X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST - Official Thread

[AndyDursin]

Was wondering how the billing was going to work but it makes sense with Hugh singularly getting his name over the title.

Looks okay...much like putting Batman into the Superman sequel, instead of doing a straight FIRST CLASS follow-up they're making a "team mash up" since First Class' box-office performance was solid but not spectacular.

[Paul MacLean]

Looks interesting. I never saw Wolverine but solidly enjoyed the first three X-Men movies as well as First Class, so I'll be in line for this one.

However, I strongly suspect Stewart and McKellen's screen time will amount to little more than glorified cameos.


And does anyone else think Peter Dinklage's character looks William Devane?



"...I buy gold from Roslan Capital!"

[AndyDursin]

Singer says the film is supposed to "be darker" than previous installments with less humor -- no shocker there.

I wish Vaughn was directing this film, to be honest.

[mkaroly]

I have generally enjoyed the X-Men movies, and I liked FIRST CLASS, so I would definitely want to see this one in the theater.

[DavidBanner]

Based on what I've seen in that trailer, it looks like Patrick Stewart may be in more of the movie than I had originally thought. Initially, it looked like he might just be in the very beginning of the movie and one or two other moments, but it seems like he may be popping up in more scenes - kind of along for some of the ride with Wolverine as he goes into the past. Ian McKellen is probably only in a tiny amount of it, and I wouldn't expect to see much of Halle Berry either.

I'm glad that it's Singer directing - his two X Men movies were the best ones in my opinion. I was greatly saddened to see what happened when he abandoned ship and Brett Ratner ruined the third one. He's frankly had the best take on the movies of this stuff - I felt the First Class movie greatly benefited from his participation.

Of course, after this, I'm not sure what of the classic Chris Claremont story arcs are left to be mined as movies. They've done "God Loves, Man Kills", the Wolverine miniseries, "Days of Future Past", and even gotten into the Hellfire Club to boot. And sadly, Ratner completely blew the "Dark Phoenix" story, which could have been the best of all the stories to put on film. Much of the rest of Claremont's X-Men run was a lot more soap opera-ish, with very few stories standing out to me as making for interesting stuff. I suppose they could get into the "Demon Bear" story but that was in the New Mutants, and would involve introducing a whole bunch of new characters. And that was more a matter of Bill Sienkiewicz's art than Claremont's writing.

[Mike Skerritt]

Singer says the film is supposed to "be darker" than previous installments with less humor -- no shocker there.

NOT ENOUGH IN THE WORLD.

[TomServo]

Based on what I've seen in that trailer, it looks like Patrick Stewart may be in more of the movie than I had originally thought. Initially, it looked like he might just be in the very beginning of the movie and one or two other moments, but it seems like he may be popping up in more scenes - kind of along for some of the ride with Wolverine as he goes into the past. Ian McKellen is probably only in a tiny amount of it, and I wouldn't expect to see much of Halle Berry either.

I'm glad that it's Singer directing - his two X Men movies were the best ones in my opinion. I was greatly saddened to see what happened when he abandoned ship and Brett Ratner ruined the third one. He's frankly had the best take on the movies of this stuff - I felt the First Class movie greatly benefited from his participation.

Of course, after this, I'm not sure what of the classic Chris Claremont story arcs are left to be mined as movies. They've done "God Loves, Man Kills", the Wolverine miniseries, "Days of Future Past", and even gotten into the Hellfire Club to boot. And sadly, Ratner completely blew the "Dark Phoenix" story, which could have been the best of all the stories to put on film. Much of the rest of Claremont's X-Men run was a lot more soap opera-ish, with very few stories standing out to me as making for interesting stuff. I suppose they could get into the "Demon Bear" story but that was in the New Mutants, and would involve introducing a whole bunch of new characters. And that was more a matter of Bill Sienkiewicz's art than Claremont's writing.

I don't understand the vitriol Ratner gets from those who didn't like X-MEN 3. The script was done when he come onboard, in fact most everything about the production was in place and he was hired last minute when Vaughn dropped out, Ratner wasn't involved in crafting the storyline. I think he did a decent job of directing, as I especially enjoy the action sequences in X3.

And besides, from what I know of the "Dark Phoenix" storyline in the comic series, the X-Men suddenly heading into space and having planets explode in the third movie would be so far removed from the very suburban settings of X1 and X2 that it would make no sense. The movie series prides itself on feeling like the real world, everyone's backyard, that you can't just set one of the installments in outer space and not have it feel completely alien to the movie-going audience.

[AndyDursin]

Agreed TS...I liked X Men 3 and don't understand the hatw. Then again I find X2 overrated a bit by the same fans who hate the third film.

[AndyDursin]

Forget DAYS OF FUTURE PAST's release...Fox already has the NEXT one lined up!

Add in another WOLVERINE, and I don't think Fox is letting go of this franchise anytime soon

No stopping the X-Men franchise. Fox's X-MEN: APOCALYPSE will drop May 27, 2016.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/artic ... ay-27-2016

[DavidBanner]

I’m not sure about the idea of doing Apocalypse - but I'm fine to wait and see what Singer has come up with.

My issues with X Men 3 aren't just with the flat script, although that was already a serious problem. The issues have to do with a fundamental misunderstanding of Dark Phoenix - something I can't imagine Singer would have countenanced, particularly after the way he ended X2. Ratner has repeatedly demonstrated that his directorial style consists of throwing as many elements at the wall as he can, and hoping one of them sticks. I've sat through multiple movies of his for review, most recently Tower Heist, and they all suffer from the same problem. He assembles strong casts but then doesn't know what to do with them. Scenes are wildly overcovered, without any sense of the point of each scene. (A classic example of this problem is in Tower Heist - an elevator scene with Ben Stiller and Tea Leoni falls completely flat when it should have a rhythm to it. But Ratner just arbitrarily cuts between master shot and overs without any sense of where the rhythm is.) Ratner's one strength is that he at least stages his scenes coherently in terms of geography. Unlike JJ Abrams, you can usually figure out where everyone is relative to each other.

X Men 3 was clearly intended by Singer to be the culmination of what he had done with the characters, and based on what happened at the end of X2, it had the potential to be the best one of the 3. Singer left the project very early on to work on Superman Returns, but the treatment his team did at that point was much stronger than the script that eventually was inflicted. Frankly, I think both Singer's Superman movie and X Men 3 suffered from the ego contest clearly going on between them. Singer got the chance to do Superman and wanted to do that first, with the notion of returning to X Men 3 after he was done. Fox didn’t want to wait, and tried to push Singer into doing X Men 3 first. Both groups then played the game of “I’ll show you”, with Singer pulling his team over to Superman and Fox making a point of making X Men 3 without him or his team. I don’t think either effort was successful. Singer’s Superman has the issues we’ve discussed here (although I understand Andy really loves the John Ottman score). X Men 3 suffered from being rushed into production to compete with Singer, and from what looks like a committee-written script, coupled with Ratner’s usual wooden direction. We should note that Ratner came on board late in the process but still supervised a major script rewrite and did casting of his own to augment what Matthew Vaughn had done. Vaughn, of course, was specific in his comments when he left the production – that they were rushing the movie into theaters and that there was no way they could make a movie of the quality he was attempting under Fox’s conditions. We should also note that there would have been no need to go into space to do the Dark Phoenix storyline as the Singer-supervised treatment showed a way to accomplish the story without taking that step.

First Class was a welcome return to form, showing both Singer and Vaughn clearly enjoying working with these characters. I’m not sure what Days of Future Past will do, but I’m curious to see it. At the very least, Singer has demonstrated an understanding of these characters and of the Chris Claremont stories that gives his X Men filmography a much stronger base than most other comic-based films.

I agree that Fox is clearly staking its territory with the X Men franchise, and given how much money they seem to be making with it, I’d tend to doubt that they’ll let it go anytime soon.

[AndyDursin]

although I understand Andy really loves the John Ottman score

agree that Fox is clearly staking its territory with the X Men franchise, and given how much money they seem to be making with it, I’d tend to doubt that they’ll let it go anytime soon.

Exactly, there's no reason for them to, and the one thing that nobody has really ever discussed is that the X-Men are a darker, grittier bunch than The Avengers. How would they fare under the Disney banner? Granted Marvel has been doing whatever they've wanted creatively -- and I get the impression Disney leaves them alone for the most part -- but you wonder the next time one of the more "adult" characters comes up in the Marvel film universe, are they going to go down that road? Will they ever make another R rated film like THE PUNISHER again? Would a Disney made X-MEN movie have the same edge that Singer brought to his pictures?

It's one of those things that it might be best left in Fox's hands. At least they've done more right by it than the Fantastic Four, which was just miscast and poorly handled from the beginning. Hopefully they'll do a better job with the rebooted version.

[DavidBanner]

Andy said reboot! Andy said reboot!

[AndyDursin]

Andy said reboot! Andy said reboot!

They have....brainwashed me.....LOL

Though with the upcoming FANTASTIC FOUR, it actually IS a reboot.

My problem is when people keep using it to describe a REMAKE.

[DavidBanner]

And speaking of both "reboot" and "Brett Ratner", I heard today that Ratner is supposed to direct a "reboot" of Beverly Hills Cop. This after the "reboot" TV series idea bit the dust 7 months ago.

That's a two-fer. You get them to remake the 1984 movie, call it a "reboot", and you get Brett Ratner to ruin it. All at the same time.

[AndyDursin]

A few details are out on APOCALYPSE, which Singer will direct, and will apparently be a sequel with the FIRST CLASS cast:

http://www.vulture.com/2013/12/will-bry ... lypse.html

I'm not surprised by this news, as DAYS OF FUTURE PAST is said to be the second most expensive film in history (behind AVATAR). Clearly they want to use the presence of the original X-Men cast to "reignite" the franchise interest since FIRST CLASS was the lowest grossing X-Men film -- then they'll go back to "the kids" again.