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

[DrOswald]

The X-Men are strange. They are not quite your normal dumb action movies because they seem to be trying to be smart. But they end up on the level of dumb action movies anyway. I like them, but only in a really shallow sense. They have pretty explosions and lasers and hot women and Hugh Jackman to look at. That about sums up my thoughts on the entire franchise.

Edit: All of the above only applies to the X-men movies. The X-men IP is awesome and full of amazing potential that should make a great series of movies but these movies to not do that. Thought I should clear that up.

 

[TheMemoman]

About these X-Men movies, my theory about why some people really like these movies and others just can't begin to like them comes down to where do you know the X-Men from. Maybe some people got acquainted with the X-Men from their cinematic incarnations. It's a fine collection of movies, with highs and lows. It certainly has longevity. They have their cohesion as a franchise, with their own continuity and grand scheme plot twists and flashbacks. It stands on its own.

On the other hand there's the people who have primarily known the X-Men from comics and the glorious 90's cartoon. That crowd is waiting for something that isn't going to happen. Seeing how the Avengers, Marvel in general and Pacific Rim as an outsider, have mastered special effects to the point where they can reconcile a coherent tone and outrageous visuals into a fully operational entertaining movie. I would love to see a proper Juggernaut battle the Kree empire, or a proper Rogue taking a chance at stopping Phoenix. Those would be some amazing scenes.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I think every company with Marvel/DC characters (apart from Disney) are going mental to build universes as a money making scheme. You cant rush it and you cant lower quality or every future movie will fail. Its a huge gamble. Anyway i will be watching this movie, im sure its a good fun use of a few hours....has to atleast be better than X3! Also hoping it does well so we get that Apocalypse movie they are thinking of doing. Not enough epic enemies in super hero movies. Now we have Ultron/Thanos, DC are thinking of showing Darkseid in the JL movie and now Apocalypse. Now if only we can get a proper version of Juggernaut...*****! Good times.

 

[Stivius]

Is it wrong that while watching the "Future" action scenes, all I heard in my head was GLaDOS saying "Now you're thinking with portals."

 

[V4Viewtiful]

X2 is just marginally better than FC imo, only because Darwin's death and the last 20 or so minutes are BS.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

This review could be summarised as "IT'S NOT BY DISNEY IT'S FUCKING SHIT! FOX GIVE BACK X-MEN YOU CUNTS, DISNEY FOREVER"

Did Bob steal your lunch money or something? I'm not sure what's bringing on this impulsive need to just ramp yourself up to 11 and lash out in every thread for his work but it's probably not good for you.





Anyway...It sounds like another solid B+ of a flick prior to the big Summer onslaught.

If I'm honest, I'll take that as a good sign. The first two flicks were good for their time and haven't aged particularly well, and I rather liked First Class. On the other end of the spectrum there's the two Wolverine films and X-Men 3 which were all completely godawful. I know a lot of folks (myself included) who are looking to this film to be the tie breaker as to whether or not they continue to invest their time and energy in this franchise.


It would be nice for them to take a few more risks with the stories but I can understand how/why they're hesitant to get too outlandish with their plots. As was pointed out, they're still using the same continuity from the late 90's where the entire intent of the X-Men movies was to make a more "realistic" adaptation of the characters. It's hard to take that premise, as goofy as it already is, and stretch it thinner to include cosmic forces and aliens.

 

[shteev]

The review began with a big spoiler warning. Now, usually when this happens, we get proceed to get a spiel from Bob where he tells us basically what he thinks of the movie, and then to go away if we don't want the spoilers. That didn't happen this time, and I ended up watching the entire thing. Which... was fine, as it turned out, because I really didn't notice any spoilers. But I thought that was worth mentioning.

 

[Shameless]

I am sorry Bob, but I respectfully disagree with you regarding the X-Men and X2.

X-2 to me is not just great when ti was released and it is STILL one of the better Superhero movies period. The latter films were lower in quality sure but this movie in particular is the best one in capturing the essence the ideological difference between the two, Magneto isn't doing what he is doing because he is evil and Prof X isn't doing what he is doing because he is good, these two are representing two different moral stance that's neither completely right or wrong. X-2 captured that perfectly of how they're forced to work together to defeat Stryker.

 

[Master Taffer]

Alright, I'm done with Bob. Got back from the midnight showing of this riding high because of how much i enjoyed it, then I boot up Bob's review and this is the third blockbuster in a month that I outright disagree with Bob on. Just done.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

I had to stop the video midway because I just couldn't handle Bob's bashing on Spider man anymore. This has become beyond annoying. Seriously, I imagine Bob responding to "how you doing?" With "better than Amazing Spider man I tell you that! Har har!"

 

[Merklyn236]

Still on the fence with this one myself, and MovieBob's complaint about Kitty Pryde being the one sending Wolverine's mind back into the past is a big part of why. Mostly because from the outside it looks like it was a blatant attempt to have Ellen Paige come back in hopes of putting a few extra butts in seats with another 'recognizable' name.

...and maybe just a little because for the longest time Rachel Summers was one of my favorite characters and since they threw in all these other characters (Blink, Bishop, Sunspot, etc.) in this movie there was no reason to not use another 'new' character in that role and leave Kitty Pryde out.

 

[RA92]

Didn't Singer co-write First Class?

Technically yes. But if you watch the special features there is a hilarious section where the Fox producers (singer was a producer) do some slick double speak but Vaugn and his female co-writer basically flat out say they put everything fox had given them in the bin and done the whole movie over in six months. I think he was involved heavily in some draft (and being a producer that makes him a lock for a co-wiring credit) of the script but from what I've heard the final draft had almost none of his work in it.

This is all whilst singer was taking a break from the series to direct the epic turd that was "Jack the giant slayer"

Ah, I see. Thanks for the context.

 

[Lightknight]

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.

 

[RandV80]

You should really give these these spoiler warnings some context Bob, I can barely even tell what it is here. If it's 'and then Professor Xavier dies', then yeah give warning. But when its 'Kitty uses magic hands to send Wolverine back in time', or whatever it was supposed to be, anyone that would actually care probably isn't watching a video review, or any preview for that matter, to begin with.

 

[Darth_Payn]

So, Bob liked it, right? I've been stoked for this movie since I first saw that Sentinel at Comic-Con last year, and I'm gonna see it no matter what. Why did Bob complain about Quicksilver being an annoying smart-ass? That's one of his main character traits in every version! He's a speedster, so of course he gets easily bored by everything moving normally. I just wonder if he's still Magneto's son in this one, and if there even is a Scarlet Witch here.
Also, why is Bob being down on Jennifer Lawrence, again? I thought he reserved that for when she appears in a Hunger Games movie or something directed by David O. Russel.

 

[Vivi22]

I had to stop the video midway because I just couldn't handle Bob's bashing on Spider man anymore. This has become beyond annoying. Seriously, I imagine Bob responding to "how you doing?" With "better than Amazing Spider man I tell you that! Har har!"

Jesus Christ. I haven't watched this review since I haven't seen the movie yet, but I probably won't bother now. Seriously, every time he decides to rag on Amazing Spider-Man some more I immediately stop caring about what he's saying. I don't mind the idea of comparing a recent superhero movie to a recent superhero movie. So long as it's relevant and the comparison is one that should be made. But more often than not he's shoehorning in jabs at recent Spider-Man movies instead of using them to make a relevant point that couldn't have been made without the jabs.

And he's been doing it for years now since Amazing Spider-Man released.

The horse is dead Bob. Time to bury it and move on.

 

[Gerardo Vazquez]

I had to stop the video midway because I just couldn't handle Bob's bashing on Spider man anymore. This has become beyond annoying. Seriously, I imagine Bob responding to "how you doing?" With "better than Amazing Spider man I tell you that! Har har!"

Jesus Christ. I haven't watched this review since I haven't seen the movie yet, but I probably won't bother now. Seriously, every time he decides to rag on Amazing Spider-Man some more I immediately stop caring about what he's saying. I don't mind the idea of comparing a recent superhero movie to a recent superhero movie. So long as it's relevant and the comparison is one that should be made. But more often than not he's shoehorning in jabs at recent Spider-Man movies instead of using them to make a relevant point that couldn't have been made without the jabs.

And he's been doing it for years now since Amazing Spider-Man released.

The horse is dead Bob. Time to bury it and move on.

To be fair the Amazing Spider-man franchise JUST had a movie come out, so comparing ASM1 or 2 to X-men is kinda relevant.

 

[endtherapture]

Bob's reviews basically boil down to "I don't like this movie because it isn't Avengers" now. It's getting pretty sad. I know he loves Avengers but it was in essence, a dumb action movie with big budget CGI sequences and big names. A fun movie, but nothing amazing.

DOFP was a really good movie with loads of great acting and a great ensemble cast. Focusing on the trio of Mystique, Xavier and Magneto as main characters really made the movie work. Wolverine is more of a background character compared to those 3. Peter Dinklage was great, the visuals were spectacular and it was great to see the old cast and some new mutants turn up and partake in some great action sequences. Plus it was really emotional and character driven.

I had to stop the video midway because I just couldn't handle Bob's bashing on Spider man anymore. This has become beyond annoying. Seriously, I imagine Bob responding to "how you doing?" With "better than Amazing Spider man I tell you that! Har har!"

Jesus Christ. I haven't watched this review since I haven't seen the movie yet, but I probably won't bother now. Seriously, every time he decides to rag on Amazing Spider-Man some more I immediately stop caring about what he's saying. I don't mind the idea of comparing a recent superhero movie to a recent superhero movie. So long as it's relevant and the comparison is one that should be made. But more often than not he's shoehorning in jabs at recent Spider-Man movies instead of using them to make a relevant point that couldn't have been made without the jabs.

And he's been doing it for years now since Amazing Spider-Man released.

The horse is dead Bob. Time to bury it and move on.

First it was The Dark Knight Rises, then it was TASM1, then Man of Steel, now it's TASM2.

Spoiler

Obviously Apocalypse is next...but are they going to continue the franchise with the older cast or the younger cast? Are they going to do an X-Factor style Apocalypse story, or go all alternate universe Age of Apocalypse? Could they even do both with a younger cast?

Loved the retcon. The timeline is basically now:
First Class > Days of Future Past 70s pre Wolverine > X Men > X2 > The Last Stand > The Wolverine > Days of Future Past Future
then retconned into
First Class > Days of Future Past when Wolverine time travels > the "present".

Really really clever. I liked it.