X-Men: Days of Future Past - Discussion Thread - SPOILERS

[Mr Light]

I seem to recall he was giving spoken orders to the Sentinels and they were following them. He wasn't directly manipulating the controls, they had been reprogrammed. By decades old rusted train tracks

 

[Enterprise1701]

I thought Magneto just put the metal in so that he could turn them on and move them around at his leisure.

He told them to follow their programming and then Beast and Wolverine showed up on gene scans, though. Why didn't Magneto show up on their scans?

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Well, that answers my question anyway. Thanks, FSM.

Your're welcome.

Yeah, though I remembered the scene to tell Old Mixer, i did seem a bit-fetched. I think he didn't have control over their programing just their bodies...

...except....

He made some oh his "railroad" metal into very small, hair-like strands that doubled as circuitry for the Sentinels. I would argue that he could essentially movie Sentinels mechanically this way, where it became problematic was when he instructed one to "do what you were built for" (which meant telling them to do what they were built for: targeting mutants) and in a subsequent shot, we see them targeting Beast and Wolverine. The only way this could be be possible is if he created new micro-circuity for them. I guess.

Less believable for me was Beast's use of the serum to confuse the Sentinel. It's the kind of thing that works as a plot point, but it's actually really unbelievable .

 

[Zaku]

Wasn't Byrne also responsible for the whole Hal Jordan/Arisia thing?

No, Englehart.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresource...e-relationship-between-hal-jordan-and-arisia/

But Byrne showed a young Susan Storm (twelve) attracted to an older Reed Richard.

In Generations, an older time travelling Superman kisses a underage Lana Lang

In Amazing Spider Man, an underage Spider Woman kisses Spider Man

 

[Saul]

Eh, it depends. Several characters didn't return from X-Men to X2 (including Sabretooth, Toad, etc) and many characters didn't return from X2 to X-Men: The Last Stand (Nightcrawler, Stryker, etc).

To be fair to Stryker. He was dead.

Really, focusing so much on Wolverine was, IMO, a mistake. After the first film there was little need to have him be in-focus so much. He was the gateway character for the first film, but after that they could easily have just made the series more of an ensemble and not revolve around him so much.

Considering how popular he became after the first movie it would have been a mistake not to have given him more screen time. There was a mystery to the character introduced in the first film that was itching to be explored in the second.

 

[FPAlpha]

Wolverine was always one of the most popular superheroes, it went so far that you nearly couldn't pick up any comic book without him having a cameo in it or be a friggin' member of the team (Avengers).

There was also the animated show Wolverine and the X-Men.. if that doesn't give you a clue nothing will.

He is popular, Jackman's career skyrocketed on Wolverine's back (and to be honest he is awesome in that role.. wished for an R rated version though) and people know him. Movies are a business first so Wolverine is a safe bet.

 

[Pauln6]

Eh, it depends. Several characters didn't return from X-Men to X2 (including Sabretooth, Toad, etc) and many characters didn't return from X2 to X-Men: The Last Stand (Nightcrawler, Stryker, etc).

To be fair to Stryker. He was dead.

Really, focusing so much on Wolverine was, IMO, a mistake. After the first film there was little need to have him be in-focus so much. He was the gateway character for the first film, but after that they could easily have just made the series more of an ensemble and not revolve around him so much.

Considering how popular he became after the first movie it would have been a mistake not to have given him more screen time. There was a mystery to the character introduced in the first film that was itching to be explored in the second.

I agree that maintaining so much of the focus on Wolverine was a mistake, especially if you intend to do solo movies on top. It worked brilliantly in the first movie but after a while you start to notice how it limits the development of the other characters too much.

Essentially, Wolverine is fun to watch but of all the characters he is probably the one who has the least development potential in terms of where his powers go and how he develops. You have the amnesia, the metal, the love life, and the healing factor. He's not a very complex character and he becomes repetitive.

They just about scraped by with Iceman and Kitty. Beast had a good enclosed arc in X3 but Jean became too much an extension of Wolverine's story when her own story could have been the focus. Storm, Cyclops, Colossus, and Angel barely got a look in overall, although Storm benefitted from Cyclops' absence just like in the comics. Rogue's story became dull after the first movie because they allowed her no room to develop beyond a tiny bit of oscillation in X2 and she has massive potential. I would have loved more Nightcrawler as an actual part of the team. And why on earth kill Banshee off-screen when his abilities could have added spice to the story? Very silly.

I suppose for me, the X-men is about the team not about the individuals and I would have preferred more effort to show that. The Avengers did a far better job of giving equal coverage of the characters. DoFP did a good job of giving the key players equal story time but a weakness for me is that Beast was the only actual 'proper' X-man in the seventies era. It almost feels that after all the movies we've had so far, it was only the finale of X3 and the future X-men in DoFP that featured a 'proper' X-men team (but X3 was overburdened with extras and in DoFP the cause was hopeless so while cool as it was it was a bit futile). We've had multiple warm-ups but we still haven't had much of a main event. If the next one goes back to the 80s we'll be resetting to a fledgling team once again (without Wolverine, I hope). I just want to see the team start out as a team and work as a team and fight as a team!

 

[Mr Light]

Holy shit. Chris Hansen needs to go looking into John Byrne

 

[Zaku]

Holy shit. Chris Hansen needs to go looking into John Byrne

Oh well, just a little context.

The age difference between Susan and Reed date back to Lee and Kirby. And Mattie Franklin literally stole that kiss from Peter Parker (she was a little stalkerish..)

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah, all joking aside, I realize that back in Byrne's generation it was a lot more socially acceptable to be going after severely younger women.

 

[Zaku]

Yeah, all joking aside, I realize that back in Byrne's generation it was a lot more socially acceptable to be going after severely younger women.

Well, if you want the pure creepy Byrne, there is always the Story of Superman Sex Tapes...

 

[Mr Light]

Okay, I retract my defense of Byrne

 

[JoeZhang]

Plus he does an issue of Doom Patrol where a time-traveling Robotman kisses a 13 year old Elastic-girl - it's a... em... theme.

Oh well, just a little context.

The age difference between Susan and Reed date back to Lee and Kirby. And Mattie Franklin literally stole that kiss from Peter Parker (she was a little stalkerish..)

Fraction (I think it's Fraction) made Susan and Reed nearer in age, when someone wrote in asking why they got rid of the Byrne version, editoral said something like "because it was just so creepy".

 

[Zaku]

Fraction (I think it's Fraction) made Susan and Reed nearer in age, when someone wrote in asking why they got rid of the Byrne version, editoral said something like "because it was just so creepy".

I believe it's not fair to say that was the "Byrne version". The age gap was there from the Lee & Kirby days.

For the rest I completely agree

 

[JoeZhang]

Fraction (I think it's Fraction) made Susan and Reed nearer in age, when someone wrote in asking why they got rid of the Byrne version, editoral said something like "because it was just so creepy".

I believe it's not fair to say that was the "Byrne version". The age gap was there from the Lee & Kirby days.

For the rest I completely agree

Although the person asked specifically about the Byrne version. :-)

 

[Anwar]

It was the same thing with Wasp and Ant-Man, wasn't it? He was quite a bit older than her?

 

[Mister Fandango]

Yeah, these days we're supposed to pretend that young girls don't have crushes on older men. And boys sure as heck don't have crushes on older women; God knows none of the men around here ever had a poster of a supermodel on their wall growing up.



(Hint: It's okay to have crushes and even lust after inappropriately aged people; it's natural. It's just not okay to act on them. Huge difference between the two.)

 

[Captaindemotion]

But the point is that, as illustrated above, Byrne seems to have a recurring pattern of characters acting on those feelings. One or two might be excused but the frequency of this motif just comes across as a bit creepy, to me anyway. YMVWD, of course.

 

[Zaku]

If I remember correctly, every female protagonist in Byrne's Next Men was victim of rape or attempted rape...

 

[Trekker4747]

Ms Marvel and her inter-dimensional rape-baby, anyone?