As I said last week, my biggest pet peeve going into the new 20th Century Fox movie was the need of PTBs in Hollywood to replace Katherine "Kitty" Pryde as the time traveller in the story because no one would EVER watch a video with a female protagonist.
Pft!
Anyway, the movie was good. I know, I know. I'm not raving, but let's talk about the good stuff first.
Pluses
1) The writers (Jane Goldman, Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn) integrated Rachel Summer's and Bishop's timelines as the one terrible future. The "M" tattoo over the right eye, which was a mark of pride in Bishop's future is used the same as the number tattoos the Nazis inflicted on the Jews in the concentration camps. Of course, the writers couldn't bring in Rachel because their predecessors killed Cyclops and Phoenix in X-Men: The Last Stand.
2) Also, the previous writers whacked Senator Robert Kelly in X-Men. The alternative target is Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels, giant robots designed to kill mutants.
3) The movie Sentinels look more like the second BSG-series Cyclons, making them even more scary than the purple and pink originals.
4) Now, we know why 20th Century Fox and Disney/Marvvel got pissy over who had the rights to Quicksilver. Evan Peters' performance as the teen son of Magneto and future Avenger were the highlight of the entire movie.
5) For all my pissing and moaning about Shadowcat's non-participation in any Days storyline after the original, the writers added a nice extrapolation of her phasing abilities, making her the catalyst for the time travel.
6) Roles for a couple of my favorites from the gigantic X-Men comic cast: Sunspot and Warpath
Minuses
1) They tried to write Bolivar Trask as a monster, but Peter Dinklage is just didn't come across as Trask. I'm not sure if director Bryan Singer or the writers were trying to make the character sympathetic in order for the audience to want Mystique not to kill him. I know Dinklage is a first class actor, so I think if he'd been allowed, he would have made the dichotomy work
2).Bringing back Cyclops and Phoenix AGAIN! Seriously, part of the reason I've stopped reading the comics is Cyclops and Phoenix have been killed and resurrected too many fucking times! If you stay for the snippet at the end of the credits, you'll know why they were brought back. I'm not happy because I think this person is THE lamest of the X-Men villains.
I'm only giving X-Men: Days of Future Past an 8 out of 10.
Why? It didn't just work for me as a whole. Maybe the storyline has been adapted too many times. Maybe it's the fact that none of the superhero movies have new, original storylines. They are always variations of something I've read years, sometimes decades, ago.
Maybe I'm getting jaded in my old age. YMMV
I liked Wolverine's ass. Didn't care for how the ending took away so much history and it felt to me, more like JR woke up, rather than a well-written script.
ReplyDeleteI think the movie makers are finally realizing how many of us women watch these movies, Whisk. We had a gratuitous butt shot in Thor: The Dark World, too. *grin*
DeleteThank You! The Dallas meme! I couldn't pin down my dissatisfaction. I'm on too many hardcore drugs right now, I think. LOL
When Whisk saw the Wolverine butt she actually raised her arms and "woo wooed".
DeleteYeah the ending was disappointing. Whisk cannot stand Cyclops and voiced her dislike for him loud and clear. But if you look on the bright side, there's another chance to see him get killed off again.
It's true. I woo woooed.
DeleteLOL Oh, Tim, I can totally see your lovely wife doing that!
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't stand Cyclops either. When he abandoned his wife and child after finding out Jean was alive (in the comics), that did it for me. It's not too often I want to double-tap the back of someone's head. I do hope "Villain I Hate" whacks the bastard in the next movie.
They are always variations of something I've read years, sometimes decades, ago.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest gripe about these movies is that they're not close enough to the stories I read years or decades ago. :/ They keep messing with them, and not in a good way. I've liked some of the changes -- the black leather suits rather than technicolor spandex, frex. And I think Hugh Jackson is an awesome Logan, despite being almost a foot too tall to "really" be Logan. But they keep retelling the classic stories, only not really, and the changes are so often NOT improvements.
I'd have loved to see them do the Phoenix saga over at least two movies. I'd have loved to see the Sleazoid war. Heck, I'd have loved to see a movie focused on Kitty joining the X-Men, and trying to find her place with them. Remember that horrible outfit she put together, with the leg warmers and roller skates? It was SO thirteen-years-old. :D And when Professor X demoted her to the New Mutants after she fought in the Sleazoid War, after she'd saved the world a couple of times, and earned her place. Logan stood up for her, so they could've made him (and his box office draw [sigh]) a major part of that story.
I'd pay major bucks to see a faithful movie version of God Loves, Man Kills. That's one of the most awesome graphic novels ever produced, and it'd make a kick-ass movie.
But Hollywood doesn't like the taste of the soup until they've pissed in it. Which is why we have the... what, THIRD Spiderman origin movie now...? [eyeroll] Within like a dozen or so years? [bigger eyeroll] Pick one. Do it. Stick with it. Tell more stories.
[sigh]
Angie
The problem with the movie folks is the same with the comic folks--their corporate masters demand results NOW. There's no grace in story-telling anymore. It constantly ripping apart and putting it back together the way they would have done the first time. But the problem is THEY DIDN"T COME UP WITH IT FIRST!
DeleteMr. Sinister. The Mauraders. Mojo. I could add to your list of interesting folks.
Heck, even Maddie's revenge affair with Alex after Scott left her...Oh, wait, Scott's baby brother is now Charles' Age! AUGH!