X-Men, X-Men Origins, Wolverine, etc.

[Diabolical]

I think its been confirmed its basically a trailer. Everyone lost their shit when it was announced because they thought it was something to tie the franchises together. Nope.

This kind of cross-promotion was done before with The Dark Knight Rises, where they showed the first 10 minutes in IMAX (the Bane plane scene) before...I forget, but it was a different company's superhero flick.

[jjreason]

I remember the Bane scene lead in - it might have been before Thor (and it blew out whatever movie it was in front of, if I recall correctly). I'm actually a bit relieved they're not mixing Spidey with that X Universe - I think there can be 3 separate things going on and have it work out ok. I may not get the Secret Wars movie of my dreams, but as long as they keep making good movies I'll survive.

[Diabolical]

Sounds like Fox is planning on mixing the X-Men with the FF down the road.

Sony is trying to build their own big Spider-man universe with the announcement of Spidey 3-6, The Sinister Six and Venom. Avi Arad (I think) very recently said there won't be a Spidey/Avengers merger unless the Spider flicks run out of ideas, which I assume means when they start losing money.

[Tom Foolery]

Just watched DoFP. Pretty fucking cool. It's on par with Cap 2 for best comic movie this year. Better than Spidey 2(which was excellent also. We are spoiled with Marvel goodness this year). It was the perfect balance of the First Class "reboot-but-not" and the original 'trilogy'. It's not even as Wolverine heavy as you'd expect. Yeah, he's the catalyst and every X-Men film feels like the grandstanding Logan show, but this one is more about the triangle of Xavier/Mystique/Magneto with Logan as supporting player. Everyone detested Quicksilver's glam rock look, but he steals his scenes and doesn't overstay his welcome in the film overall. Avengers 2 is gonna have to bring its A game with their Quicksilver. Some pretty fucking epic set pieces, like Magneto dropping a stadium on the White House. Peter Dinklage was great. They explain how Emma, Angel, Azazel, etc are all dead and vivisected at the hands of Trask to explain why they aren't in the movie.
My quibble/peeve was the lack of explanation on how Kitty Pryde's phasing power also is a brain-time-traveling power.
Singer also did a lovely job wrapping up the original trilogy by erasing it and giving everyone a happy ending. I squealed with delight seeing Marsden and Famke return for cameos, along with with almost everyone else.

And the post credits stinger isn't exactly a surprise, given they're already announced the next film but hearing the crowd chanting "En Sabah Nuhr" over and over in ancient Egypt, before revealing his face and the four horsemen on the ridge behind him was the fucking cherry on the movie.

Great film. Very satisfying culmination of the franchise for X-Men fans.

[jjreason]

Actually pretty glad to hear this. Very much looking forward to seeing it!

[Diabolical]

Just got home. Loved it. Picking a favorite between this, First Class and X-Men 2 is gonna tough.

I'm just going to spoiler tag the rest, because some of it is borderline spoiler.

As I assumed, we don't see a ton of the future X-Men, and most of them are pretty much extended cameos, which is good. I like seeing them again, but this isn't X-Men 4...which I kind of want now, especially after the ending.

I liked the explanations as to why we don't see some of the First Class characters and we avoided the Nightcrawler fuck up from X-Men 3.

The Quicksilver stuff was pretty great, even if he still looks ridiculous. Too bad he was really under used. Loved the little hints about his lineage.

This new alternate timeline they've created for the First Class characters reminds me of the new Star Trek universe.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

I saw it today and thought it was pretty awesome. I saw and enjoyed Cap 2 as well, but this one is a bit more unique as an action/comic book movie. I haven't seen The Last Stand or either of the Wolverine movies so I don't know how the future scenes tie in with anything there, but this one is really more of a sequel to First Class anyway. Quicksilver, indeed, was pretty fucking cool. I liked Blink's portals as well, and any mutant with skin-changing powers (Iceman, Colossus, etc.) was very well done visually – the characters each got at least one good action moment showcasing their powers.

[jjreason]

I just came back. Liked it, but whether or not I loved it will have to wait. I'm on the cusp. Cap 2 left me with a clearer first impression of love. Anyhow, I have questions and will spoiler disguise them just in case:

1) Kitty can phase through time I'm assuming? Since when? I wish they had tossed us a nugget about that fact, even a line of dialogue along the lines of her figuring it out at some point would have done it.

2) No mention of how Prof X came back to being after Jean turned him to dust in X3. Did I miss that in a Wolverine film? Haven't seen either of those....

3) Who was the mutant with the black tattoo over his eye & was that the same character with the biohazard marks on his hands that caused the soldiers to barf in that one scene? Did not recognize that person.

I also have general positive comments.

1) I loved seeing the large cast of all the movies together. I didn't wish for "more" of anyone, it seemed like they came pretty close to nailing exactly who should get the lion's share of the screen time, without leaving anyone out in the minor or even cameo appearance departments.

2) I almost cried when Logan saw Jean, and kind of expected him to as well. Fantastic.

3) Michael Fassbender just is Magneto ie he is not Michael Fassbender so there is no longer any real need to use that name. Might as well change his driver's license while we're at it. Fantastic.

4) The actor that played Sunspot looked so much like the character in "non powered" form from the original New Mutants, my eyes literally bugged out.

[Diabolical]

1) Kitty can phase through time I'm assuming? Since when? I wish they had tossed us a nugget about that fact, even a line of dialogue along the lines of her figuring it out at some point would have done it.
2) No mention of how Prof X came back to being after Jean turned him to dust in X3. Did I miss that in a Wolverine film? Haven't seen either of those....

Yeah, there a few unanswered questions, like:
How did Kitty develop that power?
How the fuck did Xavier live? There was the post-credit scene in X-Men 3 where he woke up in the body of the barely mentioned brain-dead guy Moira was taking care of. Apparently in the commentary Brett Ratner explained that body was Xavier's fully grown identical brain dead twin...who apparently is also paralyzed. Stupid.
The mid-credit scene of The Wolverine didn't help either. Logan walks through an airport when all the metal starts shaking. Logan pops his bone claws (his adamantium claws got cut off earlier), realizing Magento was near. Everyone in the airport freezes (like in the beginning of X-Men 2) and Magneto and Xavier rolls up in a wheelchair and they warn him a new danger is on the way. No explanations.
They also never say how Logan got his metal claws back.
The Wolverine was good. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is shit, but it doesn't matter, as they (along with X-Men) were treated like Star Wars EU and apparently never happened now.

3) Who was the mutant with the black tattoo over his eye & was that the same character with the biohazard marks on his hands that caused the soldiers to barf in that one scene? Did not recognize that person.

The one from the future with the black over his eyes? That was Warpath. Not the same guy as the tattoo guy in Saigon.

[jjreason]

I got Warpath, the contagion guy or whatever that was with Havok in the military & made the guys sick.

[jjreason]

Fuck off Grimlock. I think it might have been this character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_%28comics%29

[Ran]

Here's What Happens In Anna Paquin's Deleted 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past' Scene

[Diabolical]

There's been some talk online lately that Marvel is trying to sabotage Fox's movie plans for X-Men and Fantsatic Four, despite earning (a reported) 5% of the film profits and the trickle down money.

Almost seems true when you examine the evidence:

There are rumors of Fantastic Four's cancellation.

The latest comics have zero ads for Days of Future Past, but plenty of Guardians of the Galaxy and Agents of SHIELD, even in X-titles like All-New X-Men and Deadpool.

How about those DoFP toys on the selves? Oh wait, there aren't any.

Marvel.com is loaded with GotG and Avengers and no X-Men. You have to click the movies tab and scroll to the bottom to see any X-Men movie stuff.

There are also rumors that Marvel and Sony are close to hashing out a deal to include Spider-Man in the MCU. Note that there are still Spider-Man movie-related ads in the comics.

Thoughts?

[jjreason]

Sabotage is a little stern - I don't interpret any of that as an attack on Fox or the X-Men movies. I would suggest they're choosing NOT to promote the movie in favor of promoting those ones that are going to give them a bigger chunk of the pie, all fair in love & money grubbing.

And this is a bit of a reach - but X-Men wouldn't need any push at all to get people into the theaters whereas Guardians certainly will. To be honest I'm surprised Fox didn't work something out with them to have the movie promod in the comics - that was stupid.

[Tom Foolery]

There's been some talk online lately that Marvel is trying to sabotage Fox's movie plans for X-Men and Fantsatic Four, despite earning (a reported) 5% of the film profits and the trickle down money.

Almost seems true when you examine the evidence:

There are rumors of Fantastic Four's cancellation.

I think that's more story related and nowhere near a 'fuck you' to Fox. Robinson's whole story pitch was "The Fall of the Fantastic Four". As unoriginal and tired as that idea seems, it was in place for awhile.

The latest comics have zero ads for Days of Future Past, but plenty of Guardians of the Galaxy and Agents of SHIELD, even in X-titles like All-New X-Men and Deadpool.

Fox didn't want to spend the money on the ad space. Which is smart. The people who buy the books are probably already going to see the film.

How about those DoFP toys on the selves? Oh wait, there aren't any.

Considering the last few X-Men movie didn't do so hot, and retailers have generally stated shying away from giant movie merch orders that end up in the clearance aisles a month later, that's not surprising. Would ascot-wearing Magneto be a huge peg warmer? But Hasbro is still putting out X-Men figures. There's a Legends Wave later this summer devoted solely to X-Men. And the 3 3/4ths figures as well.

Marvel.com is loaded with GotG and Avengers and no X-Men. You have to click the movies tab and scroll to the bottom to see any X-Men movie stuff.

Again, don't need to advertise to people already planning to see the movie, ie comic nerds who frequent the marvel website. Marvel/Disney probably isn't giving Fox any deals or incentives for ad space.

There are also rumors that Marvel and Sony are close to hashing out a deal to include Spider-Man in the MCU. Note that there are still Spider-Man movie-related ads in the comics.

If true, that'd be cool. If it happens and it's successful, maybe Fox will be more open to that idea as well if and when they reboot the X-Movies. It can only benefit EVERYONE involved.

Thoughts?

While there's no love lost between Disney and Fox, and I'm sure Disney is putting zero effort into promoting Fox's XM and FF properties, I think there's a world of difference between ambivalence and active sabotage. I think Fox is doing just fine sabotaging the FF franchise on their own.
And I think canceling the FF comic just as the movie hits theaters would probably generate MORE buzz than simply releasing Robinson's mediocre series every month. Look at the tizzy the mere rumor of it has generated.
Marvel may well indeed be stopping the FF title(remember when Thor went away for a few years and then got the huge JMS/Coipel revival?) I think how it affects Fox studios probably had about 1% bearing on the decision.