Escape to the Movies: X-Men: Days of Future Past

[VikingKing]

As I just saw this movie myself, I can say one of the biggest problems with modern superhero movies is that they have to spend the vast majority of time just explaining everything.

Of course...this movie also had the opposite problem of sometimes telling us nothing at all.

It seems like Hollywood can't decide whether it's viewers are completely unaware of the stories they're adapting or already 'in the know fans' who would consider the information being handed out to them a waste of time we could see watching Cyclops blasting robots.

 

[Blink39]

Bob's main criticism of this movie seemed to be it wasn't Avengers/Winter Solider.

It also sounds like the reason Bob didn't like this version of Quicksilver is because it makes the bland version coming in Avengers 2 harder to swallow, especially to the movie going public who doesn't follow this stuff as closely. Marvel/Disney would be better off just calling the character something else now. Nearly every other review for this movie has talked up his scenes as being the best or one of the best parts of the movie, something just seems off with this review.

The movie is awesome, I enjoyed it more than any other comic book movie in a long time. I just wish Blink had had more screen time.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I liked the movie despite its issues, it was fun and we got to see some really awesome action scenes.

So, yeah...

Hate thinking bad of Bob but this is far better than most marvel movies and comparable to the Avengers, he should just accept there won't be x men and avengers together.

I don't think Marvel could add the over all X-Men in without it being a hack job. You have the general public who know about heroes with powers etc, then there would be mutants which they would hate because reasons? Having a few of them, sure, but to do the whole mutant thing wouldn't work, and there's that many characters that the X-Men works on its own.

 

[endtherapture]

Bob's main criticism of this movie seemed to be it wasn't Avengers/Winter Solider.

It also sounds like the reason Bob didn't like this version of Quicksilver is because it makes the bland version coming in Avengers 2 harder to swallow, especially to the movie going public who doesn't follow this stuff as closely. Marvel/Disney would be better off just calling the character something else now. Nearly every other review for this movie has talked up his scenes as being the best or one of the best parts of the movie, something just seems off with this review.

The movie is awesome, I enjoyed it more than any other comic book movie in a long time. I just wish Blink had had more screen time.

Yeah agreed. I don't know what they're going to do with Quicksilver in Avengers 2. His defining features are his relationship with his dad, Magneto, who's not in it, his status as a mutant, which he won't be, and his relationship with his sister, and obviously his powers. DOFP nailed number 4, leaving them with only number 3 as a point of interest.

Bob's review is weird, hate to say it but I think he's just hating it because it isn't Avengers. This was far better than Avengers, it had actual character development.

 

[RJ 17]

"At least you don't spend the majority of this movie sitting in a tree." That got a good laugh outta me.

Beyond that, I've more or less lost interest in the X-Men movies. Like many in the boat that I'm in, it happened after the 3rd movie and Wolverine's thankfully regenerating underpants.

 

[maximara]

Is there some in-story thing to explain why "Future Past" isn't stupid?

But yeah, another X-Men movie that's alright from the sounds of it. DVD or nothing for me, then.

Well, when Claremont and Byrne originally did Days of Future Past Marvel hadn't gotten into its 'you can't really change the past but only create a new timeline' stick so back then it didn't have the problems it does with 20-20 hindsight.

The problem is every time Marvel revisited the idea they changed some detail that by the time they finally ended the whole thing In Excalibur Vol 1 #67 (1993) the continuity was shot to blazes. Then Marvel kept revisiting the idea and made things worse.

To give you a thumbnail of the problem in The Uncanny X-Men #141-#142 we are told that Senator Robert Kelly and Professor Xavier were both assassinated October 31, 1980 by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in Washington DC. Except when we see Rachel Summers from that future much later on she remembers Professor Xavier being killed much later in his mansion by the US Army. Then Excalibur Vol 1 #67 took the whole assassination thing and threw it out the window to be replaced by Mastermind blowing up Pittsburgh with nuke (likely a reference to the New Universe as it was back then Starbrand's efforts to channel his power into one of his weights results in the destruction of Pittsburgh)

So in terms of continuity Days of Future Past had totally degenerated into incomprehensibly stupid in 1993 and Marvel kept messing with it and you are asking for them to make it not stupid in a movie that has issues?

 

[Robyrt]

As usual, Bob is completely wrong. I quite liked Days of Future Past, but that's probably because I thought First Class was completely dumb and cringe-worthy on second viewing.

Why is DOFP a good movie? The action scenes are exciting, not least because you don't know what's going to happen. (In a time travel story, the good guys can lose a fight, which is very important for keeping the tension going.) The creative use of super powers is on par with Avengers. The plot is pretty coherent, as long as you're willing to accept that characters will be switched around to keep the good actors in the spotlight. The long-term impact on the franchise is positive, because you can retcon the stupid decisions of X3 and Wolverine: Origins out of existence. The talky scenes have genuinely new ideas - Incompetent Xavier is a way better idea than Rachel Grey as a tension-building maneuver. Quicksilver was cool, although I kept expecting him to show up and save the day for the rest of the movie.

And no, there was no mansplaining in the movie. Most of the 'splaining is done BY Mystique.

 

[Ghadente]

I just saw Days of Future Past earlier this morning. Overall i thought it was great. After First Class revived my hope in X-men movies i have been anticipating this one.
The plot made sense enough to me, i believe in the comics Kitty goes back herself instead of sending Wolverine (i could be mistaken). This is Mutant Super Hero Comic Book stuff so having unexplained powers shouldn't be too much of an issue here.
The acting was as good as expected for most. I didn't really notice Jennifer Lawrence having a poor performance, though on the other hand I didn't notice her having a stand-out one either.
There wasn't any outstanding or unexpected twists or anything. Save maybe the after-credits, Apocalypse! woo I can hardly wait for that, one of my favorite villains.
I actually really enjoyed Quicksilver in this. Yeah slow-motion and bullet time has been done before, but i don't like it because its NEW. I enjoy it because if done well it can be pretty awesome, and I feel Quicksilver's was cool and humorous. While watching i didn't go "oh no not another slow-mo bullet time scene." Not even that scene but just about every scene Quick is in he was killing it. However it did seem quite out of place to just ditch his character right after they used him, they could have at least had him give some excuse why he had to leave.
My favorite thing about DoFP is the idea that it pretty much erases the 'not so good' X-men movies. Now if they just continue to focus on the 'First Class' style and bring in Apocalypse all will be Goooood.

If only we could get spiderman on the right track... sigh
at least there is GotG to look forward too!

 

[Therumancer]

I generally don't get Jennifer Lawrence as an actress. I don't know why she's as popular as she is aside from her ties with a popular franchise. That being said, she's head over heels better than Daniel Radcliff who rose to stardom in the same way, so maybe I'm just being unfair on a decent actress because people are going nuts about her. I mean, she isn't bad, so maybe it's just an expectation level. Or maybe she's inconsistent? I don't know, I used to think Leonardo DiCaprio was the worst actor ever and stopped watching his lead roles only to find out later that he was quite good in certain roles.

I think the problem is that a lot of people confuse the roles she's asked to play and gets paid big bucks for, with her actual acting ability. She keeps getting asked to do similar kinds of things because she sells them so well, and people begin to project that onto her (and think she's not acting) where we don't actually know her, nor have we seen her range in auditions and such.

She's also a young actress that has so far managed not to be a train wreck (at least publically) like Lindsay Lohan or whomever and can play to a young audience without the same kind of garbage coming up.

As far Daniel Radcliff goes, I think half his problem is that the same qualities that allowed him to sell "Harry Potter" make him seem really strange, and his choice of roles post-Harry hasn't really done a whole lot to get him much cred. I mean nowadays when I think of him, I remember this is a dude who was doing stage shows where he got naked on stage with a horse (no it was not a sex show, but still think about it) as part of his role. When that's what sticks in my mind other than his role in "Harry Potter" it shouldn't be shocking.

 

[senkus]

can someone tell me how big the spoilers are, before I jump into this video? i'd appreciate it

I counted one "spoiler" which I don't even consider one. That's from my viewpoint, having seen all previous X-Men movies, though.
I guess the spoiler warning is prophylactic, given all the rage you can incur by revealing even the tiniest story detail. Can't blame Bob for that IMO.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

can someone tell me how big the spoilers are, before I jump into this video? i'd appreciate it

I counted one "spoiler" which I don't even consider one. That's from my viewpoint, having seen all previous X-Men movies, though.
I guess the spoiler warning is prophylactic, given all the rage you can incur by revealing even the tiniest story detail. Can't blame Bob for that IMO.

thank you, you are a gent. well i've seen all the Xmen except this one, i'll risk it

 

[Silverspetz]

Bob's main criticism of this movie seemed to be it wasn't Avengers/Winter Solider.

No, his main criticism is that the plot is practically BUILT on a plot-hole, a few characters are pretty annoying, some of the actors are putting in lazy performances, and that the whole concept of a movie that exists purely to retcon other Movies in the same franchise irks him. The closest he gets to judging it based on its similarities to Marvel is when he points out that the franchise STILL sticks to tropes that were popular in the 2000's and doesn't do anything creative. And even then he is just pointing out how another superhero franchise has done something better, which is very much relevant to the review.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Time travel always gives me a headache.

 

[Sanunes]

No, his main criticism is that the plot is practically BUILT on a plot-hole, a few characters are pretty annoying, some of the actors are putting in lazy performances, and that the whole concept of a movie that exists purely to retcon other Movies in the same franchise irks him. The closest he gets to judging it based on its similarities to Marvel is when he points out that the franchise STILL sticks to tropes that were popular in the 2000's and doesn't do anything creative. And even then he is just pointing out how another superhero franchise has done something better, which is very much relevant to the review.

That is how I took his review as well.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Wait, hang on, the X-Men movies are using Quicksilver? I assumed the reason he was able to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films was because he was licensed SEPERATELY from the rest of the X-Men characters, or something?

 

[Metalrocks]

will be watching it on monday. i knew that this would have some flaws but that was expected anyway. first class was really amassing.

 

[Silvver]

These movies always look fun in trailers...

I found all the other X-Men movies run of the mill average action movies. X-Men in name only. This film was really enjoyable it made me laugh and i loved the superpowers and how they were utilized. I don't know how to really describe it but the previous movies were people with powers this one was X-men.

For what its worth coming from someone whose only real X-Men was the 90's cartoon.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

First off, I disagree with Movie Bob about this movie. I thought it was quite good. Maybe not quite First Class good, but better than any other X-Men movie besides First Class.

Why?

SENTINELS. I've been waiting to see Sentinels in an X-Men movie since the very first one, and I have always been disappointed... until now. Fucking awesome!

Also, while Wolverine is not m favorite character, Hugh Jackman always does a great job with him.

I will grant there were some obvious plot holes - like how Kitty can do astral projection through time, or why they didn't bring Quicksilver along and have him help out - but I was willing to let those go because the movie had me well invested.

That said...

Why is everyone (or at least a great number of people) claiming that Movie Bob wants the X-Men to revert back to Disney? There was none of that in his review, and his stance on that issue has always been the exact opposite - that such a thing WON'T happen, but it would be nice if Fox actually did good stuff with the characters.

I'm sure there are people on the internet who are saying such things, but Movie Bob has never been one of them.