Shadow and Flame with Magik

Thanks to our dear friends, the Russells, Tina & Damian plus kids,  for watching Walker Dennis – my wife and I were able to watch the movie!

I was pretty shocked to see the trailer for The Giver.  I love that book so much.  Ever since Mrs. Elken had us read it freshman year at Kofa High School.  Go Kings!  I have always imagine the community being low tech, instead of being so advance like the trailer shows.  I will have to reread the book before watching the movie.  I wonder if they already have plans to adapt the sequel.

The X-Men film was so good!  I was a tad bit afraid that I knew too much going in, but I really didn’t.

I did happened to read someone writing that the film undid X3, but once I realize what I was reading – I closed the window.  More on the implications later.

I like how Bryan Singer, the director, kept the slow fade from the X in the FOX logo, it is a super small and minor detail but I liked it.

The film opens with the footage shown at the MTV Movie awards, but that footage was scaled way back.

The future Sentinels hand the X-Men their butts!

Kitty takes Bishop into a room and time phases him to weeks prior to this moment.  We get to see Future X-Men in China.  Kitty explains not how she time phases but why.

Kitty’s squad goes to a base.  Sentinels find them.  They get their butts handed to them, they time phase away and avoid going back to that location – I guess.

Only Bishop actually has his mind time phases, it just looks like Kitty does too but that is only because he changes history.  So this squad is constantly destroying time, on a pretty regular biweekly schedule.  But when the present and the world has been essentially destroyed by Sentinels, how can things get worst?

I wonder if Bishop has ever abused this foreseeable undo button.  He gets in an argument with Blink, it gets heated, feelings are hurt – the next day, the past week never happened.  He probably did that at least once.

So Kitty explains how they are phasing through time.  Not how she does or how she started to do it, but that’s fine.  I guess.

Xavier and the senior staff have pinpointed the moment that set everybody down this path.  Mystique killed Bolivar Trask back in 1973.  Why it takes over 40 years to now get bad, is beyond me.  Shouldn’t the first few movies been worried about Sentinels?  It seemed from the flashback that it didn’t take long for the government to work her DNA into the Future Sentinels.  But let’s not worry too much about how this film effects the earlier films – just yet.

They need to send someone back in time.  Kitty is shocked that they want to do this for decades as she may be able to send someone back two months if she pushes herself.  The problem is that the strain is unbearable at longer distances of time.  Xavier is the idea candidate but he won’t survive the procedure.  Wolverine volunteers to do it.

I really like how Hugh Jackman has the grey temples to hair.  I also like how much screen time Ellen Page has gotten to this point as well.

Wolverine lays down and Kitty tells him to think happy thoughts.  If he ever loses focus, there is a chance that he can bounce back to the present.  Also, if he is successful, that only he will remember how this timeline occurred.

Also Kitty lets us know that the past and the present are going to still be moving at the same speed – just because.

So he goes back in time and seems to wake up, with no problems so Kitty’s warning a few minutes ago seems to have been for naught.  Or was it?

So this may have been my wife’s favorite part of the film – once she heard it was in the film, she got really excited to see it.  Wolverine gets out of bed, completely nude and we get to see Jackman booty!  That guy is ripped!

As soon as we see that he woke up on a water bed, we knew the water bed / claws gag was coming.

This was one of my story concerns once I thought about it a few months ago.  Sure, Wolverine can wake up in the past and do what he has to do but what about the life he was leading at the time?  If this days more than a few days, isn’t that going to cause a ripple in time?

We learn, via goons coming into the room, that Wolverine was the bodyguard to the boss’s daughter.  He wasn’t suppose to sleep with her.  So he probably was just going to stay on her security detail, I imagine.

That’s the other thing, Wolverine’s memories are Swiss cheese so he wouldn’t know where he was when he woke up.  Actually, I guess his memories are more like a blank wall as he doesn’t even have glimpses of those – outside of Weapon X related memories.

So the year is now 1973.  They keep saying fifty years from now so the present is – 2023, well beyond X-Men 3 or The Wolverine.

Once Wolverine has his bearings, he heads to the Xavier Mansion.  The place is a mess!  Weeds are all over.  He knocks on the door and we see Beast but that he is in his human form. So weird seeing Nicholas Hoult now, after I’ve seen About a Boy, I just keep seeing him as the man version of that little boy.  Like, his eyes haven’t changed at all or his face proper.  It is strange.

He denies that Xavier is there, Wolverine punches him in the face and walks on by.  Beast turns blue and they have a quick fight – it is pretty awesome seeing Beast bouncing around the place.

Xavier comes down the stairs, due to all of the noise, and we see that he is walking.  The serum that lets him walk also blocks his memory, so he has to take Wolverine at his word about the future time travel silliness.

Logan explains to Xavier and McCoy that they will need Magneto.  Apparently in this timeline, people think Magneto killed President Kennedy.  You’ll think that would be brought up later in the other movies but it isn’t.

So they have to break into the Pentagon.  Wolverine tells that that he knows a guy who could help but he’ll be a kid at this point.

So they go to the Maximoff house and we meet Quicksilver, played by Peter Evans – from every season of American Horror Story.  I really like his portrayal of Quicksilver.  Instead of being a real jerk, he is a playful guy.

Meanwhile, Trask is being turn down for any additional funding for his Sentinel program.  One of the government officials is Chris Claremont!  That is pretty awesome.  A few short years later, he will be living down the street from Jean Grey!

The team frees Magneto, really Quicksilver does most of the work.  Once he sees Magneto control metal, he comments that his mother knew a guy once who could do that.  That’s as much as a hint as we are going to get – but it is awesome!

Once Xavier sees his old friend again, he punches him in the mouth.  They get surrounded by soldiers and Magneto learns that Xavier doesn’t have access to his powers.  Quicksilver saves everybody here with some fast reflexes.

In Saigon, as this is only days after America backed out of the Vietnam War, we get Mystique getting a few other mutants out of a research tent.  We also get a young William Stryker, making his third appearance in a movie – X2, Wolverine Origins and now this one.

Mutants being used as research are Havok, Toad, maybe Pestilence and a fourth guy.  He seemed like Quill but his mutant power is to make people pass out – as it is shown.  These mutants are saved thanks to Mystique and now she is off to Paris.

Mystique shifts into Trask’s form and breaks into his office.  Here we see autopsy files about the dead former teammates of Magneto and Mystique.  I sort of like the new Mystique pain job, I know it was so much easier on Jennifer Lawrence this time around.  It is essentially a blue suit with paint on the arms and legs – from what I understand.  I still don’t get why they don’t just put her in a white dress and thus, save even more time in the make up chair.

The boys get on a plane and we get some great moments here.  Magneto wanting to play chess with Xavier.  Xavier telling Magneto that he abandoned them and this sets Magneto off.  He starts crashing the plane, and he lets Xavier know that it is in fact he, who abandoned them!  All of his team are dead now – Azazrel and Angel, even Emma is dead!  Which may be the worst thing to have happened between First Class and this section of Days of Future Past.

In Paris, where the American peaceful exit from Vietnam is suppose to be made official.  Trask is looking to the Vietnamese government for funding.  There is a great gag when Trask shows off his mutant detector and learns there is a mutant amongst them!  Mystique had taken a form of a general and now is about to live the moment where she kills Trask.

Trask is portrayed by Peter Dinkage and he does such a great job in the role!

Just as she is about to shoot Trask, Magneto stops the bullet and flings it back at her, piercing her leg.  She jumps out of a window to try to escape.  Magneto is out to kill her as he doesn’t want the future Logan is going on about.  I did like how easy he just accepted the notion.  Also, there was a nice moment earlier when Xavier finally recognized Wolverine from that bar in First Class.

Beast starts fighting Magneto, as he doesn’t want Mystique killed.  Once Mystique lands on the ground, we start getting news footage and she appears so blue on these videos.  We even see that Bryan Singer is working a camera!  Nice cameo!

We see what happens when Wolverine loses focus.  He sees the young William Stryker and starts having flashbacks which sends him back, partially into the future.  Once in the future, he pops his metal claws and slashes Kitty!  The cut is deep!  I started getting worried that we were going to Kitty die on screen.  As we already know, Wolverine has to be successful in his mission – so it is just a matter of watching it happen but I don’t want to see Kitty die on screen, even if it gets undone twenty minutes later.  I do like how we get glimpses of the present day X-Men.

Back with the Kitty losing too much blood, couldn’t Bobby have frozen over the wound to stabilize it?  I know it would be ice cold for her, so she may break her concentration but at least she wouldn’t be dying.  Plus, he could make it gradually colder, so he wouldn’t be a jerk.

Also, I guess at some point after The Wolverine, he gets his metal claws back.  I wonder if they are adamantium or just some cheaper metal?

Xavier has to deal with the present day Wolverine, which I like the acting on James McAvoy as he has to figure out that the Wolverine isn’t his Wolverine.  He tells him he is experiencing a bad acid trip and this calms him down.  Future Wolverine kicks in eventually.

Magneto gives chase and I do love so much how effortless Michael Fassbender shows how easy his powers come to him.  Once again, I could watch an entire movie of Young Magneto.

Beast gives chase again and a second blue mutant is too much for some people, as people start fleeing the scene.

Nonetheless, this did not happen in the original timeline.  So time is definitely changed, I guess it was as well when they broke Magneto out but there is no denying that mutants exist now as apparently the Cuban Missile Crisis is not taught in schools with how mutants saved that day.

Speaking of which, Magneto tells Xavier that he didn’t kill the president.  He was trying to save him as Kennedy was one of them.  I imagine he means that he was a supporter and not an actual mutant.  They don’t get into it, at all.

We learn later that only a small sample of Mystique’s blood was found on the scene so Trask gets to see what her DNA is made up of.  It isn’t enough but it is enough to make him want more.

President Nixon, wanting a defense against powerful mutants, agrees to Trask’s funding request.

Magneto gets confronted by Mystique, they are done, professionally!

Magneto breaks into Trask Industries shipping yard and follows the trains that contain the eight Sentinels.  They are made without metal so he inserts a bunch of metal into them.  I thought for sure this was leading to the Sentinels attacking Magneto but the movie doesn’t go in that direction.

Back at the mansion.  Xavier has opted for not taking the serum anymore.  His powers come back and overwhelmed him.  He tries to use Cerebro but it is too much for him.  Hank leaves to check on the power generator.  Wolverine lets Xavier read his mind and Xavier gets to see Wolverine’s future (all related to Jean, for the most part).  Also we get the awesome “I don’t want your future” line.

Next, somehow, Xavier is able to enter Wolverine’s mind and go to the future and have a nice chat with his future self.  At first, this looks like it was filmed through a fish bowl (and that lasts a bit too long) but it clears up and they get to talk to each other.  They call each other, Charles, which I find odd but they are old fashion, I suppose.

Old Xavier tells Young to seek out Mystique and not to give up on her.

Young gets back in his head, uses Cerebro and speaks with Mystique while she is in an airport.  He seems to get through to her but she is determined to kill Trask for all of the mutant murders he has committed.

Beast tells the guys that he is recording all Paris news coverage from the three networks plus PBS.  Wolverine laughs at the era of only three networks.  Hanks gets into this great discussion about how there is a theory that time will always correct itself – so Logan’s mission may just be a bust.  The events may change dates but they will still happen, at some point.

Mystique is on her way to Washington DC, as Nixon is going to have a huge press conference to unveil the Sentinels.

Magneto breaks back into the Pentagon and we see that they have a war room of found items at the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Havok’s shirt and Magneto’s helmets are two items there.  He steals his helmet in an awesome moment!  Now Xavier can’t stop him!

As Hank, Xavier and Logan get to the press conference, that is taking place on the White House yard, we get a call back to Wolverine and his war on metal detectors that started in the first X-Men film and was repeated in The Wolverine.  This time, he just walks on through, as he doesn’t have any metal to speak of, on or in his person.

Now begins a pretty awesome sequence, the big one for the movie.  Magneto lifts a baseball stadium and crashes it around the White House.  Also, he turns the Sentinels against the humans in the audience – which is pretty smart move.

As strange looking as the future Sentinels are, it is a blast seeing the movie version of the old school Sentinels in action.  Who would have thought we’ll see the day!

This is all after Mystique tried to kill Trask again but in the form of some dude.

So the President, Trask and security service all run to the secret bunker that is under the carpet in the Oval Office.

Trask turns on his mutant detector and detects Mystique, still in the form of the guy she used just moments earlier to try to kill Trask.  One would think she would have taken a second form at this point.  That’s what I would have done.

Before anyone can respond to Mystique’s presence, Magneto rips the bunker out (it looks sort of cool) and has a real Magneto moment.

oh, before this, Wolverine with his silly bone claws, tries to hurt Magneto and he flings Logan into a nearby lake – almost drowning him.

Magneto turns all the cameras to him and makes an awesome speech.  The speech makes a great point about how the world has only really seen two mutants (Magneto and Mystique) and only a small portion of their power, so imagine what teams and hundreds of mutants can accomplish.

Then Nixon comes out and apologizes and wants to work out with Magneto.  The best part of this is that it cuts to Trask and he looks to his left and sees Nixon is still in the bunker.  Mystique has decided to take on the wrath of Magneto and see what is up.

They chat for a bit and then she shoots Magneto, the plastic bullet goes through the side of his neck – the pain is enough to bring him to his knees.  Once there, she takes off his helmet and knocks him out.

During all of this, back to the future, the Sentinels are about to invade the X-Men’s Chinese base.  Magneto comes out to help, he controls the Blackbird and causes it to explode.  It seems to wipe out a bunch.  Storm lets her guard down and gets stabbed, just like in the comic!

Then Colossus gets ripped in half, which I don’t like the guy but ooof, that is a horrible way to go!

Sunspot puts up a good fight but also is killed.

Blink keeps trying to open portals and get the Sentinels to hurt themselves.  I guess she is limited to line of sight portals as why doesn’t she just open a portal at where the Mansion is and leave them a world away.

Blink then gets stabbed by three different Sentinels.  They start making their way to where Kitty is!  Xavier is getting worried as his power is useless.  All they have to defend themselves with is Iceman.  Magneto is back with them but he is slowly dying as he took some debris to the stomach.

Kitty can’t let go of Wolverine as his consciousness is still in the past, even though he is still drowning back there.

Mystique turns her attention back to Trask and the humans and aims her gun.  Xavier tries to talk her down.  This goes on long enough so that in the future, the Sentinels have killed Bobby and are making their way to Kitty!  At this point, I’m getting nervous that Mystique isn’t gong to do the right thing and we are going to lose the greatest fictional character of all time!

Just then, Mystique throws her gun to the ground and walks away.  Just then, Kitty and the gang teleport away.

We see that Xavier has let Magneto get to his feet and he flies away.  Leaving that baseball stadium surrounding the White House!  I wonder if Damage Control gets founded after this or something as they are going to have to tear that down and then rebuild it over back where it belongs.

We learn that the Sentinel program is shut down back in 1973 and that Trask is an embarrassment.

Wolverine wakes up in his bed at the mansion.  He opens the door and sees Bobby and Rogue all smiling.  Kelsey Grammer has a cameo as Beast, it is awesome!

Logan is walking the halls.  Next, we see Kitty and Colossus are hosting a class.  It seems like there are a lot of holographic terminals and such – not sure what makes that possible?

Then Logan gets to Xavier’s office and sees Jean – so we instantly know that X3 didn’t quite happen the way we remember it!  I say that the films still happen just to various degrees of changes.

This reminds me that at one point in the past, Logan makes Xavier promise that if this plan doesn’t work that he will look for “Storm, Jean and Scott” and to teach and guide them.

It looks like Logan is about to go in for a kiss and all of a sudden the great, James Marsden portraying Cyclops !!!! steps into the doorway.  That has to be the best kept secret of the film!  Especially with how Singer and company kept saying he wasn’t in it at all.  His glasses are goofy looking but I don’t care, James Marsden and thus, Cyclops is alive!  The worst part of X3 has been fixed!

So if Jean is alive, how much of a change is The Wolverine?  It isn’t like Logan is dating Jean so he could still be Mariko.  But he didn’t kill Jean, so he wouldn’t be exiled in the great Canadian wilderness, so maybe Shingen just sends a letter or sends Yukio to the mansion and Logan just goes as an invited guest.  That’s probably the simplest solution.  I am curious how X3 is changed.

Xavier doesn’t die (or does, it doesn’t really matter as he gets his body back regardless), the cure may still happen but Rogue doesn’t take it for whatever reason.  The movie ends once Magneto is taken down with the cure via the X-Men.  His powers come back as they do.

The love birds leave and Logan enters to speak with Xavier.  At first, Xavier is confused but then he remembers.  The way Patrick Stewart’s eyes open, with revelation – is outstanding!  He’s been waiting a long for for this Logan to finally show up.

The year still has to be 2023, right?

Xavier tells Wolverine that he is the teacher of History, which is an awesome shout out to what he taught in Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men.  But how fun would it have been if he actually ended up teaching Art, like the joke in X3?

Xavier asks what the last thing Logan remembers and he tells him drowning and we see what happens next with 1973 Wolverine.

Stryker has fished him out of the water.  But it really is Mystique as Stryker!?!  She can’t be Stryker the entire time, as they share many scenes together in X2 – unless that movie is now different.  She gets her sweet revenge for setting this entire film into the process so she has him entered into the Weapon X program.  So the events of Wolverine Origins might still be untouched.

I imagine that Mystique starts the charade, gets exposed by the real Stryker finding out how he’s been in two places so often, he proves himself worthy of whatever position Mystique has gotten him and we move on.

Then the credits start to role.

I was chit chatting with my wife so I missed the order of the single card titles.  I do know that Ellen pages comes between Anna Paquin’s Rogue and Peter Dinkage’s Trask.  I would say that must be how the single cards worked out too but they have been different for whatever reason.

Oh, during the moment when the world was watching if Mystique was going to kill Trask, we get a glimpse of the Maximoff home and we see Quicksilver holding a much younger red head girl, who has to be Wanda or Polaris with normal color hair.  I hope it is Polaris just so the ages can be right.

There was also a moment when Trask asks Stryker how his son, Jason, is doing – I wonder if Trask already knows Jason’s secret at this point.

Then the Post-Credits scene.  Apocalpyse is using telekinesis to build pyramids as the slaves are bowing and worshipping him.  When the camera pans around to him, we can see to our right four horsemen, so that is awesome!  I also like that he is a blue skinny kid.  Not that he is skinny but that he is blue.  It is a pale shade of blue, but its enough.

The slaves are chanting – En Sabah Nur – which is just awesome to hear pronounced in a life action film.  This movie is suppose to complete the First Class Trilogy and take place in the 80s, Singer is suppose to be directing it too.  But that is what we thought about X3 too.  Rumor has it that young Scott, Jean and Storm are suppose to join the team for this too.  I wonder if they can time it right so that the Jean from X3 can be cast but I’m sure she will either be too old by then or they’ll want whoever is famous at that time to play Jean in the movie.

Overall, I really like the movie.  My wife asked me if Lockheed was going to show up in this, imagine if he did, that would have been awesome!  Just at the tail end section, have him laying on Kitty’s shoulders as she teaches a course.