X-Men: Days of Future Past
May. 24th, 2014 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteI have been scarce around Dreamwidth lately, but obviously I had to post about this because: THAT. WAS. AMAZING.
- After First Class I didn't think they'd ever make another X-Men film so perfectly tailored to my interests, but they took all the stuff I loved about that and then put Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen on top.
- It didn't even leave me with that "I loved this to bits but there was that one thing that really aggravated me ..." feeling that Darwin's death caused after First Class. (Except insofar as I'm still annoyed that Darwin does not seem to have come back, but it's not really fair to pin that on THIS film.)
- Before we even get to my Best Beloved: I loved what First Class did with Raven, and this was even better on that score. I love that we see her part way between the young girl she was in the previous film and the hyper-competent killer she almost becomes, that she isn't always perfectly cool and poised and in character. The whole film and the whole future history of the planet turns around Raven's actions. And on Charles deciding to trust her and let her make the right choice. I melted into a GIANT PUDDLE OF GOO right there. That relationship was such a brilliant addition to this universe, and here it's at the heart of the story. (Also: Jennifer Lawrence continues to get more incredible. She gets so much emotion out from under all that make-up.)
- And now to my Best Beloved: I spent this whole film wanting to hug Charles Xavier. Which is my normal state of being, I know, but this time I wanted to hug two versions simultaneously. And then figure out time travel myself so I could go back and hug nine-year-old Charles as well because, oh god, that was a heart-wrenching bit of personal history there.
- Which doesn't mean that he didn't also need a good shake in 1973. When Logan pulled up to the house I said "please tell me he did not spend the previous decade lying around the house listening to Pink Floyd and getting high." Which seems to be pretty much what happened. (Checking the dates, it's probably not actually that long - Hank says he went downhill after the draft started, which in our universe didn't happen until 1969. Although that does beg the question of why it took them six years to get the school running when it seemed well in hand by the end of 1962.)
- Oh, Hank. You are an amazingstudent friend boyfriend person. And also an awful enabler. (Not that I am blaming you, given what you have going on at this point in your life.) I am also very happy to at last get some kind of possible explanation for why you appeared on TV without fur in X2.
- In addition, I am thrilled to get support for my "Hank and Charles watched original Star Trek together" head canon. Apparently Hank even used his home-made VCR to tape it *g*.
- Now I really have to write the story where some of the students get into the attic and find all their old stuff. Including all the embarrassing clothes and other things Hank and Charles do not want the kids seeing. (My friends and I my have improved part of this already. "Of course I have no idea how that bong got there." "Professor, it has an X on it.")
- Predictably, my favourite scene of all was the one where Charles talks to himself <3. It was everything I had hoped for and more! Awwwwwwww.
- Also, I love that Logan knows who is the best at giving pep talks and manages to figure out telepathic time travel in order to achieve this. Loved his friendship with Charles here. (And his, uh, relationship with Erik as well. The conversation the two of them share on the plane is great.)
- I cracked up when Charles, after trying to tell Past!Logan the truth about where they are and what's going on, just gives up and offers a more plausible explanation: bad acid. (Not that he would know anything about acid, of course.)
- Dear Erik: I love you and I also want to strangle you with your own cape. So, business as usual there, too. Because I have seen X-Men 2 and First Class, as soon as the 'find Raven to stop/rescue her' plan seemed to be going too well, I started watching to see when Erik would decide to screw it up because he thought he had come up with a BETTER plan. Apparently it takes him most of the time until 2023 to realise that this kind of thing is a BAD IDEA. Were it only possible, it might have been better to just send Erik back in time to punch himself in the face a few dozen times.
- I will say this for his plan: as bad as it was for mutant public relations, it was also an excellent demonstration of why the Sentinel program was also a BAD IDEA.
- I loved every single second of Charles and Erik interacting in this film, from the look on Charles' face when Logan says that they sent him back together, to the entirely reasonable face-punching, to the whole glorious scene on the plane, to the final farewell. And of course everything in the future apocalypse, too, right down to the hand-holding <3.
- The plane flight was my other favourite scene, from Erik almost crashing it in a rage, to Charles getting most of the way through "I gave up my powers so I could sleep!" before realising he's admitted too much, to the chess game. (James McAvoy is even better in this than he was in the last film. He does scruffy and vulnerable extremely well.)
- While the flashback at the start of X3 is still a little hard to place in the time line, it doesn't strain credulity that much to think they've gotten back together - in whatever sense - for a bit by then. Forced into the same physical space, they can't even stay furious at each other all the way to Paris. (Even if Erik is probably already planning to kill Raven, and he must know that even Charles wouldn't ever forgive him for THAT.)
- I really do think that one reason Charles is so angry is that he's not just angry. Part of him really wants to be back with Erik. (In, you know, whatever sense.) Listen to his voice when he tells Raven they've come to save her together :(. So in addition to everything else, he's mad at himself for wanting to go back to someone who abandoned him and took his friend away and killed a bunch of people. And as far as he knows to begin with, assassinated the President.
- My friends and I decided that JFK's power was super-charisma. And that Emma found this out when he hit on her, which is why Erik knows and Charles doesn't.
- So many mutants! It was a great film for comics fans who like spotting people. Havok! Toad! Ink! Bishop! Blink! Warpath! Sunspot! (Wish they'd made the other guy in Vietnam someone recognisable. It's not like there's a shortage of options to choose from.)
- And a dot point all of his own for Peter Maximoff, who seems to have inherited his daddy's charming temperament and respect for the law :). I love the 'my mom used to know a guy' line because otherwise I'd have walked away wondering if he was or wasn't Erik's kid. However, I would also appreciate a little more light being shed on his origins. (And those of his little sister. Either the twins aren't twins in this universe, which raises the question of how old Wanda is and if Erik is her dad too, or Pietro grew faster because of his powers. It would actually actually explain a few things if he's only ten or so, and if Mystique can age more slowly ...)
- Of course, they needed to bring in some new people after killing so many between films. Poor Emma and Azazel and Angel and Sean :(. Did anyone happen to notice if Riptide is in the autopsy photos? I don't think anyone mentions him out loud.
- Since Azazel is apparently dead, that sort of raises the question of whether Mystique has already had baby Kurt and given him up by this point. Which would make her situation in this film even more sad, especially the moment when the nurse asks if she has a family. (And especially if she thought Azazel ran out on her only to find out he ended up on Trask's autopsy slab. Ouch.)
- I will be intrigued to go back and watch the original trilogy with this in mind. Among other things, we know that Hank and Charles discovered a temporary sort of "cure" themselves long before X3 ... and apparently just decided to keep their mouths shut about this. Which is actually perfectly in character given how that turned out for Charles, and also fascinating.
- The prison scenes at the start of X2 also take on yet another horrifying layer :(. Heaven knows how Erik stayed - relatively - sane in a cell without even a copy of The Once and Future King or a chess set.
- There are still bits of continuity that make no apparent sense, but at least we've established that time travel is possible. If the timeline had been altered before, it could account for oddities like Charles saying he met Erik when he was seventeen.
- I am also filled with speculation about exactly what changed about the timeline between 1973 and 2023, and how that effected the events of X1-X3 and the Wolverine films. There is no way of knowing that any given thing actually happened in the new timeline. Intriguingly Rogue still has the white streak in her hair, implying that some version of X1 may have occurred, but what about X2? Would Raven really work with Erik again after all this? (Charles totally would, but Charles can't help doing that kind of thing. Raven is not so forgiving.) Given that Mystique is on that boat at the end, is Logan's personal history even the same? And I guess that Jean never went Dark Phoenix here, which makes sense since Charles would have been a lot better prepared after reading Logan's thoughts ...
- Not that we're ever going to get any answers, but I also wonder how certain things played out in the original, now defunct, timeline. How did Erik get out of prison? What eventually made Charles decide to lose the dressing gown at noon look, lay off the vodka and start shaving again?
- Logan's personal situation in the new timeline is going to be awfully weird for him, but I'm pretty sure he'll think its worth it to have EVERYONE back. Including a couple of people they lost during the first round *g*.
- Speaking of which, I was delighted to see Jean, abut about ten times as delighted to see Scott. If they'd brought back one without the other, it would have looked like rewarding Logan by giving him the girl, but it's a lot more interesting and bittersweet to have both of them back.
- As soon as the post-credits scene started I said 'holy fuck, that's Apocalypse.' Which is probably the least polite things I've ever said rather too loudly in a public cinema, but: holy fuck, that's Apocalypse!
So obviously it won't all end there. Especially since the film has apparently made a mint. But if Hollywood somehow got crushed by a giant lizard (sorry, wrong blockbuster - make it big robots instead) tomorrow, I would be satisfied with that as a conclusion.
- After First Class I didn't think they'd ever make another X-Men film so perfectly tailored to my interests, but they took all the stuff I loved about that and then put Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen on top.
- It didn't even leave me with that "I loved this to bits but there was that one thing that really aggravated me ..." feeling that Darwin's death caused after First Class. (Except insofar as I'm still annoyed that Darwin does not seem to have come back, but it's not really fair to pin that on THIS film.)
- Before we even get to my Best Beloved: I loved what First Class did with Raven, and this was even better on that score. I love that we see her part way between the young girl she was in the previous film and the hyper-competent killer she almost becomes, that she isn't always perfectly cool and poised and in character. The whole film and the whole future history of the planet turns around Raven's actions. And on Charles deciding to trust her and let her make the right choice. I melted into a GIANT PUDDLE OF GOO right there. That relationship was such a brilliant addition to this universe, and here it's at the heart of the story. (Also: Jennifer Lawrence continues to get more incredible. She gets so much emotion out from under all that make-up.)
- And now to my Best Beloved: I spent this whole film wanting to hug Charles Xavier. Which is my normal state of being, I know, but this time I wanted to hug two versions simultaneously. And then figure out time travel myself so I could go back and hug nine-year-old Charles as well because, oh god, that was a heart-wrenching bit of personal history there.
- Which doesn't mean that he didn't also need a good shake in 1973. When Logan pulled up to the house I said "please tell me he did not spend the previous decade lying around the house listening to Pink Floyd and getting high." Which seems to be pretty much what happened. (Checking the dates, it's probably not actually that long - Hank says he went downhill after the draft started, which in our universe didn't happen until 1969. Although that does beg the question of why it took them six years to get the school running when it seemed well in hand by the end of 1962.)
- Oh, Hank. You are an amazing
- In addition, I am thrilled to get support for my "Hank and Charles watched original Star Trek together" head canon. Apparently Hank even used his home-made VCR to tape it *g*.
- Now I really have to write the story where some of the students get into the attic and find all their old stuff. Including all the embarrassing clothes and other things Hank and Charles do not want the kids seeing. (My friends and I my have improved part of this already. "Of course I have no idea how that bong got there." "Professor, it has an X on it.")
- Predictably, my favourite scene of all was the one where Charles talks to himself <3. It was everything I had hoped for and more! Awwwwwwww.
- Also, I love that Logan knows who is the best at giving pep talks and manages to figure out telepathic time travel in order to achieve this. Loved his friendship with Charles here. (And his, uh, relationship with Erik as well. The conversation the two of them share on the plane is great.)
- I cracked up when Charles, after trying to tell Past!Logan the truth about where they are and what's going on, just gives up and offers a more plausible explanation: bad acid. (Not that he would know anything about acid, of course.)
- Dear Erik: I love you and I also want to strangle you with your own cape. So, business as usual there, too. Because I have seen X-Men 2 and First Class, as soon as the 'find Raven to stop/rescue her' plan seemed to be going too well, I started watching to see when Erik would decide to screw it up because he thought he had come up with a BETTER plan. Apparently it takes him most of the time until 2023 to realise that this kind of thing is a BAD IDEA. Were it only possible, it might have been better to just send Erik back in time to punch himself in the face a few dozen times.
- I will say this for his plan: as bad as it was for mutant public relations, it was also an excellent demonstration of why the Sentinel program was also a BAD IDEA.
- I loved every single second of Charles and Erik interacting in this film, from the look on Charles' face when Logan says that they sent him back together, to the entirely reasonable face-punching, to the whole glorious scene on the plane, to the final farewell. And of course everything in the future apocalypse, too, right down to the hand-holding <3.
- The plane flight was my other favourite scene, from Erik almost crashing it in a rage, to Charles getting most of the way through "I gave up my powers so I could sleep!" before realising he's admitted too much, to the chess game. (James McAvoy is even better in this than he was in the last film. He does scruffy and vulnerable extremely well.)
- While the flashback at the start of X3 is still a little hard to place in the time line, it doesn't strain credulity that much to think they've gotten back together - in whatever sense - for a bit by then. Forced into the same physical space, they can't even stay furious at each other all the way to Paris. (Even if Erik is probably already planning to kill Raven, and he must know that even Charles wouldn't ever forgive him for THAT.)
- I really do think that one reason Charles is so angry is that he's not just angry. Part of him really wants to be back with Erik. (In, you know, whatever sense.) Listen to his voice when he tells Raven they've come to save her together :(. So in addition to everything else, he's mad at himself for wanting to go back to someone who abandoned him and took his friend away and killed a bunch of people. And as far as he knows to begin with, assassinated the President.
- My friends and I decided that JFK's power was super-charisma. And that Emma found this out when he hit on her, which is why Erik knows and Charles doesn't.
- So many mutants! It was a great film for comics fans who like spotting people. Havok! Toad! Ink! Bishop! Blink! Warpath! Sunspot! (Wish they'd made the other guy in Vietnam someone recognisable. It's not like there's a shortage of options to choose from.)
- And a dot point all of his own for Peter Maximoff, who seems to have inherited his daddy's charming temperament and respect for the law :). I love the 'my mom used to know a guy' line because otherwise I'd have walked away wondering if he was or wasn't Erik's kid. However, I would also appreciate a little more light being shed on his origins. (And those of his little sister. Either the twins aren't twins in this universe, which raises the question of how old Wanda is and if Erik is her dad too, or Pietro grew faster because of his powers. It would actually actually explain a few things if he's only ten or so, and if Mystique can age more slowly ...)
- Of course, they needed to bring in some new people after killing so many between films. Poor Emma and Azazel and Angel and Sean :(. Did anyone happen to notice if Riptide is in the autopsy photos? I don't think anyone mentions him out loud.
- Since Azazel is apparently dead, that sort of raises the question of whether Mystique has already had baby Kurt and given him up by this point. Which would make her situation in this film even more sad, especially the moment when the nurse asks if she has a family. (And especially if she thought Azazel ran out on her only to find out he ended up on Trask's autopsy slab. Ouch.)
- I will be intrigued to go back and watch the original trilogy with this in mind. Among other things, we know that Hank and Charles discovered a temporary sort of "cure" themselves long before X3 ... and apparently just decided to keep their mouths shut about this. Which is actually perfectly in character given how that turned out for Charles, and also fascinating.
- The prison scenes at the start of X2 also take on yet another horrifying layer :(. Heaven knows how Erik stayed - relatively - sane in a cell without even a copy of The Once and Future King or a chess set.
- There are still bits of continuity that make no apparent sense, but at least we've established that time travel is possible. If the timeline had been altered before, it could account for oddities like Charles saying he met Erik when he was seventeen.
- I am also filled with speculation about exactly what changed about the timeline between 1973 and 2023, and how that effected the events of X1-X3 and the Wolverine films. There is no way of knowing that any given thing actually happened in the new timeline. Intriguingly Rogue still has the white streak in her hair, implying that some version of X1 may have occurred, but what about X2? Would Raven really work with Erik again after all this? (Charles totally would, but Charles can't help doing that kind of thing. Raven is not so forgiving.) Given that Mystique is on that boat at the end, is Logan's personal history even the same? And I guess that Jean never went Dark Phoenix here, which makes sense since Charles would have been a lot better prepared after reading Logan's thoughts ...
- Not that we're ever going to get any answers, but I also wonder how certain things played out in the original, now defunct, timeline. How did Erik get out of prison? What eventually made Charles decide to lose the dressing gown at noon look, lay off the vodka and start shaving again?
- Logan's personal situation in the new timeline is going to be awfully weird for him, but I'm pretty sure he'll think its worth it to have EVERYONE back. Including a couple of people they lost during the first round *g*.
- Speaking of which, I was delighted to see Jean, abut about ten times as delighted to see Scott. If they'd brought back one without the other, it would have looked like rewarding Logan by giving him the girl, but it's a lot more interesting and bittersweet to have both of them back.
- As soon as the post-credits scene started I said 'holy fuck, that's Apocalypse.' Which is probably the least polite things I've ever said rather too loudly in a public cinema, but: holy fuck, that's Apocalypse!
So obviously it won't all end there. Especially since the film has apparently made a mint. But if Hollywood somehow got crushed by a giant lizard (sorry, wrong blockbuster - make it big robots instead) tomorrow, I would be satisfied with that as a conclusion.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-26 07:40 pm (UTC)