile 8,018]

The job of editor is not limited to decisions as to what makes the cut and what doesn't. There's much more to it. It includes making sense of director's decisions. Not many of them are good editors.

Karol

[JoeinAR 1,949]

for me that's the bad guy from Conspiracy Theories

That's the guy from Apt Pupil

That's the girl from Winter Bone

That's one of the dwarves from Charmed, wait he wasn't in that.

Javert's worst nightmare

[Naïve Old Fart 9,552]

The job of editor is not limited to decisions as to what makes the cut and what doesn't. There's much more to it. It includes making sense of director's decisions. Not many of them are good editors.

Karol

So...the question...is John Ottman a good editor?

[crocodile 8,018]

I think he has a good sense of rhythm. Probably because he cuts the film "dry" - not to temp music like most editors do these days.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Does he?

[crocodile 8,018]

Yeah. You're probably wondering where are the temp influences come from then? Well, he has to put some music for stidio execs to see. Which, of course, then... sticks around.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Suuuure...

[crocodile 8,018]

That's what he says, anyway.

Karol

[Makeshift Python 22]

But in the case of First Class, it was intended as a sort of a reboot, so these continuity differences really didnt matter all that much at the time.

It was always intended as a prequel. There's too many things to indicate that FIRST CLASS was part of the same universe. The only explanation for the continuity issues is that the director didn't think they were all that important and did some retconning. In a funny way, that's something typical in comics where writers just blatantly ignore certain events in favor of their own stories. It always depends on how strong those stories are.

[Wojo 2,453]

In Star Trek Insurrection, Troi giggles when Riker kisses her, and she says she never kissed him with a beard, which is bullshit if you remember the TV series. So Insurrection, it's a reboot?

[Trent B 337]

In Star Trek Insurrection, Troi giggles when Riker kisses her, and she says she never kissed him with a beard, which is bullshit if you remember the TV series. So Insurrection, it's a reboot?

I've considered Insurrection to be in a slightly alternate timeline (differences in the bridge too) or just plain sloppy writing. Obviously the writers forgot that Troi kissed Riker in the TV series.

[Giftheck 917]

In Star Trek Insurrection, Troi giggles when Riker kisses her, and she says she never kissed him with a beard, which is bullshit if you remember the TV series. So Insurrection, it's a reboot?

I've considered Insurrection to be in a slightly alternate timeline (differences in the bridge too) or just plain sloppy writing. Obviously the writers forgot that Troi kissed Riker in the TV series.

Or they forgot to remove the line: apparently Troi was to be bearded but Marina Sirtis objected to it so they removed the beard but forgot to alter the line accordingly.

Okay, that aside, I saw the film last night and it definitely stands a lot better than X-Men: The Last Stand. Consider this film a semi-reboot.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I kiss you and you say YUCK?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

But in the case of First Class, it was intended as a sort of a reboot, so these continuity differences really didnt matter all that much at the time.

It was always intended as a prequel. There's too many things to indicate that FIRST CLASS was part of the same universe.

It was intended as sort of a "soft" reboot.

At one hand the film makers acknowledged the past films, while on the other hand they blatantly ignored it.

[Jay 37,373]

Apparently Jubilee was gonna be in it too

http://www.nerdist.com/2014/06/x-men-days-of-future-past-costume-concept-art-includes-jubilee/

[Jay 37,373]

Famke Janssen talks about how Jean Grey came to be alive again

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=119153

[BloodBoal 7,538]

X-Men: Days of Future Past director's cut to be released on Blu-ray

Nice!

[Jay 37,373]

MOAR Anna Paquin

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Was there ever any doubt?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I just hope it will have a few more scenes with McKellen!

[Bilbo 3,709]

Hopefully the don't do a The Wolverine on it and make the 2D extended version only available with the 3D set. Still haven't gotten around to getting it yet because of the price.

[Jay 37,373]

Extended cut with Rogue subplot restored won't be released until next summer

http://comicbook.com/2014/09/26/x-men-days-of-future-past-rogue-cut-coming-summer-2015-to-restor/