X-Men: Day of Future Past - Reviews/Discussion (2 Viewers)

[Greg.K]

The movie was good, but frankly, Magneto's power as shown is so great, there's no way that a prison cell, even one such as the one shown in the movie could have held him.

Spoiler

Lifting an entire stadium into the air and dropping it onto (around) the White House? Um, ok, such a person could rule the world in short order if he was so inclined.

Quicksilver stole the show for me. The "Time in a Bottle" sequence was simply awesome.

Wolverine's bone claws were kinda creepy looking, tbh...

I didn't like how Logan

Spoiler

woke up in the future with no memory of anything since 1973. So basically the Logan that existed in the new timeline from 1973 to (future date) (and all of his memories) simply doesn't exist anymore? That's pretty cruddy.

Of course that same thing kind of bothered me about Back to the Future when essentially the same thing happens to Marty McFly.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I didn't like how Logan

Spoiler

woke up in the future with no memory of anything since 1973. So basically the Logan that existed in the new timeline from 1973 to (future date) (and all of his memories) simply doesn't exist anymore? That's pretty cruddy. Of course that same thing kind of bothered me about Back to the Future when essentially the same thing happens to Marty McFly.

Well,

Spoiler

Logan's mind that had all the memories of the original timeline was back in 1973. When his mind went forward again in the altered timeline it retained those memories. Logan's time traveling mind never experienced the altered timeline, so it has none of those alternate memories. I actually think it would have been pretty cruddy if Logan didn't retain his memories of the original timeline. By him keeping those memories, it means that that all the great stuff of X1, X2, The Wolverine still "happened" since he remembers those experiences. And it brings more appreciation of the good things that came out of the changes to all the bad from that history. If he didn't remember the death of Scott, his having to kill Jean, his loneliness, misery and isolation dealing with that guilt, the sentinel-driven mutant holocaust, etc... then there would have been no "significance" when he wakes up in the future. No appreciation for what he has done and for how things have been changed for the better. Anyway, the rules of that were spelled out before he traveled back to the past. He was told that when he wakes up in the future again he is the only one that would remember the original timeline. The same thing goes for the Marty McFly example. How is he supposed to have memories of an altered timeline that he never experienced? His physical body and mind jumps back to the future into a new altered timeline. Of course "our Marty" never experienced that altered timeline. He came from the original. And if he arrived back with full memories of the altered timeline, then all the changes his actions in the past caused would have no "significance" for him. Since its science function, I suppose anything goes, but I don't think a character retaining two sets of memories after a time travel adventure makes much sense. And if they did I'd think that would cause serious sanity issues for such a character.

 

[TravisR]

Quicksilver stole the show for me.

He had the best joke in the movie when he mouthed "Holy shit" to the taped-up guard.

 

[Greg.K]

Well,

Spoiler

Logan's mind that had all the memories of the original timeline was back in 1973. When his mind went forward again in the altered timeline it retained those memories. Logan's time traveling mind never experienced the altered timeline, so it has none of those alternate memories.I actually think it would have been pretty cruddy if Logan didn't retain his memories of the original timeline. By him keeping those memories, it means that that all the great stuff of X1, X2, The Wolverine still "happened" since he remembers those experiences. And it brings more appreciation of the good things that came out of the changes to all the bad from that history. If he didn't remember the death of Scott, his having to kill Jean, his loneliness, misery and isolation dealing with that guilt, the sentinel-driven mutant holocaust, etc... then there would have been no "significance" when he wakes up in the future. No appreciation for what he has done and for how things have been changed for the better.Anyway, the rules of that were spelled out before he traveled back to the past. He was told that when he wakes up in the future again he is the only one that would remember the original timeline.The same thing goes for the Marty McFly example. How is he supposed to have memories of an altered timeline that he never experienced? His physical body and mind jumps back to the future into a new altered timeline. Of course "our Marty" never experienced that altered timeline. He came from the original. And if he arrived back with full memories of the altered timeline, then all the changes his actions in the past caused would have no "significance" for him.Since its science function, I suppose anything goes, but I don't think a character retaining two sets of memories after a time travel adventure makes much sense. And if they did I'd think that would cause serious sanity issues for such a character.

The difference is that

Spoiler

Logan wakes up in the body that presumably lived the entirety of the altered timeline, so there's no particular reason why he wouldn't still have those memories. But maybe they're still in there, somewhat repressed.

 

[joshEH]

The first half-hour is a bit of an exposition-dump, but once Wolverine gets to the mansion, and the ball of boiling-over energy that is McAvoy arrives onscreen acting more British than I remember his Xavier being, the movie really starts to hum.

There's a confidence with the balancing here, and a real heart centered around Xavier and Mystique that totally works, which is bizarre, because they're two characters that have absolutely nothing to do with each other in the comics, but I'm sold now.

Wolverine is, unfortunately, Uncle Logan here, and doesn't have much to do but sit around and make wisecracks. It's an unavoidable byproduct of being seven movies in, and depicting a future Wolverine, because this is a man that has found a shred of peace and mellowed out substantially...but that's just not very compelling onscreen, which Singer and Kinberg rightfully recognize.

Spoiler

I appreciated that the two major points of payoff with his storyline, Stryker and Jean, are aspects of his past that he accepts as unchangeable (he never tries to leave a note for himself to avoid Weapon X, and he doesn't tell Xavier to save Jean, but simply to meet her), so when they do prove changed, it's a nice, big hug for a character who's put in his time.

Great movie. The BD's already pre-ordered.

 

[Brett_M]

I just saw it Thursday night. Quite a treat to see an X-Men movie again with some of the old cast. Really good film with tension mounting towards the end.There is a scene post credits so stick around!

What was it. We didn't stay. You can spoilerize it.

 

[hanshotfirst1138]

Spoiler

Apocalypse, a noted X-Men villain from the comics, is shown with his henchmen "the Horsemen," building the pyramids in Egypt while his evil followers shout out his true name from the comics.

 

[Brett_M]

^^I am seeing it again with my daughter. I'll be sure to stick around for it. Sounds wicked.

I loved the movie. Great performances, direction and script. Some things that stick out:

1. Storm had two lines. LMAO
2. I love Peter Dinklage in anything.
3. Jennifer Lawrence has an incredible body. The camera didn't linger on her much, though.
4. Quicksilver was so cool. Scene-stealer.
5. I liked the future X-Men fighting the sentinels although they were basically the same as the Destroyer in Thor.
6. Finally -- a proper Ice Man!
7. Great closing sequence at the school. Nice to see everybody. I welled up a bit.

 

[hanshotfirst1138]

Jennifer Lawrence became a sex symbol pretty quickly.

 

[joshEH]

Wait a sec...Hugh Jackman, drowning…



One of the best of several Marvel movies this year to end with our hero being tossed into the Potomac River. It's a new genre trope.

Just think if it were a shared-universe. The Winter Soldier post-credits scene would've been Wolverine getting conked in the head with Cap's shield. Or Bucky pulls out both Captain America and a Wolverine with 40+ years' worth of pruning.

I haven't seen ASM2, but I can only assume it ends with a member of the Stacy family getting flung into the Potomac.

 

[KPmusmag]

I really liked this movie. I think Michael Fassbender is terrific as the younger Magneto.

My issue was not with the movie but with the presentation. I saw it at a Regal Cinema and apparently they have gone to a constant width system as it was, essentially, letterboxed and they didn't even bother to mask the top and bottom. The 1.85 previews looked bigger than the scope ratio film. It almost seems that film makers would be better off using 1.85 all the time if this is the way all theaters are going to go.

 

[joshEH]

Spoiler for the film:

Spoiler

So...safe to assume that Mystique was working for Apocalypse at the end of the movie, and was taking Wolverine to him become a Horseman? Or not?

They almost did Quicksilver too well. This is more of an observation than a complaint, because he made for such a great, fun, and witty action sequence (although I couldn't help but think about that Futurama episode where Fry drinks 300 cups of coffee the whole time).

But he's so ridiculously powerful, the fact he wasn't used at the climax against the equally god-like Magneto seems like -- I don't know -- superhero malpractice, or something. Quick, kid, snatch his helmet! It's not all that big a deal, but it is something that occurred to me during the White House-sequence.

There's a pretty good reason working against this, actually -- that Quicksilver, as presented here, is maybe the most powerful mutant we've seen yet outside of Jean Grey, and possibly could have made pretty short work out of both Magneto and Mystique at the same time.

Now, I guess Xavier could have tried to recruit him for the final battle, and he could've simply said "no." But otherwise, they've just left their biggest gun on the shelf in favor of sending in a guy with bones that protrude out of his hands, to promptly get his ass kicked while Quicksilver kicked back and watched it all on TV.

(Again, not a complaint by any means; the movie was incredible.)

 

[Tim Glover]

Really really liked X-Man Days of Future Past. Had some doubts as I liked the original...and LOVED X-Men 2-United. It was excellent. But didn't care for X3 at all....in fact I never bothered with seeing any of the single character xmen films.

The X-Men series is my least favorite comic book to movie entries BUT I thoroughly enjoyed this. Brought back great memories of X2. Agreed that Quicksilver was simply AWESOME and nearly stole the show. The crowd I saw it with loved him.

Was a deep film and I connected.

9/10

 

[Sean Bryan]

Really really liked X-Man Days of Future Past. Had some doubts as I liked the original...and LOVED X-Men 2-United. It was excellent. But didn't care for X3 at all....in fact I never bothered with seeing any of the single character xmen films.

Tim, you're wise to avoid "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", because it was much worse than X3. However, 'X-Men: First Class' and last year's 'The Wolverine' were both quite good. I'd recommend checking them out.And if you have the option, go with the extended version of 'The Wolverine'.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I didn't like how Logan

Spoiler

woke up in the future with no memory of anything since 1973. So basically the Logan that existed in the new timeline from 1973 to (future date) (and all of his memories) simply doesn't exist anymore? That's pretty cruddy.

Of course that same thing kind of bothered me about Back to the Future when essentially the same thing happens to Marty McFly.

Spoiler

I'm wondering if that was part of the conversation that Xavier and Wolverine will be having off-screen in the moments after the film ends. With Professor X's power to read and shape minds, I imagine he can at least fill in enough of the gaps so Wolverine knows what he's missed. I kind of assume most things (at least, most things not called "X-Men: The Last Stand") progressed as they had in the original timeline, I mean for all of the people who were there at the end to be there, most things had to play out in a similar fashion. I like that Professor X, having come to understand that he was changing his future in the 70s, knew there would be a day when Wolvie would "wake up" in this timeline, and that he was prepared for that moment. I can't quite explain it but I felt a huge sense of catharsis in that moment.. usually in these movies, the character with knowledge that the past has changed has to live with that on his own, and can't even find someone who can or would believe him. I'm glad that Wolverine was able to retain his mission, and more importantly, that when he woke up, the person who was aware of that mission was able to recall that it happened as well.

 

[Corey II]

Did a double feature at the local AMC Theater with Godzilla being the other film. Days of Future Past was definitely the better of the two. Although Peter Dinklage is a wonderful actor, I believe Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw was a much better antagonist. Bolivar Trask seem to be more of a plot point (or device) than an actual villain.

Gregg Ketell's post made me rethink the issue I had with the time travel element of the film. I really enjoyed this film, but I sill lean towards The Winter Soldier as the best comic book based film this year so far. But there is still Guaridans of the Galaxy and The Kingsman: The Secret Service that have yet to be seen.

Even if Guardians of the Galaxy opens to bad reviews and low box office returns, with Cap 2, Amazing Spidey 2, and the latest X-Men in the theaters, 2014 has been a really good year for Marvel.

D.C. what are you guys doing? Oh yeah, that's right, making The Flash into a television series instead of a movie.

By the way, did anyone else notice that if you re-word Trask Industries, you get Stark Industries?

 

[mattCR]

Wife and kids and I saw it in the new Cinetopia in Overland Park. Dolby ATMOS, wilkinson sound, Dolby 3D. I have to admit, that is a crazy nice theater. The food needs a lot of work, but this was its first weekend open. Just beautiful theater. KC is getting spoiled by some of the nicest theaters I've been to anywhere in the country.

 

[Sam Favate]

Regarding future Logan:

Spoiler

It could be that Charles is the reason Jean and Scott are alive in the future. Charles looked into Logan's mind, saw everything he had experienced, and knew what would happen. That moment gave Charles knowledge of the future and, presumably, he took steps to make sure it didn't happen.

 

[Steve Christou]

I really enjoyed X-Men Dawn of the Sentinels, probably the best of the X-Men series so far. Not as much action as I was expecting but the story is so engaging and fast moving you don't really notice that nothing particularly spectacular is happening (until the climax) in a film that reportedly cost north of $200m. Another reason I enjoyed it so much is the time travel aspect, I was always a sucker for time travel stories and looking back on it now the entire film looks like it was created to erase the events in Brett Ratner's X-Men: Last Stand from the X-Men timeline. Very clever.

Jennifer Lawrence is cute as Mystique, her role and importance considerably beefed up now the actress has become so famous, and Evan Peters as Quicksilver almost steals the show in a fun sequence where he helps free Magneto from his Pentagon prison, I wish there was more of Peter Dinklage as the central villain of the piece, he creates robots, Sentinels, that can single out and destroy mutants.

Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, all excellent in their roles. I didn't stay to see the post credits scene and I don't think there was a clip during the credits.

I give it 4 sentinels out of 5. (I still think Cap 2 is the best comic book / action film so far this year)

 

[TravisR]

Boy, Peter Dinklage looks totally different when he's on Games Of Thrones. The guy is a chameleon.