X-Men: Days of Future
Past ? The Rogue Cut ? 5 out of 5
I know, I know, loyal reader. I already reviewed X-Men: Days of Future Past when I saw it in the
theater in the summer of 2014 and I sang its praises about how awesome it was
and how cool it was to have Bryan Singer once again at the helm of an X-film. However, recently I purchased The Rogue Cut
on Blu-Ray and decided to watch it back-to-back with the Theatrical Cut of the
film. I wanted to see what was different
and whether or not this is a more definitive version of the story?and then I
decided to would review it because that?s just what I do.
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| 20th Century Fox It's on my bucket list to hug Ian McKellen. Get ready, Ian, because it's going to happen and it's going to be awesome! |
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| 20th Century Fox Hey look! It's Rogue! |
In the future, mutant kind is at risk of extinction after
deadly robot Sentinels run wild and hunt all mutants. In a last ditch effort to save their kind,
Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) use the powers of
Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) to send the consciousness of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman)
into his younger body in the 70s. In
that time, he will seek out a younger Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik
Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) and get them to stop Mystique (Jennifer
Lawrence) from assassinating the man who creates the Sentinels; Dr. Bolivar
Trask (Peter Dinklage). However, along
the way Kitty is hurt and doesn?t have the strength to keep Wolverine in the
past and the team must rescue the power-stealing mutant Rogue (Anna Paquin) to
help finish the job before the Sentinels descend on them and kill them,
preserving a world where mutants are hunted like animals.
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| 20th Century Fox Michael Fassbender contains a of level of cool that is impossible for a mortal like me to ever achieve. |
In this cut of the film, everything that makes Days of
Future Past so awesome that I completely forget that Brett Ratner nearly killed
this franchise with X-Men: The Last
Stand (although, I will always say how awesome Kelsey Grammar was as Beast) is
still here. It's all still here in this awesome adaptation of
the classic comic book storyline: The great acting, the killer special effects
and, of course, Evan Peters stealing the film as Quicksilver and that endlessly
amusing and fantastic scene in the Pentagon kitchen set to ?Time in a
Bottle.? However, this cut of the film
isn?t just a mad-dash for extra cash and something to convince fans to buy
another copy of the film by adding a quick one-minute scene of Rogue?No, this
is much more and it might actually be a better version of an already awesome
film!
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| 20th Century Fox Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite moments in all of comic book movie history. |
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| 20th Century Fox Blink must be really good at Portal. |
Most notable about The Rogue Cut is how it changes the third
act of the film with the inclusion of Rogue.
This results in a new and very exciting action sequence where they
rescue Rogue from Charles Xavier?s school (which is now occupied by the
Anti-Mutant agenda). This scene is
edited together with the scene from the Theatrical Cut of Magneto going to
reclaim his helmet and it makes for a nice parallel to the rescue and makes the
already cool scene of Erik getting his gear that much cooler. This new cut may change when a certain
character in the future dies but it also allows characters like Warpath (Booboo
Stewart), Blink (Bingbing Fan), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Sunspot (Adan Canto)
and Bishop (Omar Sy) get a few more lines of dialogue when they are coming up
with the plan to send Wolvie back in time and that results in making the whole
journey and adventure have a greater sense of weight to it and how truly
important it is that they succeed?and also how deep the risks truly are.
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| 20th Century Fox I'm not going to make a joke here but rather talk about how cool Sunspot looks in the film. |
The Rogue Cut also offers up some new gags?including a fun
mid-credit sequence with Peter Dinklage? and some fun fan service by offering
up a hint that Quicksilver?s sister; Scarlet Witch, was around the whole time
but off-screen in her room upstairs in the Maximoff household. Occasionally, these new or alternate scenes
can slow the film down?like an additional scene where Mystique shows up at the
X-mansion?but, even then, the slowdown isn?t that bad or distracting enough to
harm the film. There?s also times when
edits in the Theatrical Cut can come off awkward but this is only noticeable if
you watch The Rogue Cut first and know that the scene was originally meant to
go longer. This is ultimately balanced
though because there are scenes that just feel stronger in TRC than in the
original edit.
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| 20th Century Fox The movie did a great job of showing the unbridled passion that pretty much defined the character of Beast in the comics. |
Overall, The Rogue Cut of X-Men: Days of Future Past is pretty freakin?
rad?yes, I just said ?rad.? The original
film is already amazing as it not only helped bring back the X-films as a
legitimate superhero franchise (something that was started by X-Men: First Class?look, X3 did a lot of damage) but
it also did something cool by combining the old films' cast with the prequel
cast in a marriage of amazing (and plot holes and continuity errors?as good as
this franchise is, there?s a lot of plot holes in it). Is The Rogue Cut better? That?s hard to say because that sort of thing
is really just personal preference. The
Theatrical Cut is already amazing beyond amazing but, from a personal
standpoint, The Rogue Cut is my preferred version of the film.
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