X-Men: Days Of Future MEH

So far, in the cinema life X-Men has known, I have enjoyed one, ONE  film, and that was X-Men: First Class.

I am not a fan of Bryan Singer’s casting choices for the most part with four big points;  1.) Cyclops being FAR TOO YOUNG compared to Jean and not the right actor in this regard, 2.) Halle Berry was not the right choice for Storm and it should have been Angela Bassett, 3.)  Anna Paquin is disappointing as Rogue and I’m not fond of how they changed her EVERYTHING, 4.) Hugh Jackman is too pretty to be Wolverine, AND NOT EVERY STORY HAS TO BE ABOUT LOGAN.  Normally I advise to read the book/comic/whatever BEFORE seeing the film, but I would suggest waiting til after in this case.  We have another review of it here.

Now, with these things out of the way, why didn’t I enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to?  This could be as simple as it’s really hard to impress me in a superhero movie, fanservice not withstanding.  For a little background on what comes to my mind when someone says “X-Men: Days Of Future Past”, we must look to both the original comics and the 90’s cartoon, because it’s still one of my favorites.  (I should also say, I’m a girl, and have been a hardcore comics fan/reader since I first learned to read.  I also cosplay as well as write, and am a published photographer.)

In “X-Men” issues 141-142, you get the real Days Of Future Past storyline.  Things suck.  The world is dark and overrun with Mutant hunting giant Sentinel robots, most of the main X team is dead.  Kate “Kitty” Pryde is one of the few X-Men left, and she with the help of Wolverine, her husband Peter (Colossus),  Storm, Franklin Richards, and Rachel Summers a plan is hatched to travel back through time to prevent things happening.

If you’re like me, you grew up with the 1990s cartoon series, which had the most bitchin’ theme song (that is my ringtone).  Here is their “Days Of Future Past Pt. 1” which is completely different from the comics and the new film, but pretty awesome:

So this is the background *I* personally had going into the new film.  I’ve not historically been a fan of the Singer-verse, but I’m always willing to give a movie a chance.  (Unless it’s Batfleck, because Batfleck.)  I did my best not to formulate assumptions on the film solely from the promo images.  I knew going in, if I were to enjoy it was a MOVIE, I needed to forget everything I knew about the real storyline(s), which I would strongly urge anyone to do.  Imagine it as “X-Men: Days Of Future 90% More Wolverine“.

My viewing experience was unique in that I live in San Francisco, and I would say 90% of the theater attendees for my showing were young gay men.  I’m not saying that to be insulting to anyone, I’m stating a fact.  The other 10% were women and straight men.  Does it matter really?  Probably not, but it was extremely interesting because they reacted differently to things on the screen than I would assume a superhero film audience would react.  The full nude backshot of Hugh Jackman issiciting male utterances of “THANK YOU SWEET JESUS” from the audience comes to mind.  The cheering towards the end of Cyclops (not a spoiler, it’s already  been announced the majority of the X1-3 cast makes cameos) being typical douchebag Cyclops would also would fit in here.  And Rogue appears for a split second.  There were apparently other Anna Paquin scenes filmed that were ultimately cut out, not sure if I’m happy about not having to see more screen time of a casting choice I don’t care for, or disappointed because I love the character Rogue more than any other mutant.

Quicksilver was a pleasant enough surprise.  He is totally like Nightcrawler, I would say they recreated the magic of the opening of X2 rather well with the BAMF-ness of this punky 70’s teenager.

My BIGGEST issue was how flipfloppy they made Magneto.  If there is one thing we know about him, it’s that he’s pretty consistent in his motivations of protecting mutants at all costs.  That’s not really the case here, he changes his mind about four times as to who the enemy is, and what he should do in order to make things end his way.  It makes him weak, something Magneto isn’t, and it was a problem for me as a fan.

I’m doing my best here not to be fully spoilery, but really.  There isn’t anything to spoil.  At all.  We know the characters, we know what HAPPENS to the characters in this storyline, which they completely wuss out on at the end.

EVERYONE DIES IN THE COMIC.  Everyone.  It even says so on the cover.  And they had a perfect moment to really sock it to the audience, but they pulled back.  There were things I did like; Wolverine with his brown leather jacket like he wears in the comic, Professor X the drug addict, Peter Dinklage as Trask, the little comments here and there to let the audience know the writers did actually read the issues.  And the Marvel-Egg at the end?  Not so much of a big reveal, because we already know the 2016 release is going to be Apocalypse.  The surprising thing is the gender of the blue faced person summoning the Stargate Pyramid while four hooded figures on horseback watch.  I’m curious to see who they’ll have.  (Age of Apocalypse is some of my favorite story lines, aside from Inferno, House of M, and Dark Phoenix.)  It BETTER BE ARCHANGEL.

While I myself didn’t enjoy the film as much as I hoped, I would suggest fans of the Singer-Series to see it, the 3d rendering was lovely.  The soundtrack was…..on par with the rest of the movie?  It didn’t do it for me, I knew it wasn’t going to be something I’d listen to again as soon as the title sequence hit; too cluttered, too chaotic, too much in a small space without reason.  People do seem to be enjoying it though, the majority of the audience in my theater clapped, and were jubilant on exiting.

Best part?  The Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes trailer.  Sweet merciful primates, it looks amazing.