“X-Men: Days Of Future Past” Updates

If there’s one movie I may be more excited for than Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. DOFP is one of my favorite plot lines in the X-Men universe. When I went and saw The Wolverine, I proceeded to freak out over the scene in the credits with Professor X and Magneto, which created a very long, in-depth conversation over dinner about the possibilities for DOFP with my fiancee…which turned into a very long conversation about Apocalypse. It was great.

Growing up with the 90s X-Men cartoon, any X-Men movies have a special place in my heart. Except for The Last Stand, which does not actually exist and I refuse to buy it on blu-ray unless it’s less than $4.

The majority of the internet keeps saying that this movie sounds like it will end up being a hot mess. The fact of the matter is that the whole plot is a hot mess. That’s the point. With Bryan Singer at the helm, I’m not too concerned with the movie being terrible. X-Men: First Class was a great prequel, and he was only a producer. The trailer for DOFP gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.

So what’s new? What’s been revealed? What do we already know?

The focus is on Wolverine. This shouldn’t be surprising; Hugh Jackman really has become the face of the X-Men franchise. While it’s Kitty Pryde who does the time traveling in the comics (and Bishop who does it in the 90s cartoon), using an ageless Wolverine works just as well.

Time travel is different than usual. Rather than having every tiny movement in the past change something in the future at the same time, things won’t take hold until Wolverine wakes back up in the future. It’s honestly a smart move–then you don’t have to worry about whether Wolverine running that red light in 1973 will destroy New York City in 2014 (or whatever year “the future” is).

Photo Credit: Alan Markfield. Copyright Fox Entertainment and Marvel Studios

Mystique is acting as an assassin. One complaint I’ve heard about Jennifer Lawrence’s portrayal of Mystique is that she wasn’t dangerous enough. You have to keep in mind that in First Class, she hadn’t really seen the world yet. She knew Charles’ kindness and not much else. There was some resentment toward normal humans, but nothing like we saw in the original X-Men trilogy.

That being said, almost ten years have passed since we saw her split off from Charles and side with Erik, and it doesn’t sound like she’s the same Mystique we saw in First Class. She’s not with Magneto either. She’s off doing her own thing and (I would assume) falling further into that internal hatred that makes her so deadly.

No Rogue. This one seems a little strange because she’s in the trailer a few different times. But she has apparently been cut from the theatrical release. I’m okay with this because I’ve never liked Anna Paquin’s Rogue, though I’m still interested in what exactly she filmed for the movie.

Lots of Young Charles. James McAvoy’s portrayal of Charles was far from what Patrick Stewart did with Professor X. He was also young and inspired and had not endured the hardships. The Charles in DOFP looks to be in a deep depression, struggling with how to go on, how to be a leader, how to start change. Young Charles yelling, “I don’t want your future,” and Wise Charles telling him, “We need you to hope again,” brings me to tears. That’s probably not a good thing. I should probably have that checked out…

Kitty Pryde and Iceman are a couple. I like this better than the whole Rogue/Iceman storyline they had going in the original trilogy. This one makes more sense. And Rogue only belongs with Gambit, who still has not been done justice in the movies, but that’s another article entirely.

New mutants! This includes Bishop , Sunspot, Warpath, and Blink. No, they aren’t new X-Men. They are the ones running in the terrifying future. If you don’t know much about them, MTV has a great run-down of their comic book selves.

—

With the sequel already announced (as most people assumed that the movie would have to either be split into two movies or have an immediate sequel), there’s a lot of potential. X-Men: Apocalypse is set for a May 27, 2016 release. Mostly I’m excited to finally see what they do with Apocalypse in a movie setting.

There are a lot of hopes for this movie. There is a lot that can be done and I doubt this will even begin to touch on the majority of what it could do.