Problems faced by X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past, tentatively
scheduled to debut on July 28th, 2014, will almost certainly be a
commercial hit. Its predecessor, First Class, was very popular and
featured James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender delivering outstanding
representations of Professor Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, Magneto,
respectively. With the main cast is set
to return, Days of Future Past will be
a solidly acted movie but it faces a great deal of problems.
1.
Mystique
I
have not seen Jennifer Lawrence in anything but First Class, but I hear that she is a very good actress; she even
has an Oscar to prove it. That being
said, she did not play Mystique in First
Class. This is not her fault of
course, she acted the hell out of the role she was given. But it just was not Mystique. Lawrence’s Raven is a fun-loving, bubbly,
energetic twenty-something. Mystique,
meanwhile, is a ruthless, cold-blooded murderous bitch. I fully accept that the transformation could
take place in Days of Future Past,
but if it does it will be startlingly abrupt.
Also, would Lawrence be believable as such a character? Like I said, I do not have an extensive
experience of Lawrence movies, but the question has to be asked.
2.
The
Cast
As I said earlier, Days of Future Past will very likely be
a solidly acted movie. But the producers
are writing a pretty big check which the writers and director will have a
difficult time cashing. Ensemble casts are
difficult enough for television (Lost
did it successfully in its first season, FlashForward
not so much) where the show can focus an entire hour on a single
character. Movies do not have such a
luxury. There is a reason why ensemble
cast movies are rare and rarely work.
Hell, look at First Class
itself. Xavier and Magneto are
characterized great. Not-Mystique was fully-formed. Moira MacTaggert and Beast adequately. Havok barely, Banshee not at all. Bug-Angel, Azazel, and Riptide hilariously
not at all. Are these problems with First Class? Only a little bit, but ordinarily the sequel
serves to characterize those secondary characters. Look at X2:
Bobby Drake (Iceman) was the definition of a fringe character in X-Men, but got a lot of characterization
in the sequel.
Could Days of Future Past provide more characterization for these
characters? Maybe, but that seems
unlikely with the bulk of characters being thrown into this movie. Time for Havok and Banshee’s character growth
is almost certainly being swallowed up by the return of several characters from
the original trilogy. Rogue, Shadowcat,
Iceman, Colossus, Storm, Wolverine, and the elder Xavier and Magneto are all
returning. Plus new characters Blink
(seriously?) and whoever Peter Dinklage is playing. It will be hard to add more character growth
to characters who don’t get screen time.
Technically speaking, the actors who played Havok and Banshee are not
even confirmed to be returning. Because
why waste time growing new, interesting characters when you can just throw in
characters from seven years ago, I guess.
3.
The
Universe
My biggest problem with First Class, and thus Days of Future Past, is the absolutely
baffling insistence on considering them prequels to the original trilogy
instead of a reboot. Why, why, why, why,
why? What is the point of that? Days of
Future Past will only solidify this flaw: the story involves somebody from
the future (hence the returning characters) traveling to the past to prevent
some horrible thing from happening (God willing, they stop X-Men: The Last Stand from happening). The problems with claiming them as prequels
are numerous, but I’ll go ahead and list some for you. 1) Absolutely no acknowledgment that Xavier
and Mystique lived together as brother and sister for at least fifteen
years. 2) Moira MacTaggert is a 25-30 year old C.I.A.
operative in First Class, but she’s
also a 30-35 year old doctor in Last Stand…she ages 10 years over 40 years and
changes jobs! What a renaissance woman.
3) The ages! First Class is anchored in 1962 by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Xavier and Magneto are both let’s say
25-30. That makes them at least 60-70 in
the original trilogy. Perfectly fine. Mystique is the same age, thus in the
original trilogy she is also 60-70. But
when she gets “cured” in Last Stand, she sure doesn’t look 60. Storm was quickly seen in the Cerebro scene,
roughly 10. That makes her 50 in the
original trilogy. Nope. Cyclops is in the Cerebro scene as well, same
age and same problems as Storm. 4)
Remember that time when Xavier and Magneto met Wolverine in a bar? Because they sure didn’t. 5) Fox keeps telling us that every X-Men
movie has been in the same universe.
Hogwash. At the end of Origins: Wolverine (which, by the way,
features Cyclops in high school in 1979.
So apparently he only aged 8 years in 17 years?), Xavier is seen
standing. But he got paralyzed in 1962,
I thought?
4.
The
Future of the Franchise
My brother and I have discussed this
movie for an obscene amount of time and the only reason we can come up with for
why they chose THIS story is to resurrect the original-timeline. If successfully reborn, what happens
next? Does Fox have the balls to attempt
to run with two parallel franchises which exist in separate universes? This happens pretty frequently in comics
themselves, but the general public would likely get incredibly confused. If that is not the case, what happens with
the First Class timeline? Does it end at Days of Future Past? It’s
pretty wide-open at this point, but I think we can all safely agree that if the
McAvoy/ Fassbender universe gets sacrificed to restart any universe with Rogue,
everybody loses.
I have very little doubt that Days of Future Past will be an enjoyable
movie, but when was the last big superhero movie that wasn’t in some sense enjoyable? The film certainly has plenty of hurdles to
overcome, however, and plenty of time to overcome them. But with each new kernel of information which
comes out my hope diminishes bit by bit.
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