Normally this is the part where I give a rundown of the
movie, the good, the bad, and my honest opinion of if it’s worth your money.
When it comes to X-Men: Days of Future Past,
I felt the need to switch it up like Mystique in a porn scene. Most non-bitter
Geek sites and even the “Who the hell is
Blink?” mainstream media critics have all weighed in and the 91% Rotten
Tomato score solidifies that X-Men: Days
of Future Past is not only the best X-Men movie ever made, it’s in the top
five of Comic films ever!
Blah blah blah, who cares what they think, what’s my take?
From the first futuristic fight scene with the Mystique Sentinels to the last Apocalyptic
warning of the next movie to come, I felt like a little kid in a comic book store
all over again. For the first time, the
X-Men cinematic universe reached the level of the comic book franchise that
spawned it. Those who haven’t seen it may think this is hyperbole, but if
you can watch this movie and not feel an emotional rollercoaster or geek out at
each inside joke than you are NO X-Man fan. I’m not talking Animated X-Men, I’m
not talking the fanboy wet dream X2, I’m talking the 1981-1999 X-Men comics
that literally kept Marvel alive!
Let me count all the ways X-Men: Days of Future Past blew my
comic-nerd mind!
Blink on screen doing Blink Sh*t!
Warpath in his X-Force uniform… not the Boom
Boom/Cannonball sh*t, the all black everything Warpath..
The Killing of all the Suck-Ass characters from First Class.
Wolverine popping claws into people straight off top!
Junkie Cobain Xavier.
Quicksilver steals the ENTIRE F’ing MOVIE! (Top that one Avengers 2)
Fatal Attraction Homage
JEAN IS MINE return of Cyclops (Non-spoiler spoiler)
Hearing the words “En Sabah Nur” for the first time in a
movie theater.
There are so many little things that only true fans of the
comics will get, and I respect and thank Bryan Singer for staying true to his
first two movies, but not being afraid to admit that they got a lot of things
WRONG. By the end, we’re left with a totally clean slate, X1, X2, X3, even The Wolverine that just came out last year, none of that sh*t
happened as we remember it, and only First
Class remains canon. Yes! Yes! Yes!
This brings me to my big point. On the internet there has
been a lot hate aimed towards the “non Disney/Marvel” Comic films. I understand
the frustration because I paid money to see Fantastic
Four… twice, Wolverine Origins,
and the movie about the Dark Phoenix that doesn’t exist anymore so I won’t say
it’s name. Those were all horrible
films. Cash grabs by Fox to make money off a genre they don’t really get. Fair
enough. We live in a world where fans make their voices heard, and while
X-Men will never go over to Marvel, due to Fox’s making so much money off these
films, they do have an ongoing opportunity to get it right. DOFP is proof that
they wanted to get it right, and have gotten it right.
Let’s circle back to the Avengers D-Riders. Iron Man is
a great character—Robert Downey that is. Captain
America: The Winter Soldier was an excellent movie because it was a
mini-avengers assembling. Thor’s films aren’t mind-blowing but they are
satisfying because Loki is the F’ing man. I enjoy the “Avengers” films but I’m
no Avengers fan… NO one is really an Avengers fan. You want proof, walk into
your local comic shop (hopefully one is still around) and see how many copies
of last week’s Avenger’s book is on the stand versus All New X-Men. I’ll wait.
Growing up reading comics, Hulk (who is only an Avenger when
they need to drive sales) was the only popular character. My friend once joked,
“How many of your friends in the early 90’s wanted to dress up like Iron Man
for Halloween.” We all know Iron Man has always sucked. Captain America has always
been dry as Skrull Coochie. Thor is kind of cool, but the tone of those books
were always kind of out there. Hawkeye and Black Widow were less popular than
Wonder Man and Tigra (google it). If y’all want to keep it real, then keep it
real. I’m a comic book fan first, and it makes me shake my head that the cinematic
Avenger’s world has fanboys forgetting the truth:
X-Men will always be
> Avengers
Look at the actual comic book sales even after Iron Man
saved the Marvel cinematic universe, X-Men characters still reign supreme. Why?
Minorities fighting for acceptance is a
much more powerful tale than a guy from World War II assembling some dude that
rides Ants and a chick named Crystal to fight a Robot with Daddy issues.
X-Men was created during a time when Civil Rights was the
biggest story, but also the thing people were afraid to discuss openly because
it represented a change in America that few people wanted to happen. Homo Sapiens
Vs Homo Superiors was how Stan Lee did his part to insure future generations
wouldn’t be so ignorant. Today the X-Men are still relevant because Black,
White, Gay, Straight, people will always reach a point in life where they feel
like an outcast for reasons they can’t control. Who are you going to go to when
you’re 14 years old and the world doesn’t understand you? Thor’s so relatable
to those of us who grow up in Palaces not wanting the Throne… You can learn
right and wrong from Steve Rogers but at the end of the day he’s “The Man” doing
what the government tells him. You go to X-Men comics and you read about Xavier’s
dream… you sip a little bit of Magneto’s Kool-Aid, and you find your place somewhere
in between, because the X-books have always been about the struggle to be
yourself not Robots boning Witches.
So yeah, let’s all praise Downey’s Tony Stark and get
excited to see Thanos on the big screen, but at the same time, stop being so elitist
like Marvel movies are all 10’s. A guy
with a scepter wanting to take over New York using some weird pointless Aliens
looks cool on screen, but it doesn’t say anything about the human struggle and
you all know it.
It took four movies to finally get it right, but X-Men: Days of Future Past fixed what
was broken and it gave us a reminder of why Erik/Charles/Logan/Raven all fight.
It’s not about good or bad, it’s about freedom. Thanks to Bryan Singer and
the hated Fox studios, I can once again say for the first time to my friends
that only watch the movies: The Avengers are okay, but I’m an X-Men fan, and
proud of it.
Additional Reading: Charles Xavier - Mutant Sellout
0 comments :
Post a Comment