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Friday, May 23, 2014

X-men: Days of Future Past Film Review


I finally saw the film!  Below is my extensive video review.  The first five minutes have no spoilers and I'll give you plenty of warning in the video before I start to reveal spoilers.  Enjoy!


(Note: You can improve the quality of the video you are watching by clicking on the "spur" icon on the bottom right once the video is playing)


5/24 Update - I just got back from watching it a second time.  It was as good if not better than the first viewing.

     I set out to see what it would be like to watch this new film within the context of an X-film marathon.  I watched the films in the following order: First Class, the original trilogy, The Wolverine, and then  X-men Days of Future Past (I skipped Origins).  The big result I got from this experience is that the new film has completely changed the nature of the overall effect of the film series.  The key change is that I no longer feel the intense sense of disappointment throughout X3.   In a very direct way, the shittiness of that film is directly responsible for how incredibly good this film is. Since Days of Future Past is last and the best of the lot, I walk away from this long viewing experience with an intense sense of joy, which is the complete opposite of what I used to feel when I watched a marathon of these films.

     Beyond the newfound joy, there's one important observation I made during the second viewing that I think should be mentioned.  The audience I saw the film with tonight was very different than the opening night crowd.  They were older, and not on average 'cineastes' like the opening night crowd tend to be.  Despite these differences, tonight's people reacted in a way that was very similar to the opening nighters.  They applauded after the big Quicksilver sequence and again when the film ended just like the super fans the first time around. This speaks volumes about this film's level of quality.  It essentially says that the film succeeds on every level, which is what the average person that isn't a super fan of anything needs from a film going experience.

     I am once again reemphasizing how lucky I feel to be able to witness the emergence of this film.  It's what x-fans, but more generally, movie audiences, deserved from this legendary film franchise.

3 comments :

  1. Sorry but I have a very different view of the film. I don't think it really fixed anything. It raised more concerns. They need to examine where they are going with the franchise. This movie was yet another melodrama of mutants vs humans. It's been done already! Let it go. This movie was long winded and boring. There needed to be much more future scenes to add some action. Why introduce mutants and not utilize them. The effects were cheesy and the sentinels were wasted. Fix needs to learn from Disney. People want action as well as a story. At this point they need to hand over the franchise. They are trying to rush out low quality films just to keep the rights. There needs to be a long range plan to get quality. I don't think they are willing to put a huge investment so they should quit now. Sub par at best. And I'll just add that I've been folliwing the comic since the early 80's

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  2. I'm angry that a huge fan like yourself would accept this as quality. No offense but you really can't believe this was a quality movie as a fan or non fan.

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    1. I respect your right to have your own opinion. I have my reasons for loving this film ( which should be clear in my rather long video). I can separate the films from the comics and accept them as completely different universes. All I need from the films is for them to be made well ( as I explained, I went to film school and I'm sensitive to good film making). Beyond a well made film, I won't engage in a comparative analysis of the films vs. the comics since it just doesn't make sense to me given the completely different nature of the two mediums.

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