X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past ~ I'm an Avengers guy. I have been aware of the X-Men for decades, but very rarely have I sampled those titles. The only time I did regularly read and collect X-Men comics was the original Chris Claremont/John Byrne era (yeah, I'm that old). The best and greatest story of that run, just behind the Dark Phoenix saga, would be the two-part "Days of Future Past" story in X-Men #141-142. Oh sure, I realize that the storyline has been revisited time and time again, many slipped past my notice, but I think the first was the best. That said, I was really looking forward to the film version of X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Warning - spoilers ahead. If you have not seen the movie yet, it might be a good idea to wait until you have before reading further. You've been warned.

I can't go any further without mentioning how groundbreaking this movie actually is. There were three official X-Men films, and two Wolverine spin-off films, and then there's X-Men First Class, a film that I loved, and one that effectively rebooted the franchise. The film took place in the early sixties, and other than some of the characters, it was recast younger, and showed the beginnings of the X-Men. Had a sequel been made directly to this movie, I don't think anyone would have been disappointed if they completely ignored the other three X-Men flicks, or even the two Wolverines as well.

They could have done it easy, but director Bryan Singer, returning to the franchise had other ideas. He chose to blend the continuities, and mold a story that would include both of the franchise's two casts, young and old. If it worked, it would be brilliance, and if it didn't, a confusing mess no one would want to see. The plan worked beautifully. This is just as a good a crossover film as Marvel's The Avengers was. Fact, comic book folks know how to do crossovers on film.

The plot is the only part where it might become a bit convoluted, but as time travel movies go, this is child's play. The future is overrun by robots called Sentinels, programmed to hunt and destroy mutants, devastating the Earth as they do it. The remaining X-Men send Wolverine's future mind back to his 1973 body to try to convince Professor X and Magneto to work together to stop Mystique from assassinating a weapons dealer. His death is what starts the dominos falling toward the creation of the Sentinels. Changing time is not as easy as it sounds. Wolverine has to first straighten out a wasted Xavier, and then break magneto out of a concrete prison below the Pentagon. Not that easy at all.

There are changes from the original comics of course. Wolverine goes back in time instead of Kitty Pryde. It's arms dealer Boliver Trask who's the target instead of Senator Robert Kelly because Kelly, played by Bruce Davison, had already been used early on in the movie series. There's no Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the movie, and the Sentinels are more like Super-Adaptoids programmed using Mystique's shape-changing DNA.

The cast is superb. Professor X and Magento, past and present - Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender - are all superior actors and perfect in this film every moment they are on screen. Hugh Jackman just about is Wolverine at this point. Halle Berry insisted on much higher billing than she deserves, but at least she wasn't awful. Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde and Nicholas Hoult as the Beast are terrific, and I wish Anna Paquin's Rogue hadn't been cut from most of her shots in the flick. Shawn Ashmore's Iceman has as much screen time as Berry's Storm, but is much more charismatic and memorable. I wanted more Iceman, but was meh on Storm.

Peter Dinklage of "Game of Thrones" is clearly wasted in the film as Bolivar Trask. He is seen but rarely heard. This is a sad waste of a terrific actor, who also has a fan base that would bring folks to the film. On the same note, seeing how Mystique was a major character in the story, I was hoping that Jennifer Lawrence would have been given more to do. She looks good, has amazing action sequences, but as an Oscar nominated and winning actress, it would have been nice to see her actually, you know, act. Now don't get me wrong, I liked them both, I just wish there was more of them, just like Rogue.

The breakout performance of the flick however is Evan Peters as Quicksilver. For my money, he was the best part of the movie. This is teenaged Quicksilver, a smartass, but not the prime jerk he becomes as an adult in the Avengers. I was reminded much of the upcoming "Flash" TV series on the CW, because this is a character who enjoys his speed and using his powers, sooo refreshing. And again, much like Mystique and Trask, why not more Quicksilver?

And more Quicksilver would have made perfect story sense. At a point when Professor X was powerless, the beast was reluctant, and Wolverine only had bone claws, wouldn't a super speedster be a much needed helping hand? It must be noted, but when the only complaints I have are wanting more of what we got, is it really a complaint?

I did have another quibble - the Kennedy thing. I just thought it was too easy. Not the idea that Magneto killed JFK, the whole idea of the bullet that changes course is a great and clever inside joke, but it's the concept that Magneto was captured while protecting the President. Charles believes Erik much too easily when the villain says he was trying to save JFK because he was 'one of us.' Prof. X might well have already known that the President was a mutant via Cerebro, but this exchange changes the two's dynamic too easily, too quickly. Charles just drops his anger at Erik like rock. Too easy.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a dark film, and there are long stretches of that is-it-time-for-the-good-guys-to-win-yet, but it pulls together in the end. There's a pay-off that makes the long periods and the darkness well worth it. Like Bobby Ewing stepping out of a shower, the film does what all good time travel movies should do. It fixes what was broken as a bonus. When Logan returns from the past, Jean Grey and Cyclops are alive, and uncredited but still played by Famke Jansson and James Marsden. Bryan Singer fixed the crappy ending of X-Men: The Last Stand.

Be ready, just like the Marvel films, this Fox X-Men flick has an after credits sequence, something The Bride and I have named an 'afterburner.' This one depicts the villain of the next X-Men film - Apocalypse, so wait through the credits, it's good, and will make you tingle with anticipation for the next chapter. I still think First Class is the best of the X-movies, but this one comes close, recommended.

For more of The Bride's and my thoughts on X-Men: Days of Future Past, you can listen to this week's Make Mine Magic Podcast, with our special X-Men episode that you can hear right here.

Petals on the Wind

Petals on the Wind ~ When Lifetime did Flowers in the Attic and it was even a little bit successful, it was pretty much guaranteed they would do a sequel... especially when there's one tailor made as part of the book series it based on. I should note however this was given a green light before Flowers even aired. That's how sure Lifetime was of the source material. So here's Petals on the Wind, which was just as popular as Flowers back in the day, but didn't have a crappy movie version to tarnish it. Let's see how good or bad the Lifetime treatment is.

Just as Flowers artfully used a cover of "Sweet Child o' Mine" to promote it, Petals similarly uses a cover of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight," a song that was actually around when the book came out, and intros the movie almost as if this was a series rather than movies. Is it? "Last time on Flowers in the Attic..." makes me wonder. Not that I would mind a well done TV series...

It begins ten years after Flowers, and the children have been recast. I guess the shooting schedule for the final season of "Mad Men" might interfered possibly for Kiernan Shipka. And while the book picks up immediately after Flowers, the movie is a decade later, necessitating older actors. Chicken or the egg here, I have to wonder what came first - time shift or recasting? Either way, Rose McIver as Cathy is a weak sister to Kiernan Shipka.

The ten year jump that begins at Paul Sheffield's funeral does happily evade the creepy doctor character who adopted the children and tried to marry Cathy. Sometimes gothic romance and horror take a left turn into soap opera so bizarre, it really is better left forgotten. Not that a story that centers on incest isn't already inappropriately creepy... but you know what I mean. Good move, Lifetime.

The sad news is however that all of the rest of this seems very forced. From Cathy's abusive relationship with Julian to Carrie being bullied at school, and on top of it all is Heather Graham and Ellen Burstyn's characters being shoehorned roughly into the story. I had a lot of trouble with Burstyn especially after literally just watching her brilliant comedic turn on "Louie" just before this.

Will Kemp is great as Julian, Cathy's husband in the book, boyfriend here, as long as you stop visualizing him as Starsky from "Starsky and Hutch," a comparison that gets difficult when you see his car. Rose McIver is no Shipka as I mentioned but she is certainly as hatable as Cathy should be. She deserves what she gets in so many ways. This was okay, not as good as Flowers, but a suitable sequel. The over the top revenge ending is well worth the two hour watch.

Lifetime has already announced plans to do the next two books in the Dollanganger series by V.C. Andrews, If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday in 2015, but there's been no word about the fifth and final installment, Garden of Shadows, probably because the ads refer to Seeds as the final installment. Interesting.

Voluted Tales: Nerdful Things

I just wanted to let folks know about one of my latest projects. I am currently writing a scifi genre pop culture column for the online speculative fiction magazine Voluted Tales.

If you haven't checked out Voluted Tales before, you definitely should, and if you're a writer of short speculative fiction, think seriously about submitting.

My new column, called Nerdful Things, can be found here. This month's article talks about Marvel has changed how we watch movies, and last issue's was about expectations for the new Godzilla film.

And you can check out the current issue of Voluted Tales, for a small subscription fee, right here. Enjoy!

Reality Burnout

The season finales for both "Survivor" and "American Idol" were last night, and while I have been a hardcore fan of both in the past, I really didn't give a rat's backside last night, this season, or quite frankly, several seasons. Both of these shows, along with "Big Brother" and "The Amazing Race," are really dependent on the contestants, and that gene pool has been iffy of late.

Of course there's also the attraction of a potential train wreck, and I do love a good train wreck. "The Amazing Race" is more The Bride's wheelhouse than mine but I was digging the mental and relationship breakdown of former "Big Brother" winners Brendon and Rachel. Now that was a train wreck.

However that kind of hot messiness couldn't seem to save "American Idol" this year. I lost interest early in the season when the show refused to highlight the usual freakshow of audition rejects in the cause of positivity. Let's face it, for every Kelly Clarkson, we can list five William Hungs or Ben Haars. That is what makes the show.

Getting back to train wrecks and "Idol," I couldn't believe who the two finalists were this season. Caleb had a strong rocker voice but he had some trouble on Twitter calling his fans the R word. One would think that would be enough to keep him from winning, but I guess the Bible Belt "AI" voters who kept Adam Lambert from winning probably don't care much about being politically correct.

I still don't know how Jena made final ten, let alone final two. Every time I saw her perform she was always butchering one song or another. And none if these judges have courage enough to tell the truth. Harry Connick Jr. comes close at times, but what "Idol" really needs is for Simon Cowell to return. It hasn't been the same, or as good, since he left.

I'm not sure what to watch in the reality TV realm any more. "America's Got Talent" has become a freakshow, and not in a good way, and "The Voice" has always bored me. Well, let's just hope the next bunch on "Big Brother" aren't just another group of vapid model wannabes, but have a but more personality or psychosis than usual.

Rosemary's Baby 2014

Rosemary's Baby ~ My first thought when I had heard they were remaking Rosemary's Baby was why. It's almost a perfect film as it is, perhaps a bit dated now, but for its time, it was fabulous and changed the way we viewed horror. One could say that the original film, based on the Ira Levin novel, even created its own little subgenres of horror. It opened the door to several devil-related flicks, family-centric horror, and modern takes on old scare themes. The Stepford Wives, The Omen, even The Exorcist, they all owe a debt to Rosemary's Baby.

There are of course reasons to remake a movie, even one that was done right the first time. One reason would be to expand the original story, fill in details, complete connections, explain what was left unexplained. Another reason would be to update the film, as in a lot has changed since 1968 and now it's 2014. That means update the style of the filmmaking and storytelling, not just adding cellphones, the internet, and social media.

There is always the possibility that one has found a way to improve the original, to make it better, however in this case I doubt it. Some folks just want to do a remake as is, reproducing sets or shots, but with new actors or as above updated settings. Or it could simply be a bit of stunt casting, which does fit this case with Zoe Saldana in the Mia Farrow role.

I think the main reason I didn't want to see Rosemary's Baby remade was that it seems to be recent memory, and then I remember it's a relic of my childhood, and lastly as my mind shrivels a bit more I realize the original was made almost five decades ago. Damn, I feel old. It was a long time ago, and I even remember the ill-advised ABC Movie of the Week sequel Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby. Now that was a disaster, but at least it was a fun disaster. I don't think I can even call this remake fun.

Let's talk about the stunt casting of Zoe Saldana. Zoe is Uhura, she's Columbiana, she's Gamora. And it's not a matter of typecasting either she's better in those kinds of roles. This is not to say the woman doesn't have range, but she just doesn't pull it off here. I don't believe her for a second as naive, innocent, and demure Rosemary Woodhouse. There's a hint of the Zoe we all know and love in the beginning of the miniseries but she never surfaces again.

The other major change that director Agnieszka Holland made was the location move to Paris. This is disappointing as New York is very much a character in the original film. Holland is well known for a completely different kind of movie, the kind that would normally occur in France, but let's face it, this is Rosemary's Baby, and it's a miniseries for prime time American network television. What the hell were they thinking at NBC?

This new version of course add new details, as they do have double the time to fill being a four hour miniseries 'event' as opposed to just a two hour movie. That also means it drags everything out. Waiting and extended talky scenes do not a suspenseful story make. I love Zoe but she exudes as much (or as little) charisma here as the rest of her co-stars. The score by Antoni Lazarkiewicz is relentlessly uninteresting and pales in comparison with the stunning soundtrack of the original by Krzysztof Komeda.

This had the potential to be a refreshing and original take on the story but it fails both due to length and casting, and yes, even location. While the original presented tense subtle creeping horror, this version is boring, underwhelming, and overly and unnecessarily complex - and ultimately disappointing. Give this a pass. Read the book, see the original, hell, see the sequel, but give this 2014 remake a wide berth.