X-Men: Days of Future Past

[jye4ever]

... ...

 

[Star Puffs]

Box office or not, artistically this film blows every single Avengers-related film out of the water. Bryan Singer did as much as a film maker can do with the inherent limits of this genre.

I expected a bomb. I kept waiting for the film to suddenly flounder, assuming Singer could never save this franchise (with the original cast) or recapture the magic of X2, long my favourite superhero film. I got nervous with the Quicksilver bit, but that ended up being perfectly fine.

This film had a compelling, coherent, well-paced plot that really only X-Men 1 and 2, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight can claim to be in the same league as among superhero films. Even films I love like the original Superman or the first Tobey Mcguire Spider-man have glaring issues that the films I just mentioned avoided.

 

[DiFabio]

My only nitpick with the pacing is all those damn flashbacks. There's a flashback for everything. I really didn't need to see that weird scene again where baby Mystique is raiding the Xavier's kitchen fridge. That's one of the worst scenes in First Class.

One thing that really worked was cutting back and forth between the past and future. I thought that was kind of brilliant and upped the stakes a bit in the story. At first I was expecting, "okay, first we're gonna do this future thing, then we're sending Wolverine back and it's the past, that's it", but the inter cutting from past and future worked perfectly, especially in the climax between the 70s Sentinels (targeting humans) and the modern Sentinels (targeting mutants). There was some nice symmetry in there.

 

[Biojex]

On Saturday, it crossed the $200 million mark, which makes it the first 20th Century Fox movie to get there since Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in January 2010.

I hate this sentence

 

[jye4ever]

It had the double symmetry tension build up like ESB.

And no, I did not like this movie more than Avengers.

 

[jye4ever]

I hate this sentence

I was like Wut.

 

[Star Puffs]

My only nitpick with the pacing is all those damn flashbacks. There's a flashback for everything. I really didn't need to see that weird scene again where baby Mystique is raiding the Xavier's kitchen fridge. That's one of the worst scenes in First Class.

I thought that scene was cute in First Class, although the dialogue was pretty hammy.

Given that films seem averse to the TV-style "previously on NYPD Blue*..." intros, the flashback is how they handle that in sequels. No studio would let a filmmaker get away without them, except maybe low-budget stuff like Kevin Smith films. I doubt Bryan Singer felt they were necessary.

*That is the first show I recall having regular reminder intros because of its continuous multi-season story arcs for both major and minor characters.

 

[GasparZizou]

This film had a compelling, coherent, well-paced plot that really only X-Men 1 and 2, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight can claim to be in the same league as among superhero films. Even films I love like the original Superman or the first Tobey Mcguire Spider-man have glaring issues that the films I just mentioned avoided.

I have no issues putting Avengers in that same level and Cap2 possibly above all.

And this is coming from a DC guy.

 

[Star Puffs]

You can watch the scene here:


It's explained by one of the writers that the brain-dead man is Xavier's twin brother, who was born without a consciousness. If Xavier transferred his mind into that body, that leaves Patrick Stewart free to reprise his role in this film. It doesn't exactly explain everything but it is something compared to him just magically being there.

That was really the only plot hole that bothered me. That is a pretty decent, super convenient of course, but using plausible explanations, rather than say having Xavier alter his appearance back to his old self after X3 or simply making everyone see him as his old self (which would have also worked for me).

 

[DiFabio]

Best thing to do is not think about how any of the X-Men films relate to each other in this franchise. None of it makes sense as soon as you start to question it. Even the internal logic in DOFP is beyond ****ed.

I guarantee Apocalypse does something that contradicts DOFP. Hell, the very nature of seeing the happy ending in DOFP at the X-mansion should mean that whatever goes down in the 80s with Apocalypse (the time period the next one supposedly takes place), our heroes will make it out just fine, all smiles.

 

[Star Puffs]

I have no issues putting Avengers in that same level and Cap2 possibly above all.

And this is coming from a DC guy.

I loved the character interaction in Avengers, pure Wheedony goodness. I thought the main plot was set up well, but the climactic final battle just felt by the numbers. Also, Loki's motivation to work with Thanos seems dubious at best. He is not a fool and he is not someone who does things out of gratitude. More in character would have been running back to Odin to warn him about Thanos and win a pardon by passing on such vital information (and then stealing the Tesseract for some self-serving end).

I really dislike Cap2. The only Avengers-related film I really walked out of the theatre glad it was over. Chris Evans is a hunky delight, but the plot was really improbable (what motivates people to join Hydra exactly? And no one ever slips up in all those years altering loyal SHIELD agents?). Also things like jumping into a helicopter from an exploding building are just not my cup of tea. What Magneto does with RFK stadium is my idea of a well-down, plot-integral spectacle.

 

[pturtle]

Box Office Mojo:

X-Men: Days of Future Past eased 37 percent to $9.5 million this weekend. On Friday, it passed The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to become the highest-grossing movie of Summer 2014. On Saturday, it crossed the $200 million mark, which makes it the first 20th Century Fox movie to get there since Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in January 2010. So far, the seventh X-Men movie has earned $205.9 million.

X-Men: Days of Future Past has now earned $456 million overseas. That's more than April's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.


DOFP:
Domestic: $205,940,000 31.1%
+ Foreign: $455,800,000 68.9%
= Worldwide: $661,740,000


Cap 2:
Domestic: $256,324,000 36.1%
+ Foreign: $454,000,000 63.9%
= Worldwide: $710,324,000

Think this has a shot a dethroning Cap?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Star Puffs]

Best thing to do is not think about how any of the X-Men films relate to each other in this franchise. None of it makes sense as soon as you start to question it. Even the internal logic in DOFP is beyond ****ed.

I strongly disagree. If you erase Wolverine: Origins from your mind (and that's what I've done!), I think all the X-Men titled films make reasonable sense as a coherent story arc. The Wolverine has no real effect either way.

My guess is the 80's period will serve to give JenLaw, McAvoy, and the Fass something to do. The older cast can then play age-appropriate versions of their respective characters including I hope

Spoiler

Famke Jansen and James Marsden

.

 

[Star Puffs]

Best thing to do is not think about how any of the X-Men films relate to each other in this franchise. None of it makes sense as soon as you start to question it. Even the internal logic in DOFP is beyond ****ed.

I guarantee Apocalypse does something that contradicts DOFP. Hell, the very nature of seeing the happy ending in DOFP at the X-mansion should mean that whatever goes down in the 80s with Apocalypse (the time period the next one supposedly takes place), our heroes will make it out just fine, all smiles.

I strongly disagree. If you erase Wolverine: Origins from your mind (and that's what I've done!), I think all the X-Men titled films make reasonable sense as a coherent story arc. The Wolverine has no real effect either way.

My guess is the 80's period will serve to give JenLaw, McAvoy, and the Fass something to do. The older cast can then play age-appropriate versions of their respective characters including I hope

Spoiler

Famke Jansen and James Marsden.

Thus the concluding Apocalypse story elements could come after the ending in DFP.

 

[GasparZizou]

I really dislike Cap2. The only Avengers-related film I really walked out of the theatre glad it was over. Chris Evans is a hunky delight, but the plot was really improbable (what motivates people to join Hydra exactly? And no one ever slips up in all those years altering loyal SHIELD agents?). Also things like jumping into a helicopter from an exploding building are just not my cup of tea. What Magneto does with RFK stadium is my idea of a well-down, plot-integral spectacle.

That's a weird thing to say, there are clearly other Marvel movies that have deeper issues than Cap 2, if Cap 2 has any, are very minor dramatic conveniences and Hydra recluting double agents (rather than converting them), what motivates them to join Hydra is belief in their ideals I'd think, what else?

The stadium thing is as much added to the plot as it was the exploding building jump in Cap 2 none are really plot-integral, and that's fine.

 

[DiFabio]

Marsden could play a young Scott/Cyclops and I'd buy it. It doesn't look like he's aged a day.

Only problem with that is, Cyclops would be what, 10 in the 80s?

 

[Star Puffs]

That's a weird thing to say, there are clearly other Marvel movies that have deeper issues than Cap 2, if Cap 2 has any, are very minor dramatic conveniences and Hydra recluting double agents (rather than converting them), what motivates them to join Hydra is belief in their ideals I'd think, what else?

The stadium thing is as much added to the plot as it was the exploding building jump in Cap 2 none are really plot-integral, and that's fine.

The stadium creates a giant barrier and is a deliberate show of the extent of Erik's power at a nationally-televised event. Could the writers have had Magneto do something different to achieve the same end? Of course, but it clearly flows organically from two specific needs in the plot and adds in a historical nod (RFK is now closed). The helicopter thing was just pointless and over-the-top.

 

[GasparZizou]

Well he was a teenager in Origins, when did Origins take place?

 

[DiFabio]

Well he was a teenager in Origins, when did Origins take place?

Late 70s.

 

[Star Puffs]

Marsden could play a young Scott/Cyclops and I'd buy it. It doesn't look like he's aged a day.

Only problem with that is, Cyclops would be what, 10 in the 80s?

That's why I think the First Class gang rocks the 80's and everyone else is set in the present.

Marsden has been my celebrity heartthrob ever since X1. When I heard he was cast as Corny Collins in Hairspray, it was the geek-nirvana moment of my life.