X-Men: Days of Future Past Movie (SPOILERS)

[Kieran_Frost]

I think it is still worth to discuss that mainly white bodies/actors are used to talk about discrimination and marginalisation of minorities in a metaphorical sense in fictional world...

Since Ellen Page, Ian McKellan and director Bryan Singer are all openly LGBT (and therefore minorities), they are perfectly within their right to talk about it.

[Kikaze]

the problem lies not in the racism but in the lack of storytelling.

explanation:

a writer (screenwriter/comicwriter/whatever)can write a good story that focuses on excellent characterization for many characters, and has great plot points etc.

OR

he can just write a story built on scapism and wish fulfiment: i.e., create a character with NO TRUE DISTINGUISHABLE CHARACTERISTICS, so that the audience can identify with him, and feel everything through him. this is more than a PoV character-this is what is called "The White Male Lead".
the idea is to create a bland character( usualy a white male because being black/asian/woman etc, according to some marketing guys gives you an identity, and this character must NOT have an identity) that everyone can identify with and havehim do the following:
-beat the big bad.
-bang the hottest chick(s).
-have everyone secretly admire him OR admire his secret identity(whereas in his everyday life he MUST be an outcast, so that losers in the crowd can associate with him).
the theory is, if you have this, you dont need a good, hard-to-write story! you're not selling a story, you're selling wish fullfilment, which is easier.

this is what most people do.
this is why wolverine is a "random avengers protagonist in x-men stories" and is not wolverine anymore.
this is why cyclops constantly bangs some of the hottest chicks.
this is why everyone else is wallpaper, cause in this theory, this is THEIR story, not an ensemble story.

this is also why marvel cant keep producing top-notch storylines. because they follow this lame theory that is focused on marketability instead of actual stories. (to marvel) you're selling to GEEKS, guys, intellectual people, not stupid tweens that will buy everything you throw at them! if you realy wanna sell as much as ya did before, KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE AND FOCUS ON STORYTELLING.

[motherofpearl1]

don't overshoot the mark...!

although I agree that US blockbuster in general are less racially diverse...X-Men: Days of Future Past is still highly flawed in this regard! Mystique, Wolverine, Eric & Charles are clearly the centre of attention and dominate the narration completely. Every other character was in the background. referring to Kitty and Iceman as Jewish is also ridiculous because it was never mentioned in the movies.

I think it is still worth to discuss that mainly white bodies/actors are used to talk about discrimination and marginalisation of minorities in a metaphorical sense in fictional world...

What's really ironic is none of them are technically X Men. Wolverine doesn't get to join the team until 30 years later and Prof X is the mentor/father figure rather than an active X Man.

Does anyone remember the lame Thunderbirds movie while back? Fans were mad because nearly all of the well known characters were ignored and the film focused on Alan Tracy and TinTin. Who were retconned into teenagers.

[Phoenetik]

Since Ellen Page, Ian McKellan and director Bryan Singer are all openly LGBT (and therefore minorities), they are perfectly within their right to talk about it.

as openly gay as they are, the director is still not able to integrate a openly-gay character in the movie......Northstar could have perfectly replace Quicksilver in Days of Future Past but did not...just saying! His canadian connection to Wolverine would even have made sense...

Homosexuality is only indirectly mentioned and a hidden subtext.

It is obvious that Fox is afraid to integrate too many racially diverse main characters or one single gay character because of comercial reasons. What is quite ironic if we consider that X-Men Days of Future Past made most of its money in foreign markets...maybe this will also change the cast in the future movies...money is the only thing that matters in these blockbuster productions...

[MrMcMuffin]

as openly gay as they are, the director is still not able to integrate a openly-gay character in the movie......Northstar could have perfectly replace Quicksilver in Days of Future Past...just saying!

This. Northstar fits perfectly there - speed, old buddy(or future buddy) with wolverine... and for a franchise with so many LGBT characters, it's a shame that by 2014 we've not seen a single one.

[StormDisciple]

I'm not bating anyone. And only one of those POCs were not first introduced in this movie. And Storm got plenty spotlight and development in X3. And except for Bishop or Storm not one of those POCs were big players in the comics. I also notice you have nothing to say about the fact that all future characters were killed not just the POCs. That was the point of the future scene the Sentinels were unstoppable and the time travel was the only way to save everything. I also see you ignored me pointing out that Storm had a bigger role that had to be reduced because Halle Berry was pregnant. Did you want them to recast her role instead?

I really just don't get what you wanted Fox to do jettison Jackman, Fasbender, Stewart, ect in favor of running with these background characters? To ignore their very famous and expensively contracted actors to give some newbies playing background characters development? Disrupt the direness of the narrative and have one POC live which would have been accomplished by them running and you being infuriated that they were portrayed as a coward. Exactly what did you want?

Storm got more screentime but she got barely any development at all, we still know very little about her character at all after how many movies now.

[Phoenetik]

Storm got more screentime but she got barely any development at all, we still know very little about her character at all after how many movies now.

well, she developed from being an insecure young teacher to a strong fighter and headmistress...that is quite a development in my eyes...I don't get the problem about the character Storm actually. She had many scenes that explained her perfectly. Obviously she suffered a lot discrimination in her life for being a mutant and she came out of it with a strong opinion about human-mutants relations! In the end she became the successor of Xavier's dream and a leader for a new generation of young mutants...

What else do you want from a character in a ensemble cast movie?

p.s.
...I am actually really glad we did not see this whole naked pagan African goddess madness in the movies...

[Ambaryerno]

...I am actually really glad we did not see this whole naked pagan African goddess madness in the movies...

For one that would have bumped the rating up...

[ShadowDemon]

And yes X-Men is culturally diverse as far as comics go but lets not pretend that outside of Storm that "cultural diversity" hasn't been just white guys with accents and different white nation homes.

Off the top of my head:

Thunderbird
Warpath
Moonstar
Forge
Sunfire
Sunpyre
Karma
Sunspot
Bishop
Shard
Frenzy
Darwin
Feral
Thornn
Tempest
Cecelia Reyes
Skin
Dust

Oh, and I'm sure Irish readers would be just thrilled to know you consider them just "whites with accents from white places", considering the long-standing prejudice against Irish people.

Next fail?

Heck even Psylock wasn't drawn more than barely Asian by Jim Lee of all people. She was just a big boob white girl with purple hair and a bathing suit err . . . ninja outfit.

Not especially.

http://nomoremutants.com/wp-content/...e-Psylocke.jpg

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6...3u3oo1_500.png

http://comicbookmovie.com/images/use...e_4_050811.jpg

http://www.marveldirectory.com/pictu.../psylocke1.gif

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/...4-revanche.jpg

This is about as large as I've seen outside fanart, and is not excessive for her frame:

http://sniktbub.wdfiles.com/local--f...nche_large.jpg

It varies by artist of course.

[ShadowDemon]

sorry, but underdeveloped characters in the background nobody cares about do not care...and of course these comics have a lot of white female characters. The heterosexual male audience would be furious without some white blonde bomshell characters for consumption...that does not make these characters feminist icons for a better world.

Not everything is about racial/sexual polemics.

*ETA* By the way, entertainments are "hetero-normed" because heterosexuality IS the norm. The nationwide percentage of identified LGBT is 3.5% (Gallup, 2012)

http://www.gallup.com/poll/160517/lg...th-dakota.aspx

[motherofpearl1]

as openly gay as they are, the director is still not able to integrate a openly-gay character in the movie......Northstar could have perfectly replace Quicksilver in Days of Future Past but did not...just saying! His canadian connection to Wolverine would even have made sense...

Homosexuality is only indirectly mentioned and a hidden subtext.

It is obvious that Fox is afraid to integrate too many racially diverse main characters or one single gay character because of comercial reasons. What is quite ironic if we consider that X-Men Days of Future Past made most of its money in foreign markets...maybe this will also change the cast in the future movies...money is the only thing that matters in these blockbuster productions...

Yes I always thought Northstar would have been a better choice - and they wouldn't have the same character in two different movies.

[Kieran_Frost]

as openly gay as they are, the director is still not able to integrate a openly-gay character in the movie......Northstar could have perfectly replace Quicksilver in Days of Future Past but did not...just saying! His canadian connection to Wolverine would even have made sense...

This. Northstar fits perfectly there - speed, old buddy(or future buddy) with wolverine... and for a franchise with so many LGBT characters, it's a shame that by 2014 we've not seen a single one.

100% agree. I understand why they used Quicksilver (to a) "get him first" before the Avengers, b) set him and his sister up to appear in the 80s) BUT Northstar would have been perfect (and made more sense)

[Tenebrae]

Hello kids. Supermod warning.

Calling homosexuality not normal = bad.

Calling people names = bad.

Zero tolerance from here on.

[NewMutant]

100% agree. I understand why they used Quicksilver (to a) "get him first" before the Avengers, b) set him and his sister up to appear in the 80s) BUT Northstar would have been perfect (and made more sense)

I don't think Northstar would have made more sense, and I like him better as a character. Originally it was suppose to be Juggernaut, not Quicksilver. They wanted a character that tied to Xavier or Magneto, not Wolverine. I feel they were implying Wolverine "knew" Quicksilver from future Magneto telling Wolverine about him. There is that drastic cut from them discussing where Magneto being held to Kitty starting to send Wolverine into the past. They haven't even remotely touched upon Alpha Flight for that to be someone Wolverine knows; and they wouldn't fully have to, but its not as strong as Magneto's son. (Who is a more well known character anyways :/)

If they really want to make the cast more diverse they could have just made him anything other than white. They did it with Kingpin and now with Human Torch. Was Blink even suppose to be Asian in the comics? I don't believe it was really stated either way. But they just did it in the film and I think it was a brilliant idea. Honestly I feel like that's why most of the new future characters were chosen, was to have a more diverse cast. And while that doesn't fix the problems of diversity within the series, it does help and move forward. This is the most diverse X-film we've had, it still just had white male focus... as usual... and lets be real, not unlike the comics.

While I crave for the day of a gay superhero on film (come people The Authority would be an awesome movie), not having major well known characters is part of the problem. This is a big reason why there is a debate over Iceman's sexuality (please don't start that here). Lets say they put Northstar in the future group, none of those characters had any development outside of battle powers to know their sexual orientation and that's where the diversity problem is. For all we know Warpath and Sunspot are a couple in the movie. haha.

[Franchise408]

don't overshoot the mark...!

although I agree that US blockbuster in general are less racially diverse...X-Men: Days of Future Past is still highly flawed in this regard! Mystique, Wolverine, Eric & Charles are clearly the centre of attention and dominate the narration completely. Every other character was in the background. referring to Kitty and Iceman as Jewish is also ridiculous because it was never mentioned in the movies.

I think it is still worth to discuss that mainly white bodies/actors are used to talk about discrimination and marginalisation of minorities in a metaphorical sense in fictional world...

Do you know why those 4 were the center of the movie?

Hint: It's not because they are white.

1.) Xavier and Magneto have been made the centerpiece of the movie series, as the movie series centers on their conflicting ideologies. X-Men: Days Of Future Past is a sequel to X-Men: First Class, which was focused on the Xavier / Magneto relationship and conflict, and as such, DOFP was picking up the story pieces.

2.) Mystique is a central figure in the Days Of Future Past comic book, and as such was given a large (and expanded) role here.

3.) Logan has been the main character throughout this series, coming off of 2 (commercially successful) solo films.