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

[Franchise408]

Wow so they retconned the dates of the movies from outside the film continuity/IRL? That's even more exasperating. I doubt X1 and X2 took place in 2012. The level of tech outside of the Xavier Mansion screams early 2000's. Strykers office, Scott's car playing N'Sync (really Scott?), cell phones, the different president's as you mentioned etc. Also Styker being a young captain in the 70's (DOFP) but still a fairly spry old man in presumably 2012 (X2), seems unlikely.

Whatever. It's Singer's franchise, he can date his movies whatever he wishes. Reminds me how he said Superman Returns was a sequel to Superman II. Superman II which took place in 1980 and after a 5 year absence Superman returns to a world of digital tv, cell phones, and the internet ? Singer may want to refresh himself with history and how time works as he moves forward, or are we moving backwards?

Honestly, this franchise was never intended to have specific dates. It wasn't until X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: First Class started setting these stories in real world historical settings that people started freaking out over the timeline. But the way I detailed it is how I choose to look at it.

Same way that I choose not to erase X-Men: The Last Stand or X-Men Origins: Wolverine from continuity. X-Men: Days Of Future Past may have left a "clean slate", and with the next movie being X-Men: Apocalypse, I can much more easily forgive alternate timelines... but if these movies start making stories that contradict previous continuity, it's the X-Men > X2 > X-Men: The Last Stand > X-Men Origins: Wolverine > X-Men: First Class > The Wolverine continuity that I'm considering "official". Even if I disagree with the decision to kill off Cyclops, any post-DOFP stories that include a fully alive Cyclops and Jean Grey won't be the "official" timeline in my eyes.

I feared Quicksilver... he still looked horribly off, the make-up department should be flogged for what they did to the actor, but damn, his scenes were fun.

Also cinematic moment of pure beauty... The glass ceiling over Magneto shattering and glass raining down on him. Shot gorgeously.

The deaths in this were brutal. Iceman got killed in two deliciously gruesome scenes, Colossus had a very graphic second death. Sunspot lost a freakin' arm before getting taken out. Bishop exploded. (In before people bitch about racism) I think Warpath and Blink actually got killed mercifully compared to the rest.

Great use of Blink by the way. I would have loved to have seen more of the future, but I get why it didn't get more showtime. Brilliant how Singer just wiped X3 off the map, and Wolverine Origins never even existed, not even in this effort of creating a clean slate, it didn't get referenced at all I think.

This movie has SO MUCH going on, so many elements, so many plotlines and characters, it's one of those movies that you can easily watch a second time and still not be bored.

DoFP is the X-men movie we deserve, it is fun, fast, full of action and gorgeous special effects. It might actually be my favorite X-men movie of the whole bunch.

Pet peeves:
Mystique, I liked Rebecca Romijn's version better, because she's such a blank slate, which makes her so much more of a threat. This version has a personality, but it isn't as wicked and as devious as it could have been.

"Oh, and all of these characters are DEAD!" that came out of nowhere. We only saw a couple of pictures, and the rest of them got mentioned, but Banshee, Emma, and pretty much all of the characters introduced in first class got killed off inbetween movies. I didn't care about Azazel, but Banshee and Emma did sting a bit, because I think Singer could have done wonders with Emma Frost. At least Havoc still lives.

I didn't notice Sunspot losing his arm until my 2nd showing tonight.

The only thing that "tames" those deaths down and keeps them PG13 is that every one of them happens with these characters in "mutated" form.

Iceman's decapitation is while in ice form. Sunspot's limb loss comes while in flame mode. Colossus being torn in half comes while metalled up.

I still can't believe how vicious those deaths were, but I think it makes them all the more powerful. It shows those Sentinels as complete soulless evil, hell bent on one objective - unmitigated death. Because they are all in mutated forms, it does make the deaths slightly cartoony, but very powerful none the less. Those deaths are literally disturbing.

[Doctor Know]

Honestly, this franchise was never intended to have specific dates. It wasn't until X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: First Class started setting these stories in real world historical settings that people started freaking out over the timeline. But the way I detailed it is how I choose to look at it.

Same way that I choose not to erase X-Men: The Last Stand or X-Men Origins: Wolverine from continuity. X-Men: Days Of Future Past may have left a "clean slate", and with the next movie being X-Men: Apocalypse, I can much more easily forgive alternate timelines... but if these movies start making stories that contradict previous continuity, it's the X-Men > X2 > X-Men: The Last Stand > X-Men Origins: Wolverine > X-Men: First Class > The Wolverine continuity that I'm considering "official". Even if I disagree with the decision to kill off Cyclops, any post-DOFP stories that include a fully alive Cyclops and Jean Grey won't be the "official" timeline in my eyes.

That's why AoA is being set in the 80's. So they can recruit /recast for young Storm, Scott, and Jean for that film. The only silver lining i see in recasting Scott and Jean, is that maybe we get Cable for this Apocalypse movie.

[MarvelMaster616]

Saw the movie. Left with a very "meh" feeling. The bar for the X-men movies has been set so low that saying this was the best to date doesn't mean much. It gave the impression that this was Singer just trying to save face because he realized that by leaving X-men after X2, every future director and producer completely destroyed what he had created. I think he took that very personally and that's why he went this far with it. The mere fact that this series needed a retcon/reboot/whatever like this only reveals just how bad those movies were. And I feel as though this movie pulled too many things out of thin air make it happen.

First off, I didn't like how Xavier became this burned out druggie. That's not something that ever happened in the comics. And second, Wolverine essentially took the place of Kitty Pryde in the Days of Futures Past story. At least this time, Kitty still played a major role. That's way more than anyone can say for X3. Third, the major continuity errors in X-men First Class (which really should have just been a full reboot), weren't resolved. We still don't know why Emma Frost was in Wolverine Origins. And Xavier and Magneto working together in X3 to recruit Jean still doesn't fit. That and the way the other characters from First Class were just thrown away and killed off-screen felt like they were just being shrugged off. That's something the X-men movies have been notorious with, shrugging off characters not named Wolverine. I get that the X-men involves a lot of characters. That doesn't justify just throwing them away.

Overall, I felt like this movie was just too contrived. It just tried to force itself into the same universe instead of starting fresh like it probably should have. It still retains too much of the same baggage as the previous movies, from Wolverine's creepy and irrational obsession with Jean Grey to Rogue's utterly anti-Rogue personality to William Stryker being pretty much everywhere he shouldn't be and so on. I didn't leave the theater feeling as though Singer was going to do great things with this new setup. This is the guy who set the precedent for these movies, which ended up getting messed up horribly. I want to believe that Singer has learned from his mistakes, but I'll only believe that when I see it. In terms of big picture, I wouldn't put this movie over any of the Marvel movies that have come out since Iron Man. No X-men movie has managed to do anything other than make Wolverine weak and mess up famous stories. I want to believe this movie will give everyone a fresh start, but I'll only believe that when I see it.

[End of Time]

I am so over this movie already being called "racist" and "sexist"... seriously... Tumblr is bleeding again.

No one said they should be immune from death or be perfect but I expect them to do more then just die regardless of how cool their fight scenes might be.

No you're irrational in your quest to find racism where there isn't any. It's called confirmation bias.

Tell me, how would you have made this movie so much more inclusive?

The story is about Xavier and Magneto, and how they are dealing with the war they unleashed. It's about Mystique being free and making her mark on the world, continuing the fight she started in First Class together with Magneto.

There aren't any new characters introduced. The only one is Quicksilver, and it's obvious why he got chosen to be there. He has a connection to Magneto and his powerset is really convenient for the situation. Of all the speedsters you could have picked, it makes sense to pick the one that is "secretely" related to the character who has arguably been the villain of the franchise.

So introduce a minority character, fine by me. What do you want this character to do? Save the world, play an integral part of a ideological relationship between two men, injecting said character into the duality of Xavier and Magneto's worldviews, but with no previous introduction- which means that this new character will need a decent set up and will need a valuable connection to the main characters, something that will take up way more than 10 minutes of screen time. This character should also be injected into action scenes and needs to fit into the socio-political climate of the 70s.

Can this character be a villain? Because that would be problematic, I mean, a black character AND a villain, now that's just racist, isn't it? Negative stereotypes and all that jazz. So he has to be a hero then. Maybe we should have replaced Beast with a black character... no that would be awkward because Beast played a servant role and an enabler of Xavier's drug problems... so that would be problematic and racist as all hell. A government agent? No those were pretty powerless and cowardly,so that would have been awkward too, and those characters weren't gifted with abilities, and again, kind of the villains.

Maybe we should have given the future X-men of colour a more important role... I mean all they did was die... why don't they actually save the future... oh wait, that would have undone the whole movie. The point of the future was to show that the main characters in the present had lost their war, and the future being lost is kind of what makes the whole movie happen, and their hope in a hopeless situation is what gives the events the proper gravitas.

So what you are actually saying is that we should have removed the minority X-men characters from the future setting, replace them with white characters, because from a thematic point of view, and a very simple plot-related point of view, the future characters have to fail and die, and since it's super racist for black characters in the future to die... better just cut them out of the movie altogether.

We'll just ignore that these X-men were the strongest and hardest of them all and survived this long against all odds.

So instead of just complaining about how racist this movie is for not having enough black characters... tell me... make it better, without making it look as if you've forcibly shoved a character in there, whose role is defined by race, and whose inclusion is an actual natural part of the conflict between the three characters... also, try to not exclude marketable characters such as Wolverine, Magneto, Xavier, and Mystique. By the way, runtime is money, so fifteen minutes added is fifteen minutes subtracted, you can't alter the runtime.

[Franchise408]

That's why AoA is being set in the 80's. So they can recruit /recast for young Storm, Scott, and Jean for that film. The only silver lining i see in recasting Scott and Jean, is that maybe we get Cable for this Apocalypse movie.

Well and that's kind of my thing - you didn't have to "erase" / "reboot" to recast for Cyclops / Jean Grey / Storm if you're setting the movie in the 80's. That means that the deaths of Cyclops and Jean Grey have no impact on your ability to tell stories for those characters with a recast, and with a "new timeline" via time travel, it can be left open for interpretation where exactly this new timeline is leading - if it is an all new one where the previous movies were wiped out, or if those movies still exist in continuity.

For me, as much as I did get fanboy feels seeing Jean Grey and Cyclops in the mansion again (that was a very "X-Men" scene), seeing them also pissed me off because it was a blatant "F U" to X-Men: The Last Stand, which is also a blatant "F U" to ME as someone who enjoys that movie and appreciates its place in the series. It was also unnecessary, and uncalled for considering the narrative. It reeked of Simon Kinberg saying "SEE??? YOU CAN'T BLAME ME FOR THE MISTAKES IN X3 ANYMORE! I FIXED THEM!!!!11" in a desperate cry for fanboy acceptance.

(Speaking of "mistakes in X3", I find it funny when Brett Ratner is blamed for the mistakes that became a reality at the hands of Simon Kinberg, under the guidance of Matthew Vaughn... Cyclops was decided to be killed off long before Ratner took over.)

I think a more appropriate ending would have been to not show Cyclops and Jean Grey, and just TRULY leave us a clean slate in the 80's going forward in a new timeline, opened up with the king of X-Men alternate timelines, Apocalypse.

The timeline was changed. The movies no longer have to lead into the main trilogy, and no longer have to adhere to the baggage of the past movies. But it's also not a blatant "reboot", allowing past movies to remain in continuity if someone so chooses. Cuz let's be honest, fanboys can whine about X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine all they want, but X-Men, X2, and The Wolverine ARE good movies, and those got taken out with this also. But fanboys don't care - their hatred has blinded them so badly that they want those movies eliminated no matter the cost, despite the fact that all they have to do is just not watch them. But no, they aren't happy until they ruin it for everyone else also. As a matter of fact, I'm about 95% convinced that most of the fanboy love for X-Men: Days Of Future Past comes SOLELY from the idea of writing X-Men 3 out of the continuity, and nothing else.

But now... there IS a future that the movies have to lead into. Granted, it's 2023, a long ways down the road, but it does take away a lot of concern over the outcome of future stories when we now know that Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Beast, Iceman, Rogue, Colossus, and Kitty can never really be in peril. Cuz hey... they were alive in 2023.

If Cyclops and Jean Grey HAD to come back, then X-Men: Apocalypse should be an ORIGINAL TRILOGY cast movie. Give actual purpose to bringing those 2 back.

But I really couldn't care less about the First Class cast anyways. As good as X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days Of Future Past are, McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, and Hoult are so far removed from who these characters are that I don't even feel like I'm watching X-Men movies at times.

[R.E.B]

Well and that's kind of my thing - you didn't have to "erase" / "reboot" to recast for Cyclops / Jean Grey / Storm if you're setting the movie in the 80's. That means that the deaths of Cyclops and Jean Grey have no impact on your ability to tell stories for those characters with a recast, and with a "new timeline" via time travel, it can be left open for interpretation where exactly this new timeline is leading - if it is an all new one where the previous movies were wiped out, or if those movies still exist in continuity.

For me, as much as I did get fanboy feels seeing Jean Grey and Cyclops in the mansion again (that was a very "X-Men" scene), seeing them also pissed me off because it was a blatant "F U" to X-Men: The Last Stand, which is also a blatant "F U" to ME as someone who enjoys that movie and appreciates its place in the series. It was also unnecessary, and uncalled for considering the narrative. It reeked of Simon Kinberg saying "SEE??? YOU CAN'T BLAME ME FOR THE MISTAKES IN X3 ANYMORE! I FIXED THEM!!!!11" in a desperate cry for fanboy acceptance.

(Speaking of "mistakes in X3", I find it funny when Brett Ratner is blamed for the mistakes that became a reality at the hands of Simon Kinberg, under the guidance of Matthew Vaughn... Cyclops was decided to be killed off long before Ratner took over.)

I think a more appropriate ending would have been to not show Cyclops and Jean Grey, and just TRULY leave us a clean slate in the 80's going forward in a new timeline, opened up with the king of X-Men alternate timelines, Apocalypse.

The timeline was changed. The movies no longer have to lead into the main trilogy, and no longer have to adhere to the baggage of the past movies. But it's also not a blatant "reboot", allowing past movies to remain in continuity if someone so chooses. Cuz let's be honest, fanboys can whine about X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine all they want, but X-Men, X2, and The Wolverine ARE good movies, and those got taken out with this also. But fanboys don't care - their hatred has blinded them so badly that they want those movies eliminated no matter the cost, despite the fact that all they have to do is just not watch them. But no, they aren't happy until they ruin it for everyone else also. As a matter of fact, I'm about 95% convinced that most of the fanboy love for X-Men: Days Of Future Past comes SOLELY from the idea of writing X-Men 3 out of the continuity, and nothing else.

But now... there IS a future that the movies have to lead into. Granted, it's 2023, a long ways down the road, but it does take away a lot of concern over the outcome of future stories when we now know that Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Beast, Iceman, Rogue, Colossus, and Kitty can never really be in peril. Cuz hey... they were alive in 2023.

If Cyclops and Jean Grey HAD to come back, then X-Men: Apocalypse should be an ORIGINAL TRILOGY cast movie. Give actual purpose to bringing those 2 back.

But I really couldn't care less about the First Class cast anyways. As good as X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days Of Future Past are, McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, and Hoult are so far removed from who these characters are that I don't even feel like I'm watching X-Men movies at times.

Its funny because I like The Last Stand myself, there's alot of under appreciated elements in that film, but Im glad with how this turned out, now it opens the door for different options... Now, anything could of happen between 1973 to 2023.

And I sensed that that McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, and Hoult were channeling not who the movie characters will be, but who they are at the time. There has to be events that help them evolve to the characters we see in X1 - X3 because if they are who they will become from the beginning, there's really no point.

[JaggedFel]

I am so over this movie already being called "racist" and "sexist"... seriously... Tumblr is bleeding again.



No you're irrational in your quest to find racism where there isn't any. It's called confirmation bias.

Tell me, how would you have made this movie so much more inclusive?

The story is about Xavier and Magneto, and how they are dealing with the war they unleashed. It's about Mystique being free and making her mark on the world, continuing the fight she started in First Class together with Magneto.

There aren't any new characters introduced. The only one is Quicksilver, and it's obvious why he got chosen to be there. He has a connection to Magneto and his powerset is really convenient for the situation. Of all the speedsters you could have picked, it makes sense to pick the one that is "secretely" related to the character who has arguably been the villain of the franchise.

So introduce a minority character, fine by me. What do you want this character to do? Save the world, play an integral part of a ideological relationship between two men, injecting said character into the duality of Xavier and Magneto's worldviews, but with no previous introduction- which means that this new character will need a decent set up and will need a valuable connection to the main characters, something that will take up way more than 10 minutes of screen time. This character should also be injected into action scenes and needs to fit into the socio-political climate of the 70s.

Can this character be a villain? Because that would be problematic, I mean, a black character AND a villain, now that's just racist, isn't it? Negative stereotypes and all that jazz. So he has to be a hero then. Maybe we should have replaced Beast with a black character... no that would be awkward because Beast played a servant role and an enabler of Xavier's drug problems... so that would be problematic and racist as all hell. A government agent? No those were pretty powerless and cowardly,so that would have been awkward too, and those characters weren't gifted with abilities, and again, kind of the villains.

Maybe we should have given the future X-men of colour a more important role... I mean all they did was die... why don't they actually save the future... oh wait, that would have undone the whole movie. The point of the future was to show that the main characters in the present had lost their war, and the future being lost is kind of what makes the whole movie happen, and their hope in a hopeless situation is what gives the events the proper gravitas.

So what you are actually saying is that we should have removed the minority X-men characters from the future setting, replace them with white characters, because from a thematic point of view, and a very simple plot-related point of view, the future characters have to fail and die, and since it's super racist for black characters in the future to die... better just cut them out of the movie altogether.

We'll just ignore that these X-men were the strongest and hardest of them all and survived this long against all odds.

So instead of just complaining about how racist this movie is for not having enough black characters... tell me... make it better, without making it look as if you've forcibly shoved a character in there, whose role is defined by race, and whose inclusion is an actual natural part of the conflict between the three characters... also, try to not exclude marketable characters such as Wolverine, Magneto, Xavier, and Mystique. By the way, runtime is money, so fifteen minutes added is fifteen minutes subtracted, you can't alter the runtime.

Lol no need to do this on more then one thread. Seriously, its like you are taking this personally.

Yeah u dont want them to be like they are later on. I suppose that is an advantage of different actors makes it easier for them to take a different approach.

[Kieran_Frost]

Yeah u dont want them to be like they are later on. I suppose that is an advantage of different actors makes it easier for them to take a different approach.

I thought you haven't seen it? What did you think? Who was your favourite in it?

[JaggedFel]

Well I think we are finally out of the desert. Seems like the franchise has been lost and wandering around aimlessly since X2. Seems like a nice foundation and we are finally getting around to our second big named villain so that is cool. Visually the movie was quite good powers looked awesome especially Blink. I am honestly surprised I liked Quicksilver as much as I did not really a fan of the character in comics at all so that was nice. Powers were good and the characterization provided a nice feel for the character which means he beats out someone like Blink who looked awesome and had creative powers but not much else. Still work for sequels I suppose. Not really a fan of the Vietnam stuff so cut that and toss in the Rogue stuff and I guess Mystique decision making could use some better fine tuning. Wolverine not dominating screen time was also quite refreshing. However, All in all I rate this as a good adaptation of a major comic storyline that laid some nice foundation work. And while I think it still needs more work on the representation front it was certainly way better then First Class on that front. I mean is DOFP u expect a body count but nothing as cringeworthy as the treatment Darwin got or Frost and we got some diversity we can actually build on (ie not just Storm and they need characterization) even if I am not a fan of Sunspot getting whitewashed (also looked more like the human torch or sunfire) but him, Blink, Bishop and Warpath. And I am really not concerned about the continuity rejiggering, its a time travel story after all and I am no fan of anything between X-2 and this so no great lose in my book. Oh also I wonder if mystique is ever going to be bisexual like in comics seems a shame not to represent the full spectrum for the character.

[Kieran_Frost]

Visually the movie was quite good powers looked awesome especially Blink. I am honestly surprised I liked Quicksilver as much as I did not really a fan of the character in comics at all so that was nice.

I too am shocked how much I loved Quicksilver (though Northstar would have been better, in my opinion). And Blink was all kinds of awesome, agree.

Not really a fan of the Vietnam stuff and I guess Mystique decision making could use some better fine tuning.

Which part, specifically?

Wolverine not dominating screen time was also quite refreshing.

THIS x 1,000,000

I am not a fan of Sunspot getting whitewashed (also looked more like the human torch or sunfire) but him, Blink, Bishop and Warpath.

This doesn't bother me at-all, personally.
a) is he the first Mexican superhero in Marvel? If so, AWESOME, we should celebrate that!
b) Booboo Stewart has very little Native American heritage, he's more Asian than anything else, and yet where are the complaints? I personally thought he looked EPIC as Warpath, as did all the new characters.
c) the films aren't direct point-by-point adaptations of the comic characters, so lighter (or dark) matters less, and also, I always fight for "cast the best for the job" and I'd rather it went to the best actor, than the actor who's skin tone is exactly the same pigment and hue as a drawing.

And I am really not concerned about the continuity rejiggering, its a time travel story after all and I am no fan of anything between X-2 and this so no great lose in my book. Oh also I wonder if mystique is ever going to be bisexual like in comics seems a shame not to represent the full spectrum for the character.

I LOVED that Bryan Singer basically erased X3, and kept the only two good things about it: Kelsey Grammar's Beast and Ellen Paige's Kitty. After that - erased. Such a good little dig at the previous film.

[Slant]

This wasnt an Xmen movie but a movie about Xavier Erik Logan and Raven.

This kinda statement always gets a laugh. With the exception of Scott and Jean, who else has the X-Men been about if not the first three in some form?

[cc008]

I LOVED that Bryan Singer basically erased X3, and kept the only two good things about it: Kelsey Grammar's Beast and Ellen Paige's Kitty. After that - erased. Such a good little dig at the previous film.

Kelsey Grammar's Beast may have been my favorite cameo out of all of them. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome to see Jean and Scott together, and the interaction between Logan and Scott was funny. But Beast walking by making a sarcastic comment at Logan and walk away laughing was so good. Loved it.

[Magneto]

I don't get how you guys can still complain about this movie. Basically, your argument are that your favorite X-Men didn't do many things or that you could replace the future X-Men with others more interesting. Who cares seriously, it doesn't make the movie bad. Sure Kitty having time travel power is strange, but just get over it this future is erased now. We don't even know if she's going to have the power in the next movie. I hated X3, but this was beautifully done even if it doesn't go by the comics version.

Sure it was a Magneto/Xavier/Mystique/Wolverine movie, but it was amazing.

[cc008]

I don't get how you guys can still complain about this movie. Basically, your argument are that your favorite X-Men didn't do many things or that you could replace the future X-Men with others more interesting. Who cares seriously, it doesn't make the movie bad. Sure Kitty having time travel power is strange, but just get over it this future is erased now. We don't even know if she's going to have the power in the next movie. I hated X3, but this was beautifully done even if it doesn't go by the comics version.

Sure it was a Magneto/Xavier/Mystique/Wolverine movie, but it was amazing.

People will always find something to complain about. What can you do? This movie rocked. Maybe my favorite of all time. Iceman died TWICE... That doesn't make me hate the movie. I was pretty much ready for anything to happen in the future anyway. And by the end of the movie... well.. you saw it.

[Kieran_Frost]

I don't get how you guys can still complain about this movie. Basically, your argument are that your favorite X-Men didn't do many things or that you could replace the future X-Men with others more interesting. Who cares seriously, it doesn't make the movie bad.

I thought it was great, even though it possibly killed Emma. X2 is still better (in my eyes), but this was solid and wonderful and FELT like a comic book movie, it didn't try to pretend to be anything else. Wonderful. Storm and Magneto need to combine their powers more often, fingers crossed for 80's Storm in X-men: Apocalypse!