It’s time I finally speak up as a long-time X-Men fan that believes we should give X-Men: Days of Future Past a chance. I’ve seen lots of articles in the past few weeks that vary between excitement and optimism to, “The X-Men movies are bad and therefore this will also be HORRIBLE,” but let’s be reasonable – using the latter reasoning as an assumption that this movie will be terrible is a bit unfair. Believe me, I understand where this argument is coming from: “Fox has burned me! Last Stand was terrible! Of course toads can be struck by lightning – that dialogue isn’t even remotely clever! How dare they ruin Deadpool in that Wolverine movie?!” I just want you to take a step back for a minute and think about how awesome it would be if the movie is actually good.
Why do we get so passionate about these things?
Well, the short answer of what could easily be an exhaustive essay is that we get attached to things we love and sometimes change makes us feel that whatever made something special to us might disappear (check out The People vs. George Lucas on Netflix for great discussion around this very topic). It’s important for us to not let these things blind us, however, because sometimes stories retold to us in a new way will actually turn out better than we imagined, and give us a new way to experience the characters, settings and stories that inspire and ignite our passion.
A great example of this is Game of Thrones – a series that came to HBO and crushed nearly every mountain of skepticism by giving us a new way to experience everything we adored in a new way THAT ROCKS. When you watch Game of Thrones, you see the characters interact before your eyes in ways that, thanks to terrific acting, directing and cinematography, add great depth to what we understand about each of them that we couldn’t get from reading the books. Conversely, reading the books will give you insight into many characters’ thoughts and internal struggles that we can’t quite see when we watch the series.
TL;DR – Here’s a shortlist of reasons why we should give X-Men: Days of Future Past a fighting chance to tell us an X-Men story:
– Bryan Singer is the reason we’ve already gotten two pretty decent X-Men movies (X2 and First Class). X2, in particular, had a pretty good story arc. Were the films perfect? Of course not, and I’ll be the first to admit that X2’s acting was sub-par and the film is suffering in the test of time against Marvel’s newest films, but I liked it a good bit and I think most fans enjoyed it when it came out. The characters were mostly true to their core elements, and the stories gave us a new(ish) way for us to experience the X-Men in action. First Class is a bit of a divider, but I thought they made some interesting choices (except for the implementation of Darwin – they wasted a pretty excellent character by killing him so quickly, and subsequently came across as racist and tropey).
– A time-line reboot is probably necessary at this point for them to keep making films without having to wait for many years, so at least they’ve picked one of the best time-travel stories from the X-Men universe! For those that don’t know, the story typically is told from a dystopian future in which Mutant-kind is all but extinct and lives in internment camps. Chris Claremont (one of the best) was responsible for the original comic arc, and the story was so popular that it was retold multiple times in other formats, including in the popular, early-90’s animated series. There’s even a stage inspired by the story’s setting in the fighting game Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3!
– This isn’t being told in the comic book universe and yes, they’re clearly writing over their recent X-Men movie universe – get over it! If Marvel had to tie themselves down with every single comic and film they’ve produced, we’d likely never see another great movie that resonates with audiences of all ages. What’s important is that the core of each character and what they stand for remains intact, and that the new story has a cohesive narrative and themes that make the X-Men thrive and kick ass! The surrounding context may change and it may be told through different formats, but “new and different” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad.” Captain America in the movie universe today is still ‘Cap, but we can’t just tell carbon copies of the same stories that made him popular in the 1940’s (and why would we, if we can go back and enjoy those stories the way they are meant to be experienced?) We can, however, use his unstoppable spirit of justice, friendship and strength in the face of any darkness, to tell amazing new stories today.
– If Singer is successful in bringing us Days of Future Past, and it truly eliminates the old movie timeline, then couldn’t this open up a world to us in which we could have better X-Men movies? I’d like to think that if Singer had the chance to do-over the original X-Men trilogy (hell, maybe even just change them altogether), that he’d deliver a much better series of films with more consistent acting, dialogue and cinematography. This may not happen, and I’ll be the first to admit it if this film just doesn’t deliver, but from what I’ve seen in the trailers I think it’s worth giving it a chance.
– Michael Fassbender, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman… this is an excellent cast-list. How can we not get excited when acting talent of this caliber is involved?
In closing, I hope I’ve convinced a few more of you to give Days of Future Past a look when it comes out on May 23rd. For those of you whose interest I’ve peaked, here’s the latest trailer to enjoy!
For those of you that I’ve failed, here’s a childish, Days of Future Past movie poster GIF that you will never be able to unsee: http://instagram.com/p/l7jXO7EyFb/
Seriously, I can’t unsee it.