X-Men Movies Thread

[ShyViolet]

Yes! I knew it! Soooooo excited and counting the days!

http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/05/07/x- ... -positive/

[Randall]

Whew. Kinda a relief, eh? I'd love for this to be "the greatest X-Men film ever."

[ShyViolet]

Me too! Ahhh...geek heaven overload!

[Dacey]

Eh, I'm going to wait until actual reviews come online before I get my hopes up. Can't be too careful about these things, especially with Singer.

[ShyViolet]

Quite positive review in Variety:

http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/fi ... 201177971/

[Randall]

Sounds very good. I'm letting my guard down. Looks to be a winner.

[ShyViolet]

The Hollywood Reporter liked it too:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/ ... iew/703209

I'm trying very hard to get the gist of the reviews without really reading them. I want to come into the movie relatively fresh.

[Dacey]

I don't like that Patrick and Ian are apparently barely in the movie.

[ShyViolet]

I'm not too surprised since I read a while ago that it would take place mostly in the 1970s. Kind of a shame I agree, but maybe it's just not the way the story goes. But some say Patrick might come back in Apocalypse. *

(*not sure about the end of DOFP here or what happens to Xavier but let's not discuss it until the movie's been out for a while! )

[Randall]

Patrick and Ian's relationship was already well handled in the first two films, so I'm glad they can take a back seat here.

[ShyViolet]

94% on RT so far:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_d ... ture_past/


EDIT: 90% now, but still great. One week to go!

[Vernadyn]

My ramblings on Days of Future Past:

In short, it was good; better than I expected in some aspects, but worse than I expected in others. The cast is impressive, but a good portion of them have very little screen time; the movie focuses on Wolverine, young Charles, young Erik, and Mystique, with young Beast riding along for most of the time. Actually, despite his omnipresence, Wolverine served mostly as a catalyst; Jackman didn't really have the opportunity to do much character work.

On the other hand, many of the scenes between Charles and Erik were exquisite; it was nice to see their relationship develop in new directions. The problem is that the movie is juggling so many balls that by the end, that development is left by the wayside. I've never liked any of writer Simon Kinberg's previous films, and though this is by far his best, I still felt that he rushed through too many intriguing things while spending a little too much time on things that weren't really part of the story's spine. (Either that, or Singer cut those scenes out). Quicksilver, despite getting a moderately neat action sequence, is little more than a plot device; I'm sure Joss Whedon will use the character more effectively in Avengers: Age of Ultron. By the way, a scene from one of the TV spots where Quicksilver's sister (apparently not Wanda, according to Singer) asks Wolverine "I'm a princess; who are you?" is not in the movie.

Apart from the opening action sequence, I was actually a little disappointed with DOFP's action. Yes, I'd rather have good characterization/story than good action, but superhero films such as Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, The Avengers, X-Men: First Class, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier show that you can have both. The finale is fine in terms of drama, but the action is a little underwhelming.

John Ottman becomes the first composer to return to an X-Men movie…and unfortunately, this is the worst score for an X-Men movie, supplanting Ottman's own X2. There are drones, dull ostinatos, and Inception foghorns aplenty. The theme from X2 (AKA the Henry Mancini Lifeforce theme) only really appears during the admittedly neat opening title and the end credits. I was a bit underwhelmed with Hans Zimmer's score to The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but it's leagues ahead of this. However, it's most likely that most other composers would have turned in a similarly dull score for this movie; according to interviews with Ottman, Singer wanted the music to be modern-sounding wallpaper.

About the end…I won't write anything specific, but I'll spoiler it just in case:

I guess it's nice, but on the other hand, it means that weren't really any consequences. Kind of like the ending to the Prince of Persia movie, actually.

I'd have to say that First Class is still my favorite X-Men movie. I'd have to think a bit about whether I like it better than X2, though. The Winter Soldier remains the superhero movie to beat this year, but DOFP is still definitely worth watching. I did like it well enough, but I'm sure most will like it more than I did.

[ShyViolet]

Just got back from a 10 pm showing (packed house)...so so so good, was totally blown away by this movie. Not just mind-bending paradoxes but gravitas to spare. I'm predicting biggest film of the summer, if not the year. Acting great, writing great, effects great. Can't wait to see it again!

[ShyViolet]

Extremely interesting (but spoiler spoiler heavy) analysis of DOFP and all the timelines:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/05/23/x-men ... ture-past/

[eddievalient]

Thank you for sharing that. Being concerned as I am about the possibility of the chronology being completely messed up, it was worth having the film spoiled to find out what exactly is going on.

If, as the article implies, Singer essentially erased EVERY previous film, including his own, so Future Past serves as a kind of series finale/reboot launch combo, that I can live with.