Days of Future Past Did anyone prefer "First Class" over "Days of Future Past"?

I think DoFP, X2 and First Class are all fairly neck and neck. They all have pros and cons. But if I'm going to pick one I will say X2. Just slightly over DoFP. I think DoFP was overall a more thrilling and exciting film to First Class. And also the scenes with all our beloved mutants being killed was simply heartbreaking. All those years wasted fighting each other Charles. It gets me every time. So DoFP over First Class. But X2 better overall.

My rankings are
X2
DoFP
First Class
X-Men
The Wolverine
Last Stand







Origins
 
X-2 is still the best of the X-Men films.
 
X-2 is still the best of the X-Men films.
Hands down. No comic book movie for me has topped the X2 opening scene. And all of Mystique's scenes in X2 are remarkable.
 
Hands down. No comic book movie for me has topped the X2 opening scene. And all of Mystique's scenes in X2 are remarkable.

Still torn on X2 and DOFP. I think I need to re-watch both of them again.
 
FC is just a better written Film overall. DoFP? Not so much. That film was saved my good performances from Fassbender and McAvoy.

Funnily enough I think it's FC that's saved by performances by McAvoy and Fassbender (and Byrne).
 
X-Men: Days of Future Past
X2: X-Men United
X-Men: First Class
X-Men
The Wolverine
X-Men: The Last Stand
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
 
My ranking:

X2
X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men
The Wolverine
X-Men: First Class
X-Men: The Last Stand

I entirely love Singer's work for the franchise. I really like that he has a subtleness in his narration and is not taking the audience by the hand. he just implies certain aspects and leave it open for the audience to fill it. Someone in this thread criticized Mystique's motivation in DoFP for example. I think the scene at Trask's office was beautifully done and showed with very simple images everything I need to know about Mystique to follow her path through the movie. The tear on Trask's cheek was such a fantastic way of demonstrating her pain and loss. There is a smartness and elegance about Singer's direction that always captures me. I don't need a big flashback moment for Mystique's motivation, this tear on her cheek is enough to understand her loss.

The same goes for Rogue in X1 for example. Some of her scenes are heart breaking (when she watches a mother stroke her child) and super simple. I feel like she was a very round character although her screen time is very limited. Singer always gives these small subtle hints because his cast is so large and he needs to find ways to create compelling characters. Sometimes it is just a look in once eyes (like Jean's face expression when Xavier sends only Storm and Cyclops after Rogue when she run away in X1. This scene already felt like Xavier is holding her back and also explain why she relentlessly goes for cerebro the moment Xavier is without conciousness)...etc. etc. I really love this about Singer! and I have to bowdown to him for this. This is also why I really don't want the X-Men back at Disney/Marvel because their movie's are dumb (!) action spectacles for the masses and nothing more.

I only prefer X2 over DoFP because it had a team dynamic to it and actually used the main character's from the comics. And in the end I am still a fan boy and wanted to spend time with the future X-Men and not with the 70s past of Magneto and Xavier (but I actually don't really think X2 is the better movie!)...although it simply a very very great movie with emotional impact. Being part of a minority I totally could relate to Mystiques's struggle and the last scene. Will you give in to the anger or forgive and heal the wounds of social, sexual or racial oppression by a white hetero-patriachy? That is very strong emotional **** that Singer is serving us here with a blockbuster sci-fi movie.

--

First Class felt very rushed and low-budged to me. The casting and acting was fantastic but it had many flaws and there was no action scene that stood out or had any creativity to it. The whole movie is just bla. It felt like a check list for everything that needs to happen in the future: 1. we need Charles to be paralysed, 2. we need Magneto's helmet, 3. we need Xavier and Magneto to break up, 4.we need to show how cerebro was invented, 5. let's make Beast blue and furry,...
And I REALLY disliked that the X-Men have been so closely connected to the US government through this movie.
And it was very sexist towards women (or let's maybe say it had historically correct gender performances that's why we saw them all in underwear at one point...) and clearly done by a male white heterosexual perspective that annoys me very much. I don't have a problem in general if white heterosexual male working on the subject of discrimination and civil rights but it becomes quite bizarre when their works clearly shows that there is no sensitivity for these topics at all and that they never leave their white privilged male position (Ratner's interpretation of the X-Men is of course A LOT WORSE in this regard than Vaughn).

But what I love about FIRST CLASS is the aspect of world making. It really started to create a whole new complex history for this franchise starting in the 60s. This was such a smart thing to do and I cannot wait how the 80s will be!
 
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First Class had some fantastic elements.

Xavier finding Magneto's forgotten childhood memories.
Banshee flying (at the mansion, over the sea, and diving into the sea to do the sonar thing).
Some of Henry Jackman's music like the part when Erik raised the submarine (which was an amazing scene in itself) and the bar music that incorporated a bit of dubstep
Many of the women looked really sexy
Magneto stopping and reversing the missiles (though I felt it needed a pulsing sound effect like when he held the X-jet in X2)

Those are the things that stand out as great.

Yes, there's a few wonky bits (Magneto's Irish lilt, Cat-beast, sprinting Quick-Beast at the mansion, a weird Sebastian Shaw, a short-lived Hellfire Club etc) but I still love it. Plus the obvious absence of the Frost/Xavier psi-battle. Bring back Emma and give us a psi-battle with Jean instead!
 
my rankings
X2
X-men
DOFP
Last stand
FC



Origins
The wolverine
 
I hope we never see "sprinting Quick-Beast at the mansion" ever again.

And great post Phoenetik27! :)
 
I hope we never see "sprinting Quick-Beast at the mansion" ever again.

And great post Phoenetik27! :)
Agreed on both sentences.

Phoenetik27 you really hit the nail on the head with Bryan and his work in X-Men. Funny enough I never noticed that little scene with Jean and Professor X only until I watched X-Men again a few weeks back. Such a subtle thing that all these years I missed. I think Singer and Vaughn did wonderful things keeping the characters still very much alike between both casts.

For example X2 Mystique we see her almost neediness. The way she is towards Wolverine. It's seductive but there is more in it and it was the same as her throwing herself at Magneto in First Class. Her rejection by Charles and Hank. It goes with Mystique almost being too controlled by all the men in her life. And Xavier was holding Jean back just the way he held back Mystique. He gave up that control finally after he realised that she can be the one to make her own choice. I loved that in DoFP. The choice was hers and she chose the right path. I think also this will go into Apocalypse that Charles will see the potential in Jean and instead of try and control it and hide it away he will teach her to develop her powers and learn how to coexist with them. So I don't think we will see full blown Phoenix but a more powerful Jean. Which will be fantastic.

Also one thing about X2 is that every single character had a wonderful development. Logan with his past, Jean with her powers, Storm and Nightcrawler about hate and fear, Rogue with her power (we were starting to see her become an X-Men :(), Iceman and his coming out, Pyro's bad side etc. All of these characters got developed well. Mystique is more cunning and badass. Magneto being controlled. The only character who suffered was Cyclops but we know that Singer was planning the 3rd film to focus on Jean and him. Shame shame. So yeah X2 I think had this more than DoFP. DoFP had it with Xavier and Mystique mainly. Quicksilver's small scene was just enough to showcase who he was. Magneto was Magneto and Beast had nothing new.
 
Awesome post Phoenteik27!

I always did like how Singer aimed more for drama, emotion, character moments, and high stakes, rather than serving up fan service and displaying monster action sequences. The time we live in, it seems like that's all people want: Lots of style, but almost no substance.
 
X2 and First Class are cute but Days of Future Past was the first truly powerful X-men movie.
 
Thank you, guys! :)

I think we are actually very much blessed that we have an talented director like Singer for the franchise and obviously a studio that seemed to have learned from previous mistakes (a.k.a. the Wolverine Origin fiasco).

I really hope we keep Singer for 2 or 3 movies more after Apocalypse...and that he will not get swept away by the large scale of Apocalypse! I think he could do wonders if he will not give up on the X-Men at this point and really creates one of the most compelling worlds in movie history. That is such a unique and new opportunity for a filmmaker that movies are understand as an ongoing series (!) that keeps the creative team for a long time and is not restricted to a 90 minutes timeframe.
 
First Class is a better constructed film. DOFP was good too, but from a structural point of view, it was kind of everywhere (normal for any film involving time travel), which is fine if you are an avid follower of the X-men franchise, but you wouldn't exactly show this movie to anybody who's never seen the X-men before.
 
For me i felt FC was the breath of fresh air the series needed after LTS and origins which felt like they tried to be so big and ended up draining the life out of the series

FC took a step back to basics and brought back the wonder of mutants existing aswell as fleshing out xavier and magneto in a real compelling way

And while I do like X2 i ain't as fond of it as alot of people since i don't get the team vibe from it like others do, whenever i think of X2 its just wolverine fighting the guys crashing the mansion, wolverine fighting lady deathstrike, wolverine saving the kids, wolverine trying to get off with jean while cyclops is away ect ect

the whitehouse nightcrawler opening was great though, seemed like the only other time a character was given a wolverine type action scene who wasn't wolverine
 
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Yes, I don't have an orgasmic love for X2 either.

It doesn't feel like an X-Men movie at times, it's like a drama that features the X-Men, it's polished but sometimes feels too considered, too bitty and lacking in zing. It also seems a bit dated these days for what we expect from superhero movies.

Watched right after X1, it flows nicely, and it does have some great action scenes (Nightcrawler intro scene, Storm/tornadoes, Wolverine/Deathstrike, Magneto prison break) and nice character moments (Storm/Nightcrawler convo). But it's not as 'exciting' as I would prefer.

Then we got X3, which had zing and excitement but was not well-executed at all.. apart from most of the characters being executed...
 
while i am not getting into arguement with those who disagree i feel like X2 is very much a X_Men movie.i prefer it and X-Men over first class.if there is overated X-Men film i feel it is First Class.

I loved X2 when it came out and still do.

First Class is just as much about magneto as X-Men and X2 were wolverine.And in X2 others actully stopped stryker's plan while wolverine was focusing on his search for past.
 
Visually, X3 feels more X-Men, I think it featured the most amount of X-Men that we have seen in film (original five, Colossus, Kitty, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, etc...) until DOFP. It also had more villains... but yeah the execution wasn't just perfect. Had they developed Rogue, Cyclops, Angel, Colossus more and executed Phoenix really well, I think it could have been great.

Its weird how X3 is usually seen as one of the worst X-Men films... but outside of the internet community, I have met a lot of people that liked that film and mostly because of its action/spectacle.
 
Awesome post Phoenteik27!

I always did like how Singer aimed more for drama, emotion, character moments, and high stakes, rather than serving up fan service and displaying monster action sequences. The time we live in, it seems like that's all people want: Lots of style, but almost no substance.

You can have both though - CA2 Winter Soldier did both superbly.
 
At the time, First Class seemed refreshing, for sure. It was a departure from the usual formula in many aspects.

Vaughn made the women sexy (even if he did put them all in lingerie at some point, lol), he cast guys that were not Hollywood pretty boys (Caleb Landry Jones), it had full-on flying in it (Banshee... flying more than Storm has ever managed to do), and it was a little more colourful and not so cautious.

But the renditions of Beast and Mystique were not that good. Vaughn is a fan of cat-Beast and wanted that version in X3 when he was attached to direct. And it ended up contradicting known elements of the previous films (with regard to when Xavier and Magneto met, how Cerebro was built, etc).

DoFP is a better movie, in my view.

X2 is good but it has some issues. I watched it again with my other half when it was on TV recently.

Xavier clearly explains to Wolverine why he can't concentrate harder to find Nightcrawler ('if i wanted to kill him, yes') and then Wolverine is later (round the campfire with Magneto) still baffled why Xavier's ability to concentrate on mutants is an issue while he is being held by Stryker. Duh!

And then the whole issue of why Jean leaves the plane at the end. It's never really that clear why it happens. Yes, we've gone over and over it on here and given our theories but it was something raised by a lot of people at the time the movie was released, and was something my other half had a real issue with. 'Because she has to sacrifice herself and become Phoenix' is not a satisfactory answer, lol

I preferred DOFP.
That being said, I am glad Rose Byrne is back for Apocalypse .

I agree with the above.

My rankings...

X-Men: Days of Future Past
X2: X-Men United (VERY close 2nd)
X-Men
The Wolverine (prefer Unleashed Extended version)
X-Men: First Class
X-Men: The Last Stand
X-Men Origins: Wolverine[/I][/QUOTE]
 

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