AAR: X-Men First Class and X-Men Days of Future Past
by Mike Lunsford, Editor-In-Chief of The Great Geek Refuge
As a self-described X-Men lover, it pained me that I hadn't seen X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. I had my reasons. They weren't good reasons, but I had them. Most of it being X3 sucked so hard. When Bryan Singer left X3 to work on his love letter to the Man of Steel Superman Returns, Fox scrambled to replace him and ended up with Brett Ratner. You would think the blame would fall at Brett Ratner's feet for ruining X3, but it turns out 20th Century Fox was far more guilty. It was their insistence that Cyclops be killed, they rushed Ratner to finish the film and limited what mutants could be in the movie because they were developing X-Men Origins: Wolverine at the time as well and didn't want to step on their precious Canucklehead's toes. Killing Cyclops still irked me to this day as he was always my favorite of the X-Men. Especially when I read why they chose Wolverine as the main character for the 'Dark Phoenix Saga' bastardization they did.
"with Cyclops, you can’t see his eyes. It’s a harder character to relate to for the audience."
Are you freaking kidding me? That's why? Oh sweet Lord...
"Yeah, I mean look at him. You can't see his eyes!!! How can you tell what he is feeling???? Eyes are the only things that convey emotion with people!!!!" --20th Century Fox
Things at the Landau house are a changin': we got Netflix, we bought a Blu Ray player so now I can watch all these movies I had missed out on previously. GGR's own Pete Rogers was nice enough to let yours truly borrow his Blu Ray copies of X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past. I'm going to get right to the review part. We'll start with X-Men: First Class.
20th Century Fox seemed to realize their miss-step and hired Bryan Singer to be the executive producer for their new prequel project for the X-Men. Going back to the origins of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr's relationship, if done properly, could be an amazing film...and that it was. And their first home run was their choices for Professor X and Magneto.
Xavier: Your move, Erik,
Lensherr: We play an awful lot of chess, don't you think?
Xavier: It's a metaphor, it's about how we can remain friends and enemies at the same time
Lensherr: I just tire of chess. Can we play Hungry Hungry Hippos?
James McAvoy as Charles Xavier was such a good call. He portrayed the hopefulness and desire to help mankind and mutants to co-exist peacefully perfectly. The youthful cockiness in his abilities gave a new facet to his character but with that cockiness you also saw an arrogant side where he almost was selfishly philanthropic. A sort of "I'm better than you because I'm one of the most powerful psychics in the world and I'm gracious enough to help you." Not everyone appreciates that kind of "help."
Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr was an incredible casting choice. That guy not only was Magneto, but you understood why he makes the choices he does and at times, you wanted to see him succeed. That scene where he goes to Argentina to track down Sebastian Shaw and he runs into the "pig farmer" and "tailor" is one of the best of the movie. Erik deserves his revenge, but how far will he...oh nevermind. We all know how this is going to end.
"Don't cry for me, Argentina."
What was really interesting about this movie was the relationship that we see between Xavier and Lensherr. They truly are friends, and not just saying that because they're working together. Xavier really wants to help Erik overcome his anger and use his powers to help mankind. The scene where he shows him how to move the satellite by saying "true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity." Charles shows Erik a beautiful moment that Erik and his mother shared when he was a child. It was a very touching moment. Maybe in the future he will regret showing his greatest enemy how to use his powers more efficiently, but for now, they're best buddies! What could go wrong, right?
Oh yeah...ripping the adamanatium out of Wolverine's body. Forgot about that.
This movie spent time building the friendship of Charles and Erik unlike so many other origin stories (I'm looking right at you Star Wars prequels). Charles knew what Erik had overcome, why he was so angry and wanted revenge, but would not give up on him. Xavier felt that everyone could be redeemed whereas Lensherr was convinced mankind was too evil to live peacefully with mutants. But the movie was more than just the two of them debating philosophically. Kevin Bacon made a great Sebastian Shaw. He does slimy and smarmy very well. Plus, he hung around January Jones' White Queen most of the movie, and that makes anyone look better by comparison.
I don't even know what he's saying right here but I'm sure it something followed by a smug laugh.
There were some other classic characters and a few unknowns or little known characters that made an appearance. We got to see Havok and Banshee; they were done faithfully enough. The Angel character was a new one to me, but still interesting. Beast was done well, and the too short experience we got with Darwin was unfortunate. Riptide...ehhhh, who cares. He filled the role of extra bad guy. Azazel was faithfully depicted as he is known in the comics, but without his connection to Mystique. But let's talk about our scaly, blue, shape-shifting friend for a second.
I understand why they chose Jennifer Lawrence as the new Mystique; she's attractive, she's young, and looks good in blue body paint. Normally, in situations like this, the execs at the movie studio shoe-horn in a character played by some young starlet that will get teenage boys to buy tickets and the movie is garbage. In this case, they changed Mystique's character a bit and made her a much more compelling character, in both First Class and Days of Future Past. Jennifer Lawrence shows that she's not just easy on the eye though, she gives Mystique a depth that she never had before.
I mean...I totally get why you want to give her more screen time.
First Class builds to a climatic finish on the beach in Cuba as Charles, Erik and the rest of the government recruited super team (Havok, Beast, Mystique, Banshee and Moira McTaggert) take on Footloose and his team of the Devil, some tornado guy and a psychic stripper. Erik succeeds in pulling the Hellfire Club's submarine out of the water and the rest of the team take out Shaw's team. Erik makes his way inside the sub and knocks off the special anti-telepath helmet. After Xavier freezes Shaw, Erik dons the helmet to block Xavier from manipulating him. Lensherr tells Shaw how they share world views about mutants being the next step of evolution, the ruling class so to speak, but that him killing Erik's mother when he was a boy was unforgivable. Erik then uses his mastery of metals to force the same Nazi coin he was tormented with as a child to shish-kabob Shaw's brain. Ouch. The Russian and American forces are scared of the mutants and launch all of their missiles at the island but Magneto seizes them all and turns them around. Xavier pleads with him to drop the missiles, that they are just men following orders. As a survivor of the Holocaust, Magneto says that he's been at the mercy of men just following orders and he won't allow it to happen again. Moira McTaggert tries to shoot Magneto and stop him (really, metal bullets at a guy who controls magnetism?). He easily deflects them but one hits Xavier in the spine.
Magneto blames McTaggert and tries to choke her out but Xavier tells him that he caused this. Their final conversation might be the best part of the movie.
Magneto: Us turning on each other, it's what they want. I tired to warn you, Charles. I want you by my side. We're brothers, you and I. All of us together, protecting each other. We want the same thing.
Xavier: My friend. I'm sorry, but we do not.
This conversation crystallizes the Magneto/Professor Xavier relationship. We see them go their separate ways at the end and Xavier starting a school for mutants at his parents mansion and Magneto springing the White Queen from prison.
Jazz hands!
Days of Future Past continues the story that was started in First Class. There were certain aspects of this story that I didn't see coming but were exceptional additions and made for great storytelling. It veered in a few different directions than the comic, which irked some. Pete Rogers and I have said on multiple occasions that we are fine with changes as long as it tells a good story. What they did with Shadowcat essentially being replaced by Wolverine makes sense, especially because she wouldn't have been born in the 70's. The best part of the story was when they were in the past and we see a broken, disenfranchised, bearded Professor Xavier. Seeing the optimistic leader of mutantkind lose his faith and then regain it was incredible.
Again, Michael Fassbender kills it as Magneto. Seeing him imprisoned underneath the Pentagon for "killing" President Kennedy made for an interesting historical plot twist, but when Xavier confronts him about that and Magneto says he was trying to save him because Kennedy was a mutant, too: WOW. Nice twist. The prison break of Magneto was one of the best scenes of the movie for another reason: Quicksilver. This guy makes such an amazing appearance in the movie.
There's a really great reference of Magneto being his father and Fassbender makes the perfect facial expression.
This movie had moments that were incredible. Mystique again showing that she's not just an afterthought of a shape-shifter. Her relationship with Xavier and Magneto was the backbone of the story. We got to see some fan favorite mutants for the first time in the film series such as Blink, Sunspot, and Bishop. This story is hard to tackle; it's very grandiose. There's so many important characters and no way that any of them can get enough screen time. Did they miss-step anywhere? No, the movie was a terrific representation of the "Days of Future Past" story line. I just enjoyed First Class more. This movie's biggest accomplishment...well, go ahead and see the picture below.
OMG Jean and Scott aren't dead for crappy reasons!
They reset the timeline! Two of the most pivotal characters aren't dead any more! The movie ends on the greatest of high notes and you think "what else could they possibly do to top this?" In typical Marvel movie fashion, a mid-credits teaser shows a young Egyptian fellow with grey skin assembling the pyramids telekinetically. His name is En Sabah Nur, or as most of us comic nerds know him: Apocalypse. Holy. Crap. They fixed the X-Men when there was little hope, but that was the lesson of Days of Future Past:
Professor X: Just because someone stumbles and loses their path, doesn't mean they're lost forever. Sometimes, we all need a little help...We need you to hope again.
These two movies give X-Men fans everywhere hope that they've fixed the mistakes of the past and that the future movies will continue this trend.
