X-Men: Days of Future Past

[jab]

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

This was a pretty awesome movie. The futuristic battles with the Sentinels were cool. I liked how they had a bunch of the A-List X-Men just getting ripped apart by these unstoppable mo-fos.

For me, the highlight of the movie was the Quicksilver scene where he just darts around all the people moving in slow motion. Magneto was great and I love how he just fucked everyone over and the battle for the soul of Mystique between him and Professor X was well done. Wolverine spent more time talking and less time slicing people apart than I would have liked, but I loved how he continuously forgot that he didn't have metal claws in the past and did things like trying to slice off the Sentinel's arm, but just has his bone claws bounce off it.

There was also the cool bit at the end where they tore the god-awful X-Men 3 out of the spacetime continuum. It was funny when Wolverine was about to hug Jean and then Cyclops grabs his arm from offscreen and was like "Hey! WTF are you doing, dude?".

A very enjoyable film.

I enjoyed it--great action sequences. Mostly very good acting even in subsidiary roles--but the story?: dumb as a bag o'hammers.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

One thing I really don't get, however. At the end of the movie, Stryker pulled Wolverine out of the river and told the cops that he'd take him - thus leading to all of that stuff ... but then Stryker was Mystique?

Huh?

They spent the movie developing the character of Stryker to become who he was in the earlier movies, so it would have made sense him to actually be doing that. They'd also just had a huge thing about how Mystique isn't killing anybody, so Stryker is still alive so it's not like Mystique can take his place. Mystique isn't going to be experimenting on mutants and fusing metal to their bones so ... huh?

 

[KeepTalking]

Overall, it was an excellent X-Men movie, maybe even the best X-Men movie yet. Warpath, Bishop, and Blink were all done well, and the scenes with them fighting the sentinels in the future were outstanding. Quicksilver did not disappoint, the kitchen scene was pure awesome. As for the questionable stuff pointed out by Tom Sawyer:

One thing I really don't get, however. At the end of the movie, Stryker pulled Wolverine out of the river and told the cops that he'd take him - thus leading to all of that stuff ... but then Stryker was Mystique?

Huh?

Don't knock it. This means that the abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine never happened, and that can only be a good thing.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

One thing I really don't get, however. At the end of the movie, Stryker pulled Wolverine out of the river and told the cops that he'd take him - thus leading to all of that stuff ... but then Stryker was Mystique?

Huh?

Don't knock it. This means that the abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine never happened, and that can only be a good thing.

Anything which helps rip that abomination out of the space-time continuum is something I support. However, Wolverine still needs to get his adamantium claws because he sucks without them and they're an integral part to his character. Stryker is the way that he gets them ... which is why Stryker was in the film. Mystique didn't kill him so she can't take his role, so what's the point of her pretending to be him then?

 

[KeepTalking]

One thing I really don't get, however. At the end of the movie, Stryker pulled Wolverine out of the river and told the cops that he'd take him - thus leading to all of that stuff ... but then Stryker was Mystique?

Huh?

Don't knock it. This means that the abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine never happened, and that can only be a good thing.

Anything which helps rip that abomination out of the space-time continuum is something I support. However, Wolverine still needs to get his adamantium claws because he sucks without them and they're an integral part to his character. Stryker is the way that he gets them ... which is why Stryker was in the film. Mystique didn't kill him so she can't take his role, so what's the point of her pretending to be him then?

Who knows, maybe this means he gets the adamantium earlier, but that wouldn't jive with The Wolverine, as he still had bone claws there. Then again, the time travel aspect gets to nullify anything they want. Maybe we will get a new take on the Weapon X program in Apocalypse, or the third Wolverine movie. I would have gone with "They will just ignore it", but that scene was obviously tacked on to the end for a reason, and I think that reason is that there is something they want to do with it in an upcoming movie, and this movie was mostly in the can before they made the decision.

 

[Perspicuo]

"If I could save time in a bottle / The first thing that..." from now on will always make me laugh.

I never thought I would say this about an X-Men movie, but I loved the part when James Kirk said "... time travel..."! LOL

 

[Shadowy Man]

Dinklage is so understated that he almost fades off the screen.

Yeah, it's too bad that he was basically reduced to a one-dimensional enemy. He's such a good actor and it's always nice to have a good motivation for the bad guy. But I think that the movie was so large and covered so many different characters' motivations that he just got squeezed out.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Dinklage is so understated that he almost fades off the screen.

Yeah, it's too bad that he was basically reduced to a one-dimensional enemy. He's such a good actor and it's always nice to have a good motivation for the bad guy. But I think that the movie was so large and covered so many different characters' motivations that he just got squeezed out.

He was fairly bland and anonymous in it. If not for the fact that he was Tyrion Lannister, I wouldn't have been able to recognize a picture of him five minutes after the film ended. He was Vague and Impersonal Corporate Guy and that's it.

 

[Shadowy Man]

One thing I really don't get, however. At the end of the movie, Stryker pulled Wolverine out of the river and told the cops that he'd take him - thus leading to all of that stuff ... but then Stryker was Mystique?

Huh?

They spent the movie developing the character of Stryker to become who he was in the earlier movies, so it would have made sense him to actually be doing that. They'd also just had a huge thing about how Mystique isn't killing anybody, so Stryker is still alive so it's not like Mystique can take his place. Mystique isn't going to be experimenting on mutants and fusing metal to their bones so ... huh?

I completely agree here. They should have had it be the real Stryker, as negative as a note that might have been for Wolverine at that time. In fact, it would have had a certain poetry considering that Stryker would have picked him up and pulled out the metal that Magneto had just put into him.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I completely agree here. They should have had it be the real Stryker, as negative as a note that might have been for Wolverine at that time. In fact, it would have had a certain poetry considering that Stryker would have picked him up and pulled out the metal that Magneto had just put into him.

Ya, Stryker being Stryker makes sense. Stryker being Mystique is just ... huh?

 

[Nexus]

Maybe there're try to set up a Mystique solo movie. They want wolverine in every Xmen movie so this way those two can do something in a spin off.

I thought the movie was good and agree that they waisted Dinkledge. The movie should have been longer to give some depth to his character. I didn't really like quicksiver. He was too over powered. If he could only go into hyper time for a short while or it took a lot out of him his scenes would have more impact. Think back to Neo in the Matrix going into bullet time. It was awesome watching him struggle and barely dodge the bullets in the first film compared to his over powered reality control in the sequels.

 

[prideandfall]

i too watched the mystique reveal with a serious case of 'what the shit?', since it made so much sense for that to be stryker and to then segue into the whole weapon X thing.

but, on the flip side, if this means that the 3rd wolverine movie can now be an adaptation of the "Weapon X" mini-series (which will absolutely never happen but my nerd fantasy can hope) then it will all be worth it.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

As an aside, what was the rationale for telling Wolverine that they also had to rescue Magneto because they needed his help to stop Mystique? He did absolutely nothing except fuck everything up and make things worse.

How about, when they got that superfast guy who can move bullets so they don't hit the people being aimed at, they just decide to leave Magneto where he is and being that guy along to stop the girl who's going to shoot a bullet at someone instead?

 

[Shadowy Man]

As an aside, what was the rationale for telling Wolverine that they also had to rescue Magneto because they needed his help to stop Mystique? He did absolutely nothing except fuck everything up and make things worse.

How about, when they got that superfast guy who can move bullets so they don't hit the people being aimed at, they just decide to leave Magneto where he is and being that guy along to stop the girl who's going to shoot a bullet at someone instead?

Probably because they didn't think it was about simply stopping a bullet but changing the mind of the shooter. They knew that she wouldn't listen to Xavier, but thought she would listen to Magneto. It had been 50 years after all, so maybe they didn't really remember well what Magneto was like at that age. Then again, he was kind of mean to her when he was older too, just leaving her after she lost her mutant powers.

 

[jab]

One thing I really don't get, however. At the end of the movie, Stryker pulled Wolverine out of the river and told the cops that he'd take him - thus leading to all of that stuff ... but then Stryker was Mystique?

Huh?

Don't knock it. This means that the abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine never happened, and that can only be a good thing.

Anything which helps rip that abomination out of the space-time continuum is something I support. However, Wolverine still needs to get his adamantium claws because he sucks without them and they're an integral part to his character. Stryker is the way that he gets them ... which is why Stryker was in the film. Mystique didn't kill him so she can't take his role, so what's the point of her pretending to be him then?

So she has the clout to marshal the forces to find and rescue Wolverine--somewhat as he had rescued her, a fellow mutant.

 

[Nexus]

Probably because they didn't think it was about simply stopping a bullet but changing the mind of the shooter. They knew that she wouldn't listen to Xavier, but thought she would listen to Magneto. It had been 50 years after all, so maybe they didn't really remember well what Magneto was like at that age. Then again, he was kind of mean to her when he was older too, just leaving her after she lost her mutant powers.

Yes she could have easily killed Trask later. They thought they needed Eric to persuade her. And Magneto isn't simply mean. He's an unreliable scumbag. He will always only be looking out for #1. Wolverine pegged him correctly in the first movie when he told him if he really believed all his self righteous crap about protecting mutants he would have been in that mutant making machine personally and not used Rogue as his surrogate.

 

[Underseer]

Probably because they didn't think it was about simply stopping a bullet but changing the mind of the shooter. They knew that she wouldn't listen to Xavier, but thought she would listen to Magneto. It had been 50 years after all, so maybe they didn't really remember well what Magneto was like at that age. Then again, he was kind of mean to her when he was older too, just leaving her after she lost her mutant powers.

Yes she could have easily killed Trask later. They thought they needed Eric to persuade her. And Magneto isn't simply mean. He's an unreliable scumbag. He will always only be looking out for #1. Wolverine pegged him correctly in the first movie when he told him if he really believed all his self righteous crap about protecting mutants he would have been in that mutant making machine personally and not used Rogue as his surrogate.

I don't think "unreliable scumbag" is fair, and "only [...] looking out for #1" is definitely not fair. He does what he does because he is terrified of genocide and is convinced that only the subjugation of humanity can prevent it. However wrong he is, he is motivated by a desire to help others. All other mutants, to be precise.

 

[Nexus]

Probably because they didn't think it was about simply stopping a bullet but changing the mind of the shooter. They knew that she wouldn't listen to Xavier, but thought she would listen to Magneto. It had been 50 years after all, so maybe they didn't really remember well what Magneto was like at that age. Then again, he was kind of mean to her when he was older too, just leaving her after she lost her mutant powers.

Yes she could have easily killed Trask later. They thought they needed Eric to persuade her. And Magneto isn't simply mean. He's an unreliable scumbag. He will always only be looking out for #1. Wolverine pegged him correctly in the first movie when he told him if he really believed all his self righteous crap about protecting mutants he would have been in that mutant making machine personally and not used Rogue as his surrogate.

I don't think "unreliable scumbag" is fair, and "only [...] looking out for #1" is definitely not fair. He does what he does because he is terrified of genocide and is convinced that only the subjugation of humanity can prevent it. However wrong he is, he is motivated by a desire to help others. All other mutants, to be precise.

I'm only going by the movies here. But if he was trying to help other mutants like you say he wouldn't have tried to sacrifice Rogue in the first movie. He certainly wasn't helping her and he could have accomplish his goal by simply using himself in that machine. Someone that leaves an ally that has been loyal for decades on the side of the road once they are no longer as useful is a textbook scumbag/unreliable friend.

 

[prideandfall]

As an aside, what was the rationale for telling Wolverine that they also had to rescue Magneto because they needed his help to stop Mystique? He did absolutely nothing except fuck everything up and make things worse.

How about, when they got that superfast guy who can move bullets so they don't hit the people being aimed at, they just decide to leave Magneto where he is and being that guy along to stop the girl who's going to shoot a bullet at someone instead?

well: they didn't know where mystique was, xavier had no powers at that point, they thought magneto might know where she is or at least have an idea of how to find her, and they knew their time was extremely limited in terms of how long they could keep logan in the past.

also, if the plan was to try and reshape the future to be better, not just in terms of the sentinel program but overall regarding human/mutant relations, they may have felt that getting xavier and magneto back together was the best way to get that ball rolling.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

well: they didn't know where mystique was, xavier had no powers at that point, they thought magneto might know where she is or at least have an idea of how to find her, and they knew their time was extremely limited in terms of how long they could keep logan in the past.

But they did know exactly where she was going to be and when and their entire plan revolved around being in that exact place at that exact time. There is zero that Magneto could have offered to their plan which wouldn't have been done ten times better by Quicksilverat with a tenth of the risk.

also, if the plan was to try and reshape the future to be better, not just in terms of the sentinel program but overall regarding human/mutant relations, they may have felt that getting xavier and magneto back together was the best way to get that ball rolling.

Well, that was a bad plan and they nearly all died as a result.