X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

On the heels of the release of fellow comic book movie, Thor: The Dark World, FOX has released its first trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past… or as it’s already been called, Wolverine III… though technically it would be Wolverine VI.

Long ago when it was announced that Hugh Jackman would be joining an all-star cast of mutants, old and young, I said that this meant he would be the time traveler. Partly because it didn’t make sense to send Kitty since she wasn’t even born yet (unless they did a physical time travel) but mostly because Singer has the man crush on Wolverine and all movies except First Class have been “Woverine… And These Other Guys”. I was right, Logan, as confirmed in the trailer (though it was sorta confirmed earlier), will be the time traveler… and this trailer wants to make sure you know that.

Half of the trailer is basically telling everyone what’s going down. The future is pretty crappy and we’re going to send someone back in time to try to stop a war before it happens. Since Logan is the traveler it makes sense that he would have a pretty big roll in showing that in the trailer… only underscoring the fact that this movie is likely going to have a healthy dose of Wolvie. That’s pretty much all the plot we get although we can read between the frames for other stuff.

The rest of the trailer is bits and pieces of the film cut in a generic non-linear fashion to try to give us the sweeping scope of the film. Here is what I see, and warning, speculative spoilers ahead:

• The temple looks Mediterranean due to the papyrus motif on the pillars. Could this have something to do with En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse? Possibly, it was first speculated he might be involved when Blink, a descendant of Apocalypse, was revealed to be in the movie. However, Storm seems to be standing on a high cliff with snow capped mountains in the not-so-distance, so I’m not sure where exactly they’re supposed to be.
• We get a scene of Kitty and Iceman just staring at each other in what looks to be the Amazing Technicolor Backdrop. Seriously, pause the trailer and look at the background, it looks like the 70’s threw up in the ancient temple. Anyway, this scene likely takes place right before Kitty sends Logan back. So this is probably a “I may never see you again cause I might die” stare-down.
  

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• Immediately we go into a flash of Rogue which tells us nothing about what’s going on with her, even the background is blank, though it’s possible she’s looking down on the above mentioned Kitty/Iceman stuff because of the common orange hue (but it’s kinda a requirement that post-apocalyptic stuff has to have an orange hue so she could be anywhere). Just the fact that they chose to cut these scenes together means we’ll be subjected to more of this tiresome love triangle. (All I want is for Rogue to be found in New Orleans, I can fill in the blanks.)
• Then there’s some flashes of the school and Xavier before we get a shot of Magneto and Iceman standing in a blue-lit grimy hallway. These are usual a maintenance hallway of some sort. It’s not Cerebro’s hallway as one of the walls is just brick plus there is too much stuff hanging from the ceiling. It’s also not the temple because of the new stuff. I’m guessing Magneto is getting something and Bobby is babysitting. Rogue could be there with them, see comment below, or she could be who they are after.
• Now we get the obligatory line-up showing us all the new mutants. Bishop is first, no qualms there, but we don’t get to see anything more than him just standing there looking like a bad-a. I’m not sure who the second guy is, Colossus maybe? Warpath is up next and I’m not digging the outfit (it’s the shoulder pads, why are they back in style?). Then Blink who I don’t know a lot about but she looks cool.
  
  

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• We get better looks at this temple which seems to be a plethora of motifs just threw up on each other. It’s a little Asian, Indian (as in India), as well as Middle Eastern. Are they in the Himalayas? I’m so confused… esp as there seems to be a lot of blocky colored glass insets which is probably what is creating the technicolor backdrop mentioned above. Non of this makes sense from an architectural standpoint. Nobody built like this! But obviously this is where the magic of time travel will happen so… yeah… can we use “it was the 70s” as an excuse since that is when they are time travelling to?
• Notice how they put from “the Director of The Unusual Suspects and X-Men” in that order? Like… what are you trying to say here?
• Now we get to the past and see glimpses of Xavier and Erik as they talk about how they were different back then, trying to be existential in the moment. They both basically admit that they were kinda douches when they were young… hey, who wasn’t?
• Mystique is seen crying, over what, we don’t know (Kurt maybe? Nah, the filmmakers aren’t that awesome). She also later doesn’t seem to be all that interested in Magneto saving her as she looks to be struggling against him when he’s dragging her towards him. Trouble in paradise… which totally doesn’t track with the X-Men movies but who knows…
• Quick shots of Kitty (presumably from the rings on her hands) doing the mind bend on Logan to travel him back. The temple is attacked, stuff blowing up. There is havok at the Paris Peace Accords, thanks to Magneto.
• The President is being hidden in a bunker, I guess they think something major is going to go down. Trask is with him, so likely going to see some Sentinel bashing. This could be promising.
• Logan is being shot by some red shirts, just some guys who thought they could kill him for either money, revenge, what have you. By the non-streak in his hair, I wonder if this is when Logan pops back into his old body. Talk about a wake-up call.
• Xavier breaks Cerebro, could this be why he needs Erik’s help?
• Beast is not looking Beastly, so I’m guessing he developed the image inducer, or some kind of “i’m always angry” Hulk way to keep his beast side at bay?
• A white room with a glass ceiling breaks over someone, I believe Magneto since stills show him in a prison jumpsuit of the same color later on. Who exactly breaks him out, and why? Was he caught at the Paris Peace Accords but now the X-Men have to break him out so he can help them? A least we know it’s not Quicksilver, cause hey silvered up his hair according to Evan Peters and this guy was definitely a brunette.
  

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• Back to that blue hallway from before, definitely some kind of maintenance shaft, and now Iceman is dragging along a hurt Rogue. She’s not wearing a uniform like everyone else, so is she no longer part of the X-Men? What is the story here? And will it fix Rogue’s horrible mis-characterization in X3? Probably not…
• More random shots of violence at the Paris Peace Accords. Beast takes on Magneto and tries to drown him. Makes me think this is how Magneto is imprisoned. It would be fun if it’s a “we caught Magneto, finally! oh wait, now we have to break him out, doh!”
• young!Xavier shouting “I don’t want your suffering. I don’t’ want your future.” He does realize he’s in an X-Men movie, right?

What I don’t see…

• Quicksilver, not even a hint at him existing let alone what kind of part he will play in the movie. However, it does look like they haven’t really shown us anything past the opening gambit of the film so there is plenty left he could be doing. Could this be why they need Erik, not cause of Cerebro but to get his son to help?
• The Misty Knight look-alike, was that really Misty?
• What exactly has happened to make the future so crappy. And what exactly do they have to do to fix it? There is little mission statement here other than “fix the future”… which is cool, I mean, we don’t want to be too spoiled… but still… maybe spoiled a little?

Overall, it’s a very neutral trailer. There isn’t a lot here we haven’t really already seen or guessed. There isn’t anything here that’s a game changer for the good or bad.

They could still do something really great with this… or really really really bad… and we now have seven months to think about that…