X-Men: Days of Future Past - Time Travel and a Naked Hugh Jackman

The X-Men have been popular Marvel characters for years.  I use to watch a cartoon, which is where I first learned about the characters.  I have read a few of the comics over the years and I eventually picked up a book that has a lot of information about the various characters and storylines.  I have seen all the movies and enjoyed them to varying degrees.  I have been interested in seeing X-Men: Days of Future Past since I found out it was being made.

There have been three X-Men movies that were sequels to each other, a prequel, X-Men: First Class which is set back in the 1960s, and two movies focused on Wolverine.  X- Men: Days of Future Past is sort of a sequel to all the movies and also a prequel for the original three X-Men movies, depending on what is happening, because of the time travel aspect of the plot.  It can be a little confusing, especially how certain things and events were already changed in X-Men: First Class.  Some of what I mention while discussing X-Men: Days of Future Past will be spoilers for people who haven’t seen the previous movies.  Read at your own risk.

In the future, mutants are being hunted by large robots called Sentinels.  A group of seven, including Kitty Pryde find a way to deal with the situation by constantly sending the consciousness of  Bishop back in time to himself.  The group meets up with Professor Charles Xavier, Magneto, Storm, Iceman, and Wolverine to discuss a plan.  The consciousness of Wolverine will be sent back to 1973 while the others stand guard in case of a Sentinel attack.  He is then to find Charles and Erik so they can stop Mystique from doing something that leads to the creation of the Sentinels. 

There is a short scene after the end of the credits.  It is definitely a big hint at what is to come in another X-Men movie. 

I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past in 3D because of the start time.  There is one scene early in the movie that has falling snow.  It very briefly looks like the snow is falling out over the audience.  That is really the only 3D effect that I noticed, so there really isn’t any reason to see that version of the movie.  

Days of Future Past is one of the more well known stories from the X-Men comics.  I haven’t read the original comics featuring that story, but I do know the basics of it so I am aware of some of the changes made for the movie.  Logan/Wolverine is the one who does the time travel thing back to his younger self instead of Kitty.  It is said that Logan is the only one who would be able to survive traveling back as far as is required for their plan because of his ability to heal.  He has to go back to 1973, an earlier time than from the original story as well.  I think those changes work for the movie overall. 

While I really enjoyed X-Men: Days of Future Past, I did have issues with a few things.  Those things were mostly connected to things changed by X-Men: First Class that resulted in changing backstories for Charles and Mystique in kind of a big way by making them meet as children and then basically grow up together.  It seems to have been done just to find a reason to have Mystique running around in her naked blue form.  That didn’t come up too much in this movie, though in a few scenes, it seems like a love triangle including Charles, Mystique, and Erik is hinted at.  I just don’t care for that change so I was happy when it didn’t play too much of a part in the plot. 

Certain parts of the plot for the movie can get a little confusing because of the part that time travel plays.  When the movie begins, it is in the future - I’m not sure what year it is, but it is made clear that it is the future.  That part of the movie, when Kitty is helping Logan do the mind time travel thing, takes place after the previous X-Men movies.  The events in 1973 are set after X-Men: First Class, but before all the other X-Men movies, including the two Wolverine movies.  In that part, Logan is back to just having bone claws.  What happens in 1973 may or may not change future events for the different characters, including things that happened in the other movies.  It is entirely possible that a certain mess from one of the previous movies has now never happened because of what is done in 1973.  I’m being deliberately vague about this in an attempt to avoid saying too much.  Some may not like that or the fact that time travel plays such a big role in what is going on.

There is a decent amount of action throughout the movie which helps to keep the pace moving.  Within the first few minutes, there is a fight between a few mutants and the Sentinels in the future.  When Logan wakes up in the past, naked, he barely gets his pants on before he is in a fight.  The water bed is the first casualty, but he quickly deals with the guys who show up right after.  Different mutant characters are involved in different fights throughout the movie.  Those scenes do require a lot of special effects, mostly tied to the use of the different mutant powers.  I do think the effects were done well.  

There are a lot of characters in X-Men: Days of Future Past, something that has happened in the other X-Men movies as well.  Unfortunately, because of that, some characters end up with very little to do.  While that is disappointing, I would rather see that and have the story handled well than have too many subplots crammed in as an attempt to give more characters more to do.  That has not worked well in the past. 

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen return to play the older versions of Professor Charles Xavier and Erik/Magneto.  I love them in those parts, so it was really nice to see them again even though the younger versions of the characters had more to do.  James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are fine as the younger Charles and Erik, but they are no Stewart or McKellen.  The young Erik is a massive jerk, which is sort of expected for the character.  The younger Charles has turned into a massive jerk in his own right, which is a big contrast from how the character has been portrayed before.  I don’t really like jerk Charles, though I can see how he becomes the older Charles that is more familiar. 

Logan/Wolverine may end up with the most to do and he more fully connects the future and past portions of the movie.  Logan is the one who travels mentally back in time and it is up to him to find the younger Charles and Xavier and convince them he is from the future and what they need to do.  Logan is back to having his bone claws in the past, and that is a little different since I’m more use to seeing him with the adamantium claws.    Hugh Jackman has played the character several times now, and I think he is very good in the part.  Once again he is in crazy good shape, which is put on display when he emerges from bed naked.  He is seen fully from behind and a lot of his front is shown then as well.  Mystique spends a lot of time in her naked blue form.  Something about the look of her in that blue form looks slightly off to me this time.  It could be because they came up with a new method for the makeup involving a body suit.  Mystique does have a useful ability that helps her in several situations.  In this movie, she is able to take on the appearance of anyone she sees.  I thought that she had to touch them to do that, but I could be wrong about that.  Jennifer Lawrence is fine in the part. 

Hank McCoy/Beast is back as well, mostly in 1973.  Evidently, in this version of the story, Hank came up with some kind of serum or something that allowed him to revert back to looking fully human instead of being furry and blue.  That just doesn’t seem right to me since Hank/Beast has always stayed furry and blue once he took on that appearance.  Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver is a new young mutant that is recruited to help get to Erik.  Peter can run really, really fast.  So fast, that he seems to just disappear at one place and reappear in the next.  He doesn’t get much to do, though there is a really cool sequence done with him moving at his super speed. 

Kitty, Bobby/Iceman, Colossus, Blink, Sunspot, Warpath, and Bishop take part in the future part of the movie.  I had not heard of Blink, Sunspot, or Warpath before.  I have no idea if they are characters from the comics or created specifically for the movie.  Havok and Toad turn up briefly, but they end up with not much to do.  A few other more well known characters also briefly appear.  I’m not going to say who because I don’t want to spoil anything for people who haven’t seen the movie yet.

Bolivar Trask is the scientist who designs the Sentinels.  He is trying to get the government to use the Sentinels to protect people from mutants.  Trask has experimented on mutants as part of the development of the Sentinels and he has military contacts.  Trask fully believes in what he is doing, believing that what he is doing is a good thing.  He is rather arrogant.  He will try to manipulate different situations to help his cause if possible.  Peter Dinklage is very good in the part.  A younger William Stryker turns up, helping to hunt down mutants and send them off to Trask to experiment on. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a very entertaining movie.  I do think it is one of the better comic book movies that I have seen.  People that are more familiar with the comic books may not like some of the changes.  People who have enjoyed the previous X-Men movies should give this one a chance.  I plan to add the movie to my collection once it is available no Blu-ray.

This review is part of Elvisdo’s 7th Annual Funny Pages Write Off.  Elvisdo is another former Epinions member, and he hosted this write off there for six years.  It was something that several members - myself included - looked forward to each year.  I am very happy that he has decided to do it again.

The End of My Movie Drought

I love movies and I enjoy going to the theater to see new movies, even when I get annoyed by rude people sitting near me.  For the first several months of this year, I wasn’t able to make it to the theater.  Work was crazy for a while but the extremely bad winter here also played a part.  There were a few times when I had a day off that I wanted to go see a movie.  Then the winter weather struck again, dumping more snow, ice, freezing rain, or a combination of all three.  When the weather was better, I either didn’t have days off or there were no movies that I wanted to see.

At the end of March, I was finally able to end my movie drought when I went to see Muppets Most Wanted.  I have loved the Muppets since I was a child and there was no way I was going to miss seeing that movie in the theater.  Since then I have managed to see a few more.  I have been meaning to write about them, but that hasn’t happened so far.  Hopefully I will get motivated to write again and fix that.  I have a fairly large movie collection as well as a lot of tv shows on DVD.  In the past, I would at least take the time to watch some of those even when I wasn’t able to get to the theater.  I didn’t watch many of those in the last several months either, but I have started to fix that as well.

Changes

Something beyond my control that happened on February 25th 2014 is causing me to make some changes tied to how I post things online.  Epinons.com, the review site I have been a member of for almost thirteen years, is no longer allowing members to post reviews, rate reviews, edit, or even delete reviews.  Members will no longer be able to log on after March 25. 

The site had problems over the years, but I remained optimistic that things would get better, or at least, not get any worse.  I really didn’t think they would close up completely like this.  I guess that makes me a bit gullible.  The site has been a huge part of my life for these almost thirteen years and I feel like something is missing.  I truly love writing about books, movies, and television shows.  Now that Epinions is no more, I have been thinking on how I would continue to write about those things.

Last year, I joined another site, Bubblews as MarieDragonfire.  People can post about anything there and some people say they have made a lot of money there.  I posted different things there last year, though mostly still connected to books, movies, or tv shows in some way.  Other things happened to sort of suck my motivation for writing in general for a while.  In the last few days, I have started to post there again. 

I have decided that I will post here about movies more again.  I am thinking that some of what I post will be like the reviews I posted at Epinions - and I may even rework reviews that were originally posted there.  I think I will also post some other things that may just be me talking briefly about upcoming movies or things like that.  I have also decided to start another blog just for writing about books, Purple Dragon Books.  I may make one for television shows as well, once I think up another name.  I will leave the posts about books that I did previously here.

I still think about writing and posting about books, movies, and tv shows all the time.  Hopefully, I can post more actively this year between my blogs and Bubblews than I managed to do last year.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Book

Like I mentioned previously, I recently read all of my Harry Potter books again. I started Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets right after I finished the first book.

This book picks up about a month after the end of the first book. Harry is still stuck with the Dursleys and hating the time he has to spend there. Things get more complicated when Doby, a house elf, shows up claiming it will be too dangerous for Harry to return to Hogwarts. The story is just as entertaining as the first book, and a little more complicated since time doesn’t have to be taken to introduce all the characters and situations. There are a few new characters, the main one being the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. He isn’t evil or anything like that, but he is still one of the worst teachers for that class ever. The man is a pompous jerk who loves fame and assumes Harry is the same. The man is clueless, but all the girls, even Hermione, think he is handsome.

 The story does get a bit darker, something that continues to happen with the rest of the books. Each one is darker than the previous one. This book is also a little longer than first one. The story is entertaining and more about You Know Who is shared by the end of the book. This is the first time it is established how powerful he was while still in school and how twisted he already was. That comes up again in later books and something is more important than it seems at first.

The movie adaptation of this book is one of the better ones I think. It stays very close to the book, which is why I think it works so well. The important things and explanations are left in the movie, though there are a few things that are condensed for the movie. There are some more details to a few things in the books. It would have been nice if more of Harry’s time at the Burrow had been included. I also liked that Hermione’s parents are in the book and meet Molly and Arthur, something that never happened in the movies. Christopher Columbus, the man who directed the first two movies, didn’t direct any more of the movies. From interviews, it seems like he wanted to stay true to the books, and keep the magic in the movies. I think some of that left the movies when he did. I do wonder how some of the other movies would have been different if he had directed them.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a strong second book to the Harry Potter series. It definitely deserves to be read, but start with the first book. These books need to be watched in order. People who have only seen the movies really should read the books.

I did post a longer review on Epinions several years ago.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - Book

I quickly got hooked on the Harry Potter books after I received the first one for my birthday in October of 2001.  I picked up the other books that were out at the time and went to see the first movie within days of it being released.  I have all of the books and have read them multiple times.  I recently decided to read them again, the first time in just over two years.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the original title in England - is the first book in the seven book series.  It gets off to a good start, setting up things well and it does a good job of introducing the main characters.  The story is interesting, and while it may not seem like it on a first reading, there are little hints and things being introduced that will be important later in the series. 

While I love the movies overall - though there are things about them I don’t like - I like the books more and think they are better.  I know many people have only seen the movies.  It is definitely worth it to read the books for those people, and they should definitely start with this book.  It is wonderfully detailed and very magical.  The story ends up being very interesting and entertaining. 

Reading the book again, I rediscovered some little details I had forgotten about, and some other things I just hadn’t thought about in a while, like Peeves.  He would have been a very interesting addition to the movies, especially since he was frequently turning up to cause some mischief or complications.  For the most part, I think the movie version of this book was done very well and stayed very true to the book.  I remember some people complaining about that when the movie came out, saying it wasn’t different enough, something I don’t agree with.  In this book,  Neville was a little more involved in a few things, which ties into his overall development and it helps to set the foundation for what he ultimately does in the final book.

I feel that the books have more of a sense of magic and they definitely deserve to be read.  I still love them and I really enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone again.  I will not let so much time pass before I read them again.

I did post a longer review on Epinions in 2003 that has been updated.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Trying to Catch Up

It seems like I am trying to catch up on several things right now.  My DVR is staying right about 90% full even as I watch things.  Some things have been on there for a while because I haven’t taken the time to watch them yet.  I also have a few movies and episodes of tv shows that I want to save because of how much I enjoyed them.  A few weeks ago, it got to 100% full and some movies that had been on there for a while got deleted.  Maybe I’ll try to watch something from it later tonight.

I have DVDs and Blu-rays that I haven’t watched yet that I want to watch and then do reviews for Epinions for them.  I have finished reading a few books that I want to write about there as well, but I haven’t taken the time to do that either.  I need to request the books be added there, and while it isn’t that hard to do and the leads are great about getting them added, it does kind of drain my motivation to get a review done.  I want to get more reviews done at Epinions again.  I’m also posting things at Bubblews, though not as much as some people have been doing.  I have ideas for several things to write for there, but I never seem to find the time to do it.  I want to write more here as well.  I just need to start taking the time to do it.

Every year for work, I have to do classes for continuing education.  Some of them are done in the office, and others are online.  There are several online classes that I am interested in - I actually do want to keep learning stuff for my job - but I haven’t gotten going on that yet either. 

It seems like there is just never enough time to get everything done that I want to do. 

I'm Back...I Hope

I knew that it had been a while since I posted something here.  I kept meaning to do more posts, but I didn't for various reasons.  I had no idea it had been so long since my last post until just recently when I finally logged back in here. 

I just spent some time tonight changing the theme and a few things here.  I am happier with the theme now than what I had before, though I might still do a few small changes. 

I am trying to write more again in general lately.  I haven't been posting as much at Epinions for a while now, and I don't like that.  I am doing better this month, and I hope to get several more reviews done by the end of the month.  I just didn't have much time for doing reviews, or reading and rating, for a few months when work was a bit nuts. 

I did join Bubblews about three weeks ago.  I've done several posts there so far, but I not posting as much as some members evidently do.  I do like that members can write about anything they want and how we can see the money we earn add up in real time. 

Well I think I am done for now.