X-Men Movies Thread

[Buzz Bumble]

The movie review in today's local newspaper gave X-Men: Days of Future Past a score of 3 out of five and ended with this paragraph (I'm not sure what's "spoiler"):

This is a somewhat thin narrative that allows for plenty of cameos, but not a lot of texture. The time travel logic is wildly inconsistent, and the promise of seeing young and old versions of Professor X and Magneto square off remains unfulfilled. The late-arriving bid for epicness feels like exactly that, and the film seems to undermine existing continuity.

But these are minor quibbles and it's difficult to imagine audiences feeling overly let down as this movie delivers requisite bang for your buck.

By comparison, the two other movies reviewed were The Trip to Italy (British comedy) and Ida (a black-and-white Polish movie filmed in 4:3 ratio!) and both scored 4 out of five - all different reviewers though.

[ShyViolet]

Cool Patrick Stewart interview:

http://m.rollingstone.com/movies/news/p ... t-20140523

[Ben]

I figured Singer would effectively reboot with this. He's said so in interviews and the fact it's new cast only in the next one is a clear indication he'd rather just start again with new actors, better filmmaking abilities and better visual effects.

I mean, I saw the first X again last week, and boy the shots and editing on that thing is awful! Not for the first time did I think Ottman spreads himself too thin in cutting and scoring...

[ShyViolet]

Did anyone watch the post-credits scene? If so what did you think?

[EricJ]

Okay, key question, from not having gone out to see it yet: How gay is it?
(Oh, wait, I'm asking folks who still say "Hey, there's nothing wrong with X2!")

I'd like to think that Singer's "rebooting" is trying to follow Fox's lead in rebuilding the franchise from the rubble of X-Men:Wolverine, and he had his orders to follow the classy legacy of First Class, but.....well, those news stories, even if false, did bring up that little pink-elephant in the room.

[LotsoA113]

OK, so, funny story about the post-credits scene (to a movie which I loved!); I was so freaking confused by it. Here's the thing though;

I'm an uber comic book nerd, and knew it would be about Apocalypse. And when all the folks in ancient Egypt were chanting, I thought at first they were chanting "Age of Apocalypse!" (his famous comic book run), except they weren't say "alypse". While I got the Four Horsemen hiding in the background, the fact that Apocalypse is now a woman (?!?!?!?) and bears a bizarre resemblance to the Prometheus aliens struck me as bewildering. After it was over, the entire auditorium was silent as we all tried to at all comprehend what we had just watched.

Then, I summed up the whole theater by yelling "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!!?" The whole theater erupted into laughter, which was probably a better reaction overall than the confusion that ensued immediately after the post-credits scene.

[EricJ]

For those who already know but were still confused:
http://www.mtv.com/news/1830579/x-men-d ... -spoilers/

(And from what I gather, even though it's hard to tell in Ancient Egypt, he was still a hunky androgynous teenager back in those days....(sigh) WHY did I somehow see that coming? )

[Ben]

Director's prerogative...?

[eddievalient]

So what? Quentin Tarantino has a foot fetish, Kevin Smith is a pothead, Tim Burton is Tim Burton. Every director has their signature shtick, why should Bryan Singer be any different?

[Dacey]

I'm pretty sure that Singer's fetish is filming elaborate sequences that cost $10-$15 million and then cutting them from the film.

I'll post full thoughts on the film later (they'd be pretty spoilery, so may as well wait until more people have seen it), but I will say that this didn't have nearly enough Sentinel action for me, especially considering that the marketing has been hyping them for more than a year.

[Buzz Bumble]

A few X-Men snippets on CominSoon.net ...

• X-Men: Days of Future Past Takes in $36 Million Opening Day
• X-Men: Days of Future Past Achieves Fifth-Highest Memorial Day Opening
• Some Original Cast to Return for X-Men: Apocalypse

[Ben]

I think my super-wry comment's altitude was a little high...

[Buzz Bumble]

So what? Quentin Tarantino has a foot fetish ...

The freebie monthly magazine from one of the local electronics store chains (JB Hi-Fi) had for a while a humourous "How to Make a {insert filmaker or genre} Film" column in it, and back in March 2013 it was Quentin Tarantino. Among the things you were meant to do to make a Tarantino film were:

• Write long rambling passages of dialogue between characters that's peppered with pop culture references and copious use of the "f" word - but ultimately means nothing. Remember, dialogue is more important than narrative.
• Include one or all of the following:
  • a Mexican Standoff, with lots of characters pointing guns at each other
  • a point-of-view shot from within the boot [trunk] of a car
  • a dance scene to a golden oldie
  • a toilet scene
  • a restaurant or bar scene
• Lift scenes wholesale from obscure or forgotten cult and explotation films from the drive-in and grindhouse era. Make viewers believe you're giving them omething new, edgy and exciting.
• Include lots of gratuitous shots of women's bare feet, preferably in extreme close up.

[ShyViolet]

Cool retrospective trailer of all 7 films:

[Ben]

Kinda does show how anyone can direct these kinds of movies and it does really come down to the cinematographer and editor to keep a consistency that most moviegoers probably don't even notice!