X-Men: Days of Future Past

[Venneh]

This is an interesting ride, but you really have to turn your brain off and not think about the larger continuity stuff (see above).

It's good to see the old cast come back; they slide right back into their roles. I would've liked to see a larger role for Ellen Page, and I'd be interested to see what they cut of Anna Paquin; like Will says above, what got cut here could make this a very interesting movie. More development on JLaw would've been great, I have no clue how she got from the end of First Class to where she is for this movie. But hey, we get to watch her effectively naked half the movie, it's nice.

Our new mutants are great, too; I would've LOVED to see more of Quicksilver, and Blink's portal fighting was definitely inspired by Portal, but it's neat to see played out on screen, would've loved to see her more too.

It kinda feels weird that the first ones to die are the mutants of color in the massive future fight, and they're the main ones to fall to Trask's research.

It's still definitely the Erik and Charles show, but that's where the focus needs to be. I would've loved to see what they could've done with Kitty vs. Logan in the past, but eh.

And yup, that's definitely Apocalypse.

Overall, fun, but it does have some major issues. However, it does manage to unwrite themselves out of a corner for future movies.

[dc20willsave]

It kinda feels weird that the first ones to die are the mutants of color in the massive future fight, and they're the main ones to fall to Trask's research.

Blink (and Warpath) were two of the last ones to die. In fact, most of the mutants were people of color. As for the eperiements, 1) remember it's the 70s and 2)

Tuskegee.

[dc20willsave]

A thought that occurred to me as I watch X-2.

Mystique has in some way replaced Styker at the end of DOFP. If she went as far as killing or discrediting him, that does render most of X-2 and therefore The Last Stand's deaths a moot point, hence solving the great "Jean and Scott are very alive" debate. Regardless, just a thought.

[KnightWing]

Okay, so, below are my continuity questions, as this movie brings up a lot of them.

Replies edited together below:

-When did Erik return to the Mansion to help Charles build Cerebro?

That bothers me too. But that entire plot point from X1 and X2 was ignored in FC as well. That's two movies of it not being a thing versus two movies of it being a thing. But it was super-important to X2 (central to the plot), so realistically it should be there. But that's almost more FC's problem than DOFP's. They should have showed Magneto building the sub-levels with Charles in that movie.

-By the continuity that DOFP establishes, Mystique shouldn't be alive for any of the original trilogy; she is taken by Trask in the 70s, and unless she somehow manages to escape for the events of the X Movies, she is dead.

I figure we have to assume she escaped. It's certainly not beyond her abilities.

-DOFP continuity also establishes that by the time the original trilogy takes place, the Sentinels should be ravaging everyone. Unless Trask was somehow working after X3, DOFP's past continuity doesn't make sense

No, they specifically say that the Sentinels weren't made until later despite Trask's death, and they didn't figure out Mystique's power until shortly before DOFP's future. It's specifically because of the whole mutants-in-public event (which didn't happen in the original timeline) that the Sentinels were built in 73 instead of later.

-How the hell did the spare body that Charles was inhabiting get to that of Patrick Stewart again? Did he reparalyze himself?

According to the X3 director's commentary, it was his identical twin brother, who he accidentally mind-wiped in the womb. Seriously. It's dumb, but ultimately X3 was dumb overall, so whatever. And he probably got paralyzed again because reasons. In the comics he's gotten new bodies and gotten paralyzed again. They also didn't explain why Kitty has mind powers now. But there's lots of time in-between X3 and DOFP's future, so that's not really a continuity error so much as an unanswered question.

One thing that's important to know, I think, is that the old movies, FC aside, officially didn't happen in the new timeline, at least not the way we remember them.

[NightAngle04]

It was alright. I try hard not to think about the xmen continuity issues.

[Stavros]

Yeah, lets just assume that none of the realities in this tie in exactly with X-men continuity. and not worry about it too much.

I really only have one question and one comment-

Is the next film going to take place in the 80's, with the newer cast of characters? Or in the ideal future with the reunited original cast?

And my comment- Displaced time Logan basically killed happy ideal reality Logan by displacing him at the end. So instead of a basically ok teacher dude we have a shell-shocked victim of a holocaust against his people who was forced to kill the woman he loves. Yay?

[Davedevil]

Continuity was never very high on my list of concerns when it comes to anything really, so none of those really bothered me.

I really enjoyed the movie, the acting as always was strong, there was a lot of cleverness with powers, and there was GASP a bit of fun, in the form of Quicksilver. He was the real surprise of the movie. I'm so happy that he's in the follow-up.

Yeah, lets just assume that none of the realities in this tie in exactly with X-men continuity. and not worry about it too much.

I really only have one question and one comment-

Is the next film going to take place in the 80's, with the newer cast of characters? Or in the ideal future with the reunited original cast?

And my comment- Displaced time Logan basically killed happy ideal reality Logan by displacing him at the end. So instead of a basically ok teacher dude we have a shell-shocked victim of a holocaust against his people who was forced to kill the woman he loves. Yay?

The next movie has the First Class cast, with Jackman.

[NightAngle04]

Ah ok I didn't know if Jackman was going to be in Apocalypse because he has a Wolverine sequel to film as well.

[KnightWing]

Simon Kinberg on X-Men: Apocalypse: "It will focus primarily on the First Class cast, but it will certainly have some of the original cast involved, too."

Somewhere it was also confirmed to take place in the 80s. Jackman is all but confirmed to return, as is Quicksilver.

Just a guess on my part, but I think realistically they'll have to start introducing younger versions of the old cast, like Cyclops, Jean, and Storm.

[Dan]

One question:

At the end of The Wolverine, Logan's claws were bone. By DOFP, they're adamantium again. Did that get explained and I missed it?

[Stavros]

Answer-

Singer said that along the way Magneto re-adamantiumised him.

[slothian]

Just got back from watching this. I'm sure there are continuity issues that could cause gripes, but I thought it did the best job it possibly could, given the skewed timeline of the X-films.

Thoughts in the next CR, although I'm not going to have time to record that until next week at the earliest.

[KnightWing]

Just saw it for the second time. Some new thoughts:

They're very specific to mention the mutants that died, but they always reference Mystique's "capture" by Trask. Not once is it ever implied that she died in Timeline 1. Trask mentions that he wants to dissect her, but only after he survives what would have been his death.

It's said that a lot of the students and teachers at the school were drafted. Statistically speaking, it's insanely unlikely that that was due to normal drafting procedures. That explains a lot of why Charles is so distraught in the beginning: his school has been specifically targeted by the government.

I don't think X-Men Origins: Wolverine is canon according to DOFP whatsoever. There's one shot lifted from that movie (James' bone claws being broken by Sabretooth, glimpsed in Logan's mind by MacAvoy-Xavier), but otherwise it seems like every other element of that movie is gone completely. Actively contradicted, even. Of course, that doesn't matter one bit anymore because of the new timeline, but it's interesting nonetheless.

The fact that Charles scanned Logan's mind so deeply might explain how Wolverine can come back in X-Men: Apocalypse. Charles can meet up with Logan, say, "I knew you once and scanned your mind, let me give you back the memories of what you've lost since then," and then we basically have the same Wolverine from all the past movies in Apocalypse. Or at least a new Wolverine with the old one's memories.

Regarding Stryker: it's weird; Mystique leaves the battle with Stryker alive and well at the White House, then is impersonating Stryker later. He's almost definitely still alive. Certainly I don't think Mystique killed him, given the fact that (1) she didn't kill the Vietnamese general she impersonated, and (2) the whole plot is focused on her deciding not to kill.

[Molly]

I'll get into deeper thoughts shortly, but overall this was a fairly enjoyable flick with a metric shit ton of problems. The good outweighs the bad if you don't over think it, though.

[Guest]

Have no real intention on seeing this but I'm more than a little confused when people tell me about it and repeatedly say to me "yeah, the movie's awesome except for that whole part where none of it makes a lick of sense".

[KnightWing]

I think Preston nailed it when he said don't over think it. The movie is pretty phenomenal overall, but lots of people are getting stuck in continuity traps that may or may not actually exist because of all the time-jumping. Non-spoilery example: Kitty Pryde has a new power in the future scenes and it's never explained how or why she has it. But because it's so far in the future, it almost doesn't matter. It's just a thing.

There is apparently a metric ton of footage cut from the movie, including major scenes. So maybe someday we'll get a mega-extended cut that's 4 hours long that solves all of our questions that we didn't actually need answered.

[Venneh]

It's kind of a turn the brain off and don't think about the other movies.

[KnightWing]

See, I don't like the "turn off your brain" criticism because it seems to imply that it's a dumb movie. It's still a really intelligent movie, it just doesn't deal with the continuity as literally and firmly as it could. And to be fair, First Class already made continuity into a nightmare, so knitting that together with X3 was kind of impossible anyway without some kind of temporal reboot.

Yay for temporal reboot!

[Donomark]

Like I said earlier, I don't mind any of the questions the end of the film raises. There are legitimate questions, but none of them break the movie for me. I enjoy trying to figure out how things have turned out.

[slothian]

Also, if you're going into an X-Men film trying to join all the dots in the franchise rather than engaging with the story, then:

a) The original trilogy recast Hank McCoy once and Kitty Pride twice, so it's hardly new;

b) You're never going to enjoy an X-Men film;

[Molly]

Beyond continuity, there are actually a bunch of problems here. I can forgive stuff like Wolverine's claws or the Professor walking, you know, timey-wimey. What I can't forgive is just boneheaded stupidity from supposedly smart characters.

Quicksilver is likely the most powerful mutant in the movie. He is completely responsible for rescuing Magneto and saving the lives of the three main characters by stopping bullets. When they go after Mystique, who is going to shoot someone... ...they leave him behind. Okay.

What the actual fuck was Fassbender Magneto's plan at the end, there? Mystique kills Trask, it causes the the world to hate mutants and leads to the holocaust. So, when he stops Mystique, and tries to kill her, that I get. When that fails... ...he decides he's going to murder the United States Government on live television? I honestly thought he had taken over the Sentinels to make them malfunction and discredit Trask, which is a brilliant plan. But murdering the president? Who the fuck handed Magneto the moron ball?

Was there any indication that Trask was stealing Government money before he was a newspaper headline? Because he's portrayed as a flawed idealist throughout the film, a guy who is honestly trying to make the world a better place, but I guess not.

So, while she was killing bad people all across the world, did Mystique and Azazel knock boots? Because she probably left baby Kurt Wagner in a dumpster in Germany, then.

Also, during his Inglourious Basterds Nazi huntin' phase, Magneto took time out of his busy schedule to impregnate Mrs. Maximoff?

This one is actually a huge issue with the series as a whole, but I think it needs to be said:

Wolverine has never had a relationship with Jean Grey. Ever. He was lusting after another man's wife, obsessively. And he has hallucinated and obsessed over her for years. He pictures her in bed with him, he thinks about her constantly, he's a fucking creepy stalker.

I'm sure there are more, but that's what's on my mind now.

[Stavros]

The Quicksilver thing was just hilarious, it came off as the late addition to the script that it was, an FU to Marvel. The movie would have moved along fine without him in there at all and clearly they just wanted to show him off and then ditch him. Hopefully they're wiser in the next one, that guy needs to be a major part of it.

Magneto ALWAYS flips out and tries to kill everyone. The guy has serious impulse control problems.

I did laugh at Logan, even in this ideal reality where no-one died and everything was great, still never got Jean. So happy to see Cyclops in there.

[Molly]

Agreed, Evan Peters was fantastic and I'm sure they'll be using him more effectively in the next one.

[KnightWing]

Totally agreed on the Logan/Jean thing. When Scott showed up and slapped Logan's hand away I wanted to cheer.

[Molly]

I legitimately cheered when

Storm got impaled

even though I knew it would be undone.