Yes, No, Maybe So: "X-Men: Days of Future Past"
Monday, March 24, 2014 at 1:43PM In my superhero clogged mind, Spider-Man 3 has remained the gold standard of a dubious honor: by the time it had arrived you could justifiably feel like you'd seen the whole movie what with the multiple trailers, numerous clips and stills and two previous features with the exact same cast. X-Men: Days of Future Past has been teasing its teases and characters and counting down to its trailer for what feels like forever but it retains at least some mystery. I hope this is our last taste before the movie opens on May 23rd. It's not likely but I can dream.
Because I am a glutton for punishment and The X-Men were a huge part of my developmental process as a human being (you don't even want to know how obsessed I was from the ages of, like, 8-18) will do like what we did with Maleficent. A Yes, No, Maybe So™ reaction to (almost) every last piece of the trailer.
Deep breath before the plunge. Okay let's go...
So many battles waged over the years. And, yet, none of them like this. Are we truly destined to destroy each other?"
MAYBE SO. I'm exhausted by post-apocalyptic cities (are there any other kind in the movies?) but I love the simple color palette here and Patrick Stewart gives good narration.
YES. Love the juxtaposition of old and new cast. This is the first superhero property that did a reboot in the right way, i.e. by not doing a reboot at all: it never pretended the earlier films didn't exist.
YES. Kill off Storm. Do it! Worst depiction of the best character.
despite the set/lighting/poses, Colossus and Sunspot are not the same character
MAYBE SO. Roll Call visual montage! The X-Men's always been a mixed bag casting wise. Jackman is superb in these movies. Jennifer Lawrence not so much despite being grand everywhere else. Oh look it's Colossus (I still don't get why he's not Russian in these movies) and Sunspot (another sort of 'whitewashed' character, sigh. He's Afro-Brazilian in the comics but played by a Mexican actor here). Though the original comic book story used a ton of characters, overcrowded superhero movies can be disastrous (see the sacrilegious waste of celluloid callled X-Men Last Stand which ruined DOZENS of characters by just haphazardly visualizing, casting, filling the screen with them)
We now find ourselves on the edge of extinction.
NOOOOooOOooooooooo. Say no to the teal & orange color scheme, production designers and cinematographers. I beg of you. It hasn't been cool in years now from overuse. In its cinematic lifespan we're now where action movies were 10 years after the masterpiece Terminator 2 popularized all steel blue/gray light when every film was lazily using it. STOP.
You'll need to go into the past to end this war before it ever begins.
YES. The time-travel plot arrives. And it involves Wolverine in pain because even though he heals quickly he's always under physical duress. I feel it's important to note that this story's protagonist role in the comic books belonged to Kitty Pryde. Kitty Pryde is in the movie, played by Ellen Page again (who gets a milisecond in the trailer). These films rely on Jackman way too much but FWIW this short arc in the original comics was their second best ever after "Dark Phoenix". The franchise absolutely pissed all over that classic saga so hopefully they do a better job here.
MAYBE SO. Bryan Singer. He started off strong (Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil) but seems to have entirely lost his mojo (Jack and the Giant Slayer?) I wish this was a yes even if it's not quite a no.
YES. Love the visual call back to Wolverine's bare-chested confused entry into the X-Men corridors from the very first film.
YES. God that shot is so fun. That's why they keep using it in promotion.
NO. "Bring the X-Men Together." What the hell is this slo-mo shot? So self important and the chintzy foam totem pole pillars? WTH
It's going to take the two of us, side by side at a time we couldn't be further apart."
YES but also NO. Would that that were only those two glorious frenemies in the shot. Quicksilver (Evan Peters) looks T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E though in the background but we knew that from his character poster.
YES. Right from a comic book panel. Love the sequence of shots of Magneto grabbing his helmet again. And the tension between Magneto and Xavier and the chemistry between James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender was 150% the best part of the otherwise thin X-Men: First Class and the trailer spends much time here reestablishing it.
NO. Ugh I hate CGI shapeshifting. It's like her true form is porcupine
YES. Gorgeous, this simple gesture to cast all the guards aside, like flies. Also: why is Fassy's hair wet?
There is a new enemy out there.
YES. Peter Dinklage. Always a yes.
I know what I have to do. It's us or them.
NO. Jennifer Lawrence.
YES. Blink! And they actually cast an Asian actress for an Asian role! But does every single person activate their powers by stretching their arms around in crucifix pose. Because that might get old.
I've watched a lot of people die. Friends.
YES. So much drama. And the very blurry action in YouTube form (oh, I long for ye olden times when high resolution quicktime iTunes trailer were the norm rather than the exception) will probably look great on the big screen even if there's no point in screencap'ing it.
MAYBE SO. Do you think Nicholas Hoult and JLaw ever did it while still in blue makeup in their trailers?
YES. Ooooh that shot of Magneto controlling the sentinels is fascinating since the Sentinels kill mutants but are made of metal. So how do they escape him?
YES. Again the action looks good here. There's even a shot of Iceman on this ice slide but it's so fast screencaps are ugly.
We've been given a second chance.
NO. Ugh. Halle Berry's been given way too many chances at this role and she sucks at it. Recast!
I don't want your future. We were supposed to protect them!"
YES. In the contest of which mutant can magically open his mouth widest, James McAvoy reigns supreme. This is not the only shot of that. So intense. Love him in 70s clothing.
NO. I don't like how small the sentinels are. They're not just large but Giant Fucking Robots in the comics.
MAYBE SO. It's implied that one of the sentinels kill's Xavier there with a fire blast from his face. The freedom of time travel is that you actually get to kill off the characters. But since it's time travel it still doesn't count.
You're afraid. I remember."
YES. Terrific final beat, a teardrop and Professor Xavier and Professor Xavier face to face. If this is even as close to as good as Bryan Singer's X2: X-Men United -- I realize that's asking a lot as one of the three best superhero movies ever made (if you're curious the other two are The Incredibles and Spider-Man 2) -- this is going to be such a good summer.
That's quite a few "yes" marks. I'm in. How about you?
Reader Comments (30)
I hate the look of Quicksilver and I don't like the future sentinels either but I'm so so excited for this.
And that's Blink, not Pyslocke.
"Do you think Nicholas Hoult and JLaw ever did it while still in blue makeup in their trailers?"
*dies* I know I TOTALLY would.
Anyways, a big fat YES from me. I'm here for all this drama. The double Xavier and Magneto relationship drama, the whole fight for the future.
I'm still pissed that they put Wolverine in the forefront AGAIN though. I mean, not only does he have his own damn movies but every movie except First Class has revolved around him.
The X-Men movies are about a distant second for me in casting choices in franchises (#1 will always be Harry Potter because every choice was flawless). As a huge fan of the 90's cartoon series, Patrick Stewart as Xavier and Kelsey Grammer as Beast are still my all-time favorite choices in casting. I still mourn for what Storm could have been. Maybe Halle will finally bring something to the table this time?
"YES. Psylocke!"
Unless there's some sort of twist, Fan Bingbing is actually playing a mutant called Blink. Psylocke would've been wonderful to see though.
"Giant Fucking Robots" might be my new favorite tag.
I'm kind of sad that Evan Peters looks so God-awful in his costume because from what i've seen in AHS: Asylum (i'm pretending that Coven never existed), he's a pretty decent actor. That particular screenshot makes me laugh because he looks even more stupid than before.
God I hope this is better than the last xmen movie. And I agree with you that Lawrence is surprisingly not good in this role - especially in comparison to Rebecca Romijn who killed it.
With that said we get Patrick Steward (!), Ian McKellen (!!!), Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy and Fassbender - and it looks like we will get quite a bit of all of them. This is definitely good news!
I re-watched X2 recently and it really did not hold up to my memories. Don't get me wrong, it has it's moments - but it is most definitely very surpassable and would not be in my top 5, much less top 3.
1. The Incredibles
2. Spiderman 2
3. Batman Begins
4. The Dark Knight
5. Spiderman
Honorable Mentions: Iron Man, The Avengers, X2, Xmen
I'm kind of disappointed that there isn't going to be much McAvoy/Fassbender frenemy action in this one. Unfortunately, McAvoy has stated frequently that they barely have any scenes together.
I wish this had more of the silly, fun tone from the First Class film. I like that Vaughn didn't take things so seriously.
It gets a maybe so with an edge to the no for me, because I think I'll end up really disappointed by this movie, so I'm trying not to get so excited over it. I was hoping for at least the same amount of screen time between both time lines, but it's looking like another Wolverine love fest with the First Class cast as his sidekicks. And I know everybody and their mother looooves J.Law but we don't need Mystique that much in the center of things.
@V
Jackman gets a decent amount of focus in this, but the only true lead is James McAvoy. Hoult, Lawrence, Fassbender, and Jackman are the support characters.
I hope Batman Returns is #4. Otherwise, I agree.
Top 5 for me have to be (in no particular order):
Superman
The Dark Knight
Spider-man 2
The Incredibles
X2
With special love for Mystery Men.
The four mains (Fassbender, McAvoy, Stewart, and McKellan) make this a must-see no matter what, but I'm hoping Singer can put something worth watching up there.
I agree that I'm tired of Wolverine being the focus, but I'm hopeful that he's just a conduit and not a major player.
McKellen, McAvoy, and Fassbender are my polyamorous husbands. And I absolutely don't want to share them with the rest of you. #selfish
Kate -- that really surprises me given that the trailer is so very focused on that.
Derreck & Sad Man: right you are. sorry. fixed.
there are a lot of people who are supposed to be in this that i didn't see. I didn't see BISHOP or WARPATH or TOAD or INK but its possible i missed them because it took me three watches to notice HAVOK who gets like a couple of frames.
The future sentinels remind me of the aliens from Artificial Intelligence.
I'm a no. If McAvoy is really the lead (which I don't understand how this trailer doesn't semi confirm that they've at the very least, between Stewart and McAvoy, made Professor X the collective lead character), and it's not as much of a Wolverine love-fest as some have feared, this isn't exactly going to be the disaster that I was expecting from those horrible character reveal posters (especially the three Wolvie posters), but, beyond that, the trailer makes it look like Singer hasn't changed how he makes superhero films at all, especially since the really grim colour palate and ramped up self importance of how this feels from his last one make it seem like he's learned nothing from Superman Returns. People are moving on from these X-Men films and this precise mode of superhero films. Bryan Singer...hasn't. Please bomb.
This meant SO MUCH to me in those years, even more than Dark Phoenix. So I'm all YES NO MAYBE SO just because it exists. I hated the X-MEN GO-GO SIXTIES movie, but DAYS OF FUTURE PAST HOW CAN I STAY HOME?
Fortunately, I don't have to decide. The spouse will force me to go.
I'll be seeing it for Fassbender, no matter how much screen time he has. I'm hoping there is less focus on Wolverine and Mystique. I'm also hoping that JLaw is a whole lot better as Mystique than she was in the First Class film.
I was a YES when Singer was announced as director, I was a HELL YES when the teaser came out and I'm a F*** YES with this trailer. If I'm not completely broke, this'll be a Midnight Showing for me! Can't wait! Also, just for fun, My Top Ten Superhero/Comic Book Films Of All-Time:
1-X2
2-Spider-Man 2
3-The Dark Knight
4-Batman Begins
5-The Dark Knight Rises
6-Superman: The Movie
7-Unbreakable
8-Superman II
9-Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
10-Blade
Honorable Mentions: X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman Returns, A History Of Violence, TMNT I & II and Iron Man 3
Nathaniel, you're ranking of the top 3 superhero movies is 100% on point. Don't let others say otherwise!
Big yes for me. Finally an X-Men movie on the scale of the X-Men comic books! This is a pretty awesome trailer - I just hope Singer can deliver the goods.
Each time I watched this, I hoped Lupita Nyong'o would push her out of frame.
Yes, yes, YES. I can't with how badass Michael Fassbender/Magneto looks in this trailer, and that final shot with the Xaviers gave me goosebumps.
And since they are on the time travel path and big family reunion party, can't they find a way to resurrect Cyclops so that we get a glimpse of James Marsden? Or at least that very hot young version of him from X-Men Origins: Wolverine?
Maybe leaning towards yes. My last X-Men movie was X2, though, and I really loved it and knowing that the ones subsequent to that weren't that well reviewed, I just skipped them.
Was I wrong?
Jennifer Lawrence better step up her game this time! She was quite dreadful in the last one and, by the looks it, she hasn't improved.
I really, really liked Jennifer Lawrence in the first movie (and while I love her as a celebrity, I'm not a big fan of her in her other movie roles). I felt she brought the most human component to the story and sold the character's betrayal and pretty much nailed it.
I know it's not the popular opinion, but I thought she was great.
Arkaan - You were right to skip X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Origins - Wolverine. I thought First Class was a step in the right direction after those two films, however, and is worth watching. As for The Wolverine... I kind of enjoyed it but the mid-credit scene is the best thing about it, so it isn't required viewing.
Oh, boy, do we disagree on a lot, but the only important thing is that time travel is NEVER a yes in anything (sorry, this includes any kind of media and story).
"The freedom of time travel is that you actually get to kill off the characters. But since it's time travel it still doesn't count." You just listed a reason of why is never okay to use it (among hundreds). Not that I'll have any problem with it, because I'm gonna see it anyway.
I didn't know Jennifer Lawrence was so bad received (I think it's only on this site) because she did much more in one movie than Rebecca Romijn in three (but to be fair, she had much more screentime in comparison).
Is it Gambit gonna appear here? He's my fave male character from the story (I hope they don't use Taylor Kitschsshhhhh)
Are they gonna make me happy and include Jubilee? Weird power but best backstory of any of the characters. The 90s cartoon featured her (so far, that show is impossible to top)
Completely agree with you on the top 3 superhero movies ever me!
I've seen every X-Men film, even the horrendous and boring (respetively) Wolverine films. So I'm not about to skip this one. In fact I'm SUPER EXCITED for it. Still think McAvoy is a bit underrated in this role from the first film so if he is the lead in THIS film, I'm going to be super happy.
Hilarious trailer recap and analysis. I was giddy with laughter (her true form is porcupine!)… maybe cause it's 4am.
Anyway, I'm actually way more excited than I thought I was going to be based on some of those character posters.
It's really fun that the 90s series is on netflix now… I've def rewatched the whole thing.