Days of Future Past Worst moments in 'X-men: First Class'

[Phantom_Kali]

Spoiler

Although I totally object to Mystique leaving Charles at that precise moment (I don't object the fact that she would eventually leave him), what really shocked me was both Erik and Raven leaving the severely wounded Charles behind. Why, he could very well be dying at that moment for all we know. But it came of as something like "Well, the convo is very good and all, but we gotta move our asses outta here. Good luck taking ol' Chuck to the nearest hospital 500 miles away when all you have are a broken Blackbird and a broken submarine. Lol, bye b******!" BAMF.

I was like "What the..."

Totally agree. It was just so incoherent with the the characters they built up in the film. It was a great scene but that moment didn't work. Realistically real friends would stay there. The man just got SHOT for crying out loud
I was thinking the same...could they at least teleport him to a hospital? I also can understand Magneto leaving (He didn't know Xavier too long) but Mystique leaving at THAT moment was just a huge faux pas and wtf moment

Yeah, I agree with both of you. And I also thought, the same as you, that they should have teleported him to a hospital. Why on earth would Erik and Raven think that it was okay to leave Charles there, after the U.S. and the Soviet ships both tried to annihilate all of them?

 

[Loganbabe]

I haven't really thought about this, how did they got off the island?

Sometimes fanfiction is the answer.
It's not complete but it's well written and gives a good idea of what happened at the beach after Magneto leaves.

 

[Supernewbie]

In response to some of the other comments I've read:

- Angel's sudden turn works cause she seemed like a bad girl type initially.

- Darwin's fate was necessary just to demonstrate how evil Shaw was, that he even contradicts what he said about killing their own kind.

- Emma Frost was dull when she spoke, you can blame it on the acting, but her character effectively showed no real loyalty for Shaw by the end keeping her sort of mysterious like she has her own agenda.



The thing I didn't like at all was how Henry McCoy was handled here.

Transformation was great but not the final look. Aside from that, he was the inventor of Cerebro, the Jet, and a government agent all at once. He provided the air base jumpsuit yellow uniforms too. The writers conveniently used him as the link to supply them with everything. Charles only provided the mansion.

These X-films have NEVER been consistent with his character. In the first, he had a brief scene on TV as a government scientist looking human. Then, in the third movie, he's furry blue in charge of mutant affairs for the government. That meant the government already had a mutant working with them, then it contradicts the whole senator inquiry about mutants from the first film.

And now, in First Class... he's in the government, turns blue, but the audience is just left hanging at the end not knowing what happened to him. Did he go back into the government? Will he be in charge of mutant affairs? Or is he hiding at the mansion? It's too bad that Beast has no consistency at all in the Xmen movies.

But overall, I liked it. It captures the spirit of the comics well and a little 1960's spy genre too.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

In response to some of the other comments I've read:

- Angel's sudden turn works cause she seemed like a bad girl type initially.

- Darwin's fate was necessary just to demonstrate how evil Shaw was, that he even contradicts what he said about killing their own kind.

- Emma Frost was dull when she spoke, you can blame it on the acting, but her character effectively showed no real loyalty for Shaw by the end keeping her sort of mysterious like she has her own agenda.



The thing I didn't like at all was how Henry McCoy was handled here.

Transformation was great but not the final look. Aside from that, he was the inventor of Cerebro, the Jet, and a government agent all at once. He provided the air base jumpsuit yellow uniforms too. The writers conveniently used him as the link to supply them with everything. Charles only provided the mansion.

These X-films have NEVER been consistent with his character. In the first, he had a brief scene on TV as a government scientist looking human. Then, in the third movie, he's furry blue in charge of mutant affairs for the government. That meant the government already had a mutant working with them, then it contradicts the whole senator inquiry about mutants from the first film.

And now, in First Class... he's in the government, turns blue, but the audience is just left hanging at the end not knowing what happened to him. Did he go back into the government? Will he be in charge of mutant affairs? Or is he hiding at the mansion? It's too bad that Beast has no consistency at all in the Xmen movies.

But overall, I liked it. It captures the spirit of the comics well and a little 1960's spy genre too.

Bolded: No it doesn't. There are at least 2 Presidents over the course of the X-Men trilogy: The one seen in X2 who contemplates the registration act, and is very cautious about the whole mutant situation (no President is established in X-Men, but you could probably assume it's the same one).

X-Men: The Last Stand has an entirely new President, who is established in the film as mutant friendly. Thus, the President would begin the new Department of Mutant Affairs, and Beast's appointment would be after the Senate events of X-Men.

I don't find anything inconsistent about Beast at all.

 

[psylockolussus]

My worst moments:

-The montage of Shaw taking over the world when Xavier read emma's mind. Way beyond cheesy. One of the cheesiest moments I've ever seen in a movie with missles flying across the map and Shaw having his mustache twirling grin.

-Same about the split screen montage of mushroom clouds and newspaper headlines when cold war were declared. Incredibly campy and cheesy.

-I know it doesn't mean anything because it doesn't effect the movie at all... But the style used for the ending credits. Again, more of Vaughn pretending he's making a bond movie. But its the closing credits... That is by far the nitpickiest of nitpicks. But its still something I noticed.

Its the 60s/vintage style.

 

[henzINNIT]

There were a lot of moments that made me cringe sadly: the Magneto reveal, the montage of Shaw's intentions, the bad guys holding hands to escape etc. Even some dramatic moments like young Eric's destruction in Nazi captivity was shot in a way that really undermined the grief of it all.

The scenes where Shaw recruits from the heroes and later Magneto does the same are both filled with stupid moments. I was really drawn out of both scenes by the illogical progression in play.

 

[EnDz0n3]

I liked the codenames scene, it seemed typical of teenagers and kids who thought it was all a bit of fun, and it established camaraderie. I'd have liked it to be longer, so we learned a little more, but it served its purpose and the banter and laughter and warmth was more than I've seen in other X-Men movies .

I actually thought the codenames scene was handled well and agree that that would be typical of teenagers.

My main gripe and this is something I brought up before is that it seemed like they couldn't decide how old Mystique is, is she a kid, same age as the other recruits, or is she the same age as Charles and Magneto. The way Jennifer Lawrence acted her, it seemed like she was sort of childish, or atleast still a child mentally.

To be honest, I don't like how they displayed Darwin's "death" .. the screen goes white .. did he explode? The same thing for Colonel Hendry's death .. the screen went white and it cut to another scene. It reminded me of Cyclops' death in X3.

Also something I brought up, just scenes fading to white, as if Matthew didn't know how to transition to the next scene so his default is to turn the screen to white. Very amateurish I thought.

 

[Holiday]

There weren't any moments in the movie specifically that I hated too much.

The biggest problem with it was that it couldn't decide if it was in continuity with the previous movies or not. The "loose prequel" just doesn't work. Make it a reboot or a prequel.

Like, I'm sorry, but the whole idea of the Xavier/Mystique relationship was awful. There was ZERO connection or interaction between them in the previous movies, and now we're supposed to buy that they're surrogate siblings? It seemed so forced.

This kind of stuff is why I completely ignored trying to connect this movie to the other films and just enjoyed it for what it is.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Its the 60s/vintage style.

I know what it is. I didn't like it for an X-Men movie. It took me out of feeling like I was watching an X-Men movie.

 

[El Payaso]

The biggest problem with it was that it couldn't decide if it was in continuity with the previous movies or not. The "loose prequel" just doesn't work. Make it a reboot or a prequel.

I didn't even think of that. But I HATED that they used Singer's Polland 1944 scene - which is possibly the best scene in a X-Men movie. Not only it didn0t have the same impact but it was pointless. They just put it there without any different twist. The duplication without any further to it is useless.

Like, I'm sorry, but the whole idea of the Xavier/Mystique relationship was awful. There was ZERO connection or interaction between them in the previous movies, and now we're supposed to buy that they're surrogate siblings? It seemed so forced.

Ah well, many thing could have happened in between.

I didn't like Moira getting mindwiped. I didn't see the point of it. I know why Xavier did it but I didn't feel it was justified. I think she could've been trusted.

First of all things, I couldn't believe we were having a new amnesia kiss after 31 years!

BUT, if amnesia kisses have taught us anything, it's that they're always "the best for her in spite of her."





And someone else already said it but I couldn't believe - again - that they were using Ang Lee's Hulk's comic panels to make the transitions.

 

[By your Command]

Sometimes fanfiction is the answer.
It's not complete but it's well written and gives a good idea of what happened at the beach after Magneto leaves.

This would have been pretty tense, I gotta admit I like it.

 

[fallenAngel]

I didn't even think of that. But I HATED that they used Singer's Polland 1944 scene - which is possibly the best scene in a X-Men movie. Not only it didn0t have the same impact but it was pointless. They just put it there without any different twist. The duplication without any further to it is useless.

Yeah I thought it could have been interesting if they had made it the same but different. But it was shot for shot just with quicker editing.

I can't remember Wolverine's opening scene, but all three of the other movies (even the last stand) had interesting surprising and cool intros. The whole beginning of this movie sucked as far as I was concerned.


The other things that bothered me was Angel's "Arc". She was a stripper and the Hellfire club seemed to have a cabaret/brothel type front. Why wasn't she just a bad guy in the first place. Just like the Last Stand, don't bother with an idea that is meant to add gravitas if you are just going to half *** it.

And I don't remember specifically but did Beast build cerebro before Xavier was even there? If so that was a little too contrived. Its a prequel, show us why it happened not just that it happened. We already know it happened.

 

[Anti-Venom]

The scene where they all come up with their "codenames." All I could do was groan the entire time.

Seriously? He started calling himself Magneto because some tipsy college girl said "hehehehe you can be called Magneto hehehehe"?

 

[Marvin]

There were a lot of moments that made me cringe sadly: the Magneto reveal, the montage of Shaw's intentions, the bad guys holding hands to escape etc. Even some dramatic moments like young Eric's destruction in Nazi captivity was shot in a way that really undermined the grief of it all.

The scenes where Shaw recruits from the heroes and later Magneto does the same are both filled with stupid moments. I was really drawn out of both scenes by the illogical progression in play.

actually this was pretty great writing, I love how Eric basically made the same offer that Shaw did a few days earlier only that now shaw's words had been proven right. It's great how Eric had them hold hands and eveything just shaw. The brotherHood!

 

[Midnight Black]

The other things that bothered me was Angel's "Arc". She was a stripper and the Hellfire club seemed to have a cabaret/brothel type front. Why wasn't she just a bad guy in the first place. Just like the Last Stand, don't bother with an idea that is meant to add gravitas if you are just going to half *** it.

Can't turn a hoe into a housewife I guess lol. Yeah, I knew she was going to go bad. She stripped for money, so it would only make sense that money and power would sway her decision. I know that's mean, but hopefully there aren't any strippers in these forums lol. But seriously her motivation for going bad worked IMO.

And I don't remember specifically but did Beast build cerebro before Xavier was even there? If so that was a little too contrived. Its a prequel, show us why it happened not just that it happened. We already know it happened.

Yeah, I hate that Beast built all this stuff and that just answers the questions of how these things came to be. Especially seeing how Beast building cerebro contradicts Charles and Erik building it.

The scene where they all come up with their "codenames." All I could do was groan the entire time.

Seriously? He started calling himself Magneto because some tipsy college girl said "hehehehe you can be called Magneto hehehehe"?

Me too I was like wow talk about a clever introduction for codename's. Then again I guess Magneto works because wasn't "neto" a phrased you back in the 60s for something cool. "Oh Magnus you are so neto and you can control magnetism you're sooo Mag-neto." LOL.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

actually this was pretty great writing, I love how Eric basically made the same offer that Shaw did a few days earlier only that now shaw's words had been proven right. It's great how Eric had them hold hands and eveything just shaw. The brotherHood!

to be fair the holding hands thing, was so, that Azazel could teleport them

 

[Loganbabe]

And I don't remember specifically but did Beast build cerebro before Xavier was even there? If so that was a little too contrived. Its a prequel, show us why it happened not just that it happened. We already know it happened.

Exactly. I wanted to see Xavier more connected with the building of Cerebro, including more of his reaction after using it for the first time. It would be nice to see more individual character development for Xavier, but it seemed that the character was there to be subordinated to Magneto's arc. Vaughn even cut off his romantic relationship with Moira, his early scenes at Oxford and more Charles/Raven, which would've been something about Charles as one of the main protagonists, and not Erik/Charles as an entity.

I love the film, but it bugs me immensely that it was set up to be more of a Magneto solo movie than I had thought initially.

 

[Midnight Black]

Exactly. I wanted to see Xavier more connected with the building of Cerebro, including more of his reaction after using it for the first time. It would be nice to see more individual character development for Xavier, but it seemed that the character was there to be subordinated to Magneto's arc. Vaughn even cut off his romantic relationship with Moira, his early scenes at Oxford and more Charles/Raven, which would've been something about Charles as one of the main protagonists, and not Erik/Charles as an entity.

I love the film, but it bugs me immensely that it was set up to be more of a Magneto solo movie than I had thought initially.

Yeah, I mean if you think about it how could Beast know to build cerebro if he can't detect the brainspans of mutants and doesn't know how to or what to look for? They never say that he came into contact with any other mutants so he basically just built a machine hoping someday that some type of mutant could use it, a telepath perhaps.

Sorry they should have left this to something Charles and Erik shared in building in hopes of uniting mutants rather than Beast building it and not being able to work it.

 

[Marvin]

to be fair the holding hands thing, was so, that Azazel could teleport them

the the writing works, it works beautifully

 

[SuperDaniel]

The worst part for me was in a movie that deals with prejudice and racism, they killed the only black guy in it for no reason whatsoever. Im not black but that really didnt sit well with me. It almost ruined the entire thing.

Also, the horrible CG of the sub crashing in the island. That was pretty bad.

 

[fallenAngel]

Yeah, I mean if you think about it how could Beast know to build cerebro if he can't detect the brainspans of mutants and doesn't know how to or what to look for? They never say that he came into contact with any other mutants so he basically just built a machine hoping someday that some type of mutant could use it, a telepath perhaps.

Sorry they should have left this to something Charles and Erik shared in building in hopes of uniting mutants rather than Beast building it and not being able to work it.

It makes perfect sense that Beast would be involved in the design building process. He is the resident genius, but he should have been inspired by Charles later, and Magneto should have actually built it i.e. the heavy lifting.

 

[Nokio]

In response to some of the other comments I've read:

- Angel's sudden turn works cause she seemed like a bad girl type initially.

- Darwin's fate was necessary just to demonstrate how evil Shaw was, that he even contradicts what he said about killing their own kind.

- Emma Frost was dull when she spoke, you can blame it on the acting, but her character effectively showed no real loyalty for Shaw by the end keeping her sort of mysterious like she has her own agenda.



The thing I didn't like at all was how Henry McCoy was handled here.

Transformation was great but not the final look. Aside from that, he was the inventor of Cerebro, the Jet, and a government agent all at once. He provided the air base jumpsuit yellow uniforms too. The writers conveniently used him as the link to supply them with everything. Charles only provided the mansion.

Angel: would've made more sense if she left with Shaw cause she didn't have equal rights as a person of color in that era. Missed opportunity.

Darwin: I strongly disagree. His death served no purpose that I still do not see. If their was some type of established time frame that they all had formed a bond and knew each other but the kids had just met. He didn't know Angel and she was leaving of her on accord. If she was being taken by force and he tried to help her then I would've felt better about his death. I thought it was already established that Shaw was evil when he gunned down Erik's mother in cold blood.

Emma Frost: I didn't see where she wasn't loyal to Shaw or where her loyalty maybe was in question. Maybe in a sequel she joins with Xavier. Frost is after all an Xman and has been longer then she's been a villain in the comics. Maybe it's revealed that Prof X has known her all along and put her their with Shaw like he did in the comics with Tessa. I doubt it though. She was now put with Mags so he can have a telepath on his team and a baddie for Prof X to contend with no doubt. Based on what Magneto said when emma asked where his telepath friend is at and he says he was hoping she could fill that gap this will be the case. Plus Vaughan has said he wanted to do this telepathic battle but do to similarities with Inception they took it out.

Beast is a geneticist and was never a tech wiz, inventing gadgets for the Xmen. He's never been Tony Stark or Reed Richards. I guess they couldn't put Forge in their I've got no problem with the switch. Never cared much for the Forge character. I just want Beast to remain the tech wiz and not a Medical Dr now. I also missed the humor that Beast usually displays. I know they are just starting out but they could've hinted at it.

 

[Nokio]

Yeah, I mean if you think about it how could Beast know to build cerebro if he can't detect the brainspans of mutants and doesn't know how to or what to look for? They never say that he came into contact with any other mutants so he basically just built a machine hoping someday that some type of mutant could use it, a telepath perhaps.

Sorry they should have left this to something Charles and Erik shared in building in hopes of uniting mutants rather than Beast building it and not being able to work it.

Well it was said if I recall that Beast said he was setting up this machine or tower to read brainwaves and amplify them or something to that nature. I don't think they ever said that he was making a device to locate mutants. With Charles there he saw a way to actually make it work I think and that it could be used to find mutants. It also sounded to still be a work in progress or an incomplete invention. With Charles there Beast found in a telepath a missing component to make it work.

 

[Nokio]

The worst part for me was in a movie that deals with prejudice and racism, they killed the only black guy in it for no reason whatsoever. Im not black but that really didnt sit well with me. It almost ruined the entire thing.

Also, the horrible CG of the sub crashing in the island. That was pretty bad.

I agree. A missed part to me was where was this mutant persecution that would cause Mags to go the route he did? What Mutant persecution did he witness and experience? None at all in the movie. Humanity at large did not know mutants exist. I really think it was rushed to get Mags to be the villain. This is something that could've at least been explored more heavily in a second film. Erik and Charles looked to have known each other for no more then a few weeks based on the timing in the film. Months or years didn't go by. You need years to go to establish a close friendship. Attacks on and the persecution of Mutants needed to be established. I'm sorry but Erik 's experience of the Holocaust isn't enough of a justification for his future actions because as far as I know he is the only mutant to be a victim of it while the millions of others were human.

 

[conaniscool]

I agree. A missed part to me was where was this mutant persecution that would cause Mags to go the route he did? What Mutant persecution did he witness and experience? None at all in the movie. Humanity at large did not know mutants exist. I really think it was rushed to get Mags to be the villain. This is something that could've at least been explored more heavily in a second film. Erik and Charles looked to have known each other for no more then a few weeks based on the timing in the film. Months or years didn't go by. You need years to go to establish a close friendship. Attacks on and the persecution of Mutants needed to be established. I'm sorry but Erik 's experience of the Holocaust isn't enough of a justification for his future actions because as far as I know he is the only mutant to be a victim of it while the millions of others were human.

I don't remember him officially declaring "war" on humanity. He only wanted mutants to band together for now, for defense or something. Vaughn said that Mags and Charles are still friends, this was just a "minor" fight.