“X-Men: Days of Future Past” review

Director Bryan Singer returns to the X-Men franchise. Is this the mutant extravaganza audiences are craving for?

The Good: There’s a lot to like in DOFP. From the opening sequence, the action scenes are the best in the series. And it is nice to see Ian McKellen (Magneto), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Halle Berry (Storm) and more reprise their roles. James McAvoy (Young Charles), Michael Fassbender (Young Erik), Nicholas Hoult (Young Beast) and Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique)  are the standouts from the “First Class” cast.

The real joy here is Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters. He’s easily the most memorable new character and is a blast to watch. By now, if you’ve seen any of the trailers, you know the basic plot revolving around Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). And seeing the sentinels in action is fantastic, though at least one of the designs looks and acts very similar to the robot from “Thor”. The film is a slick, fun thrill ride and a blast to watch.

The Bad: Honestly, with so many mutants, some characters were going to get the short end of the stick in terms of screen time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many of the mutants serve as nods for fans, but I wish Page got more screen time. I understand why she didn’t given the size of the cast, but she’s such a strong actress, it would have been nice.

No plot spoilers here, but given the story they went with, it does raise some questions, given there are six other X-Men films in the universe. But, it’s not too big of a deal.

Speaking of the plot, Peter Dinklage is, unfortunately, the weak link of the new characters introduced. He’s not terrible, but he gets a little lost in the film and the script doesn’t give him a lot to do.

The Final Word: It’s a fun, and at times thrilling, mutant adventure. This just may be my favorite X-Men film yet and breathes new life into the franchise.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Trailer for “Days of Future Past”

Here’s the first trailer for “X-Men: Days of Future Past”!

The film stars Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, Michael Fassbender, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ellen Page, Jennifer Lawrence and a lot more.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” casts one more

This is beginning to be like “Sin City: A Dame To Kill For”. But Bryan Singer’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past” cast Josh Helman for a role that will require him to be on set for a couple of weeks. His role is a mystery, however. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Daniel Cudmore, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, Booboo Stewart, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto and Evan Peters.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

 

 

“Prometheus 2” gets new writer

To say that Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” was polarizing might be an understatement. People loved it or hated it. Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof wrote the script, but now Fox is apparently courting a new writer for “Prometheus 2”. Jack Paglen is apparently the top choice to write the sequel. The bad news is he has only one screenplay to his credit. The good news is that screenplay is “Transcendence”, the debut from longtime Christopher Nolan collaborator Wally Pfister starring Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman, but he’s still unproven. Do you want to see what happens to Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and David (Michael Fassbender)?

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Quicksilver joins “X-Men” and “Avengers”?!

Bryan Singer has confirmed that Evan Peters will be playing Quicksilver in “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. If you’re confused, that’s likely because Joss Whedon said Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch would be in “The Avengers 2”. Marvel’s Kevin Feige explains how this can happen:

“There’s a specific arrangement with those two characters that would allow us to use them with ‘Avengers,’ but not discuss or reference their mutant or Magneto-related lineage. They can use them as mutants and as Magneto’s relatives, but cannot have anything to do with ‘The Avengers,” Feige told Super Hero Hype. Peters joins  Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Fan Bingbing and Boo Boo Stewart.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

“Star Wars” actors reuniting

“Star Wars” actors are re-teaming on screen! But no, I’m not talking about “Star Wars Episode VII” from J.J. Abrams. Ewan McGregor is joining “Jane Got a Gun” with Natalie Portman. He’s playing the role of the villain after Bradley Cooper was force to leave because of scheduling conflicts. Cooper had joined the cast because Jude Law dropped out of the project after Lynne Ramsay (former director) was a no-show. Law had joined because Joel Edgerton moved from playing the villain to the hero after Michael Fassbender left the project. Whew.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

“Macbeth” reunites stars

At one point, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman were going to co-star in “Jane Got a Gun” before the film lost its director, lost Fassbender and gained Jude Law. Now Portman has joined the cast of “Macbeth” and will play Lady Macbeth. Here’s to hoping the two stay on the project this time!

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Fassbender joins Macbeth

Michael Fassbender has wowed audiences so far with roles in “Inglourious Basterds”, “X-Men: First Class”, “Shame” and a lot more. Now Fassbender will play Macbeth in a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic play. It looks promising from the same company that made “The King’s Speech”. But who plays Lady M is probably equally as important as landing Fassbender.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Fox executives “freaking out” over “Prometheus 2”

Ever since “Prometheus” ended, the rumors have swirled about a sequel. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender (at least his head) are the only two survivors from the and Ridley Scott’s sort of prequel to “Alien” seemed to be destined to see sequels. Except that might not be the case. Here’s a rundown on what happened so far. Jon Spaihts wrote the original draft of the script and had the film tie directly into “Alien” with the ship flying at the end being the one that Ripley found in that film. But Fox wanted more than one prequel so they brought in “Lost” writer Damon Lindelof to rework the script. Spaihts said he had talked with Scott about continuing the story, so it seems a little odd that Fox would remove him. Lindelof’s changes to the script have been met with mixed reviews. But here’s what he had to say about the film to Slash Film:

“The unglamorous truth is this: During the creative process of Prometheus, all involved (that includes Fox and Ridley) had a strong desire for this film to launch off in its own way so that by the end, it would not connect directly to the original Alien, but instead run parallel to it. This is something that I talked about many, many times in the press burst around the release of the movie. As you probably remember, there was a lot of interest as to whether Prometheus was a “prequel” — the answer was, “Yes. Sort of. But if there was a sequel to Prometheus, it would not be Alien.”

Taking the strong foundation that Jon Spaihts had already written, I worked on the script to this end — and yes, during that process, Ridley did occasionally riff on what he felt might happen next as Shaw and David’s Head ventured off of LV-223 in search of wherever The Engineers had come from.

After the movie came out and discussions began about a possible sequel, I was already neck deep in writing and producing Tomorrowland with Brad Bird. I have found, unfortunately, that if I take on too many projects at one time, there is a higher probability of those projects sucking. And contrary to popular belief, I do not want anything I work on to suck. I really don’t. I care about these stories deeply — not just as a writer, but as a fan. It might not always feel that way to the audience, but I swear to God it is true. It also so happens that Ridley was about to embark on directing his next movie, The Counselor, and had another one, Child 44 lined up right behind it. The conclusion was obvious — In the best interest of the franchise, it was best to take myself out of the running before I had to suffer the embarrassment of potentially not even being offered it.

And that it is the complete (if not somewhat boring) truth.”

The problem now is that apparently they don’t know where to take the story and Fox executives are freaking out about that.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

From Pi to Moses?

Steven Spielberg has officially dropped the project “Gods and Kings”, the biblical epic that will tell the story of Moses. Now reports are that the studio is hoping Ang Lee, fresh off his Best Director for “life of Pi” will helm the project. A rival Moses film, from Ridley Scott, is said to be nearing readiness for production with Michael Fassbender and Javier Bardem attached to that project. Might we see two Moses films with Oscar pedigree going head to head?

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.