* – This chapter in the X-Men films isn’t terribly concerned whether or not non-comic book movie goers are very knowledgeable of this venerable storyline. There is some exposition but the flick doesn’t concern itself if general audiences get it.
I gave up on the X-Men movies after the second installment. The first sucked and reeked of being a long, dull TV pilot. The second was better because it had more action yet I never found it re-watchable. Didn’t bother with the third. Missed the “reboot” showing what the older characters were like when they were entry-level mutants. I did rent it and need to get cracking on it before the 30-day window expires on my iPad. So why see this? When I was a bigger and younger fan of the X-Men comics, this alternate-reality arc created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne was a favorite alongside “The Dark Phoenix” saga. The fallout from the Sentinels ruling the future continued to permeate through the series via a couple key heroes (Rachel Summers, Cable) and villain (Nimrod).
As a movie, it was pretty impressive. The younger and current incarnations of old allies/enemies Professor X and Magneto was a nice touch, especially in succeeding to land all four actors. How the early Seventies are re-visited was pretty hilarious, namely how out of character Nixon was (spoiler alert). The fanboy in me enjoyed the references to what I knew about the Marvel/X-Men universe. I always thought the Sentinels were impossible to make into believable foes that’d translate to the big screen but modern special effects have closed the gap since Terminator 2.
Will there be another sequel? Depends on a couple things. Did this make enough money to satisfy Fox? Looks likely, especially with the slow weekends ahead (Tom Cruise’s version of Groundhog Dog seems dull and Jupiter Ascending was pushed back to next year). Can they get all the key actors to return? It’s leaning toward the younger set because McKellen and Stewart are in their seventies. If you sit through the closing credits you’ll get a hint as to where they’re going. I guessed correctly via the clues.
One major complaint was the apologist message in those closing credits about how many people the production employed…right after the thank you’s to the Canadian and Australian governments for supplying the subsidies to increase Fox’s profit line. Nevermind how many special effects people have lost their jobs in America through production companies going abroad where people are paid crap wages (India, China) or foreign taxpayers get the bill (Canada, Australia).
Alamo Extras: We arrived late and missed the bulk. There were clips from the horrible TV/Fox Adaptation of Generation X; toy commercials, the little boy imitating Rogue’s cajun accent was cute; animated clips from the most common X-Men cartoon; a Lego version of The Wolverine trailer; a Marvel flash mob; and the best was the Pete Holmes bit Ex-Men which was a comedy bit of Prof X laying off the useless team members.