Here’s my breakdown.
-Opening was the same up until they got back to the mansion after the space mission. There was about maybe a minute more of Scott and Jean in their living area. Nothing too major but it helped flesh-out out their relationship more.
-There was a bit more of Raven and Hank in the sub basement, with Hank clarifying that raven wants to run away
with him, together, to start a new life together. I heard there was another scene also diving a bit more into their relationship but I didn’t see that.
-It also showed them running upstairs and through the school to the door to the grounds. The shockwave blows the door open and after their look of initial shock, they are sent flying back and hit a wall on the opposite end and fall on top of each other. So overall maybe an extra 3-5 minutes there.
-a small bit of Xavier leaving the banquet and getting loaded into an SUV and leaving with a convoy escort! Basically a presidential motorcade that speeds off and pulls into the institute.
-A tad bit more of Jean and her father of her being overjoyed. Everything after she switches is the same.
-A bit more of her fighting Nightcrawler. Nothing spectacular.
-I didn’t see any transformation scenes, not for Hank, not for Raven and not for Chastain. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t interpret them as shape shifters. The effects shots were likely not done. For instance, I’d see blue Raven and then the next shot would have JLaw.
- when The D’Bari land, what I saw was a shot of shooting stars over the lake with one of those ‘shooting stars’ slowing down and landing rather than one splitting into 3.
-The newscaster message about the mutant interments camps and the Jean Grey incident were played over Jean scrubbing blood in the rain. We didn’t hear Jean speak in my cut. Thankfully they changed that in the final because I loved Sophie’s acting.
-The scene of Chastain meeting the other D’Bari on the roof was different, for instance, no D’Bari and no mention of their homeworlds destruction. Notice how all of that is all off camera, you don’t see Chastain actually say any of those lines. It’s ADR, and in the one place you do see her say that, it’s out of context which was in the roof scene. It originally had her asking about humans, their chemical makeup, mutants, and someone mentions the X-Men and that the force has taken host within the member Jean Grey. This was much longer than the final cut.
-There was an additional scene of her meeting another that had long infiltrated the government and handing her an FBI badge and describing Earth’s governments. Probably another 5 minutes shaved off the total runtime with this cut.
-Jeans approach to Genosha had shown the inhabitants fearing her and beginning to run away until Selene and co stepped forward, who was noticeably absent here.
-Jeans conversation with Erik was slightly longer and ended on a different note, with her saying “or what” and her eyes flowing at him as she stood up.
-Erik’s line from the trailer was gone, which he was supposed to say right before she flew away. It was longer than we hear in the teaser trailer.
“I’ve seen evil, I know what it looks like when it’s staring back at me and I’m looking at it now”.
-Slightly longer scene of Chastain and her right hand arriving at Jeans house, starting with an overhead shot of her opening her umbrella which uses a different shot in the movie. There was also more of her walking up to the house.
-Jean and Chastain at the bar was longer. “You think you don’t belong here, you don’t”. That was cut.
-Some of Storm in the sub basement was cut. She had a line “Where Scott goes, I go. If he needs me, I’m there, end of discussion”
-Shot of the landed X-Jet in Central Park as we see Magneto and co walking up to Selene is cut.
-Basically all of Storm and Selene's fight choreography is cut, in addition to a few more moments of Selene using her powers to make Nightcrawler band around and get closer to her.
-Completely different structure for Erik getting thrown out of the window. The helmet breaking and him being thrown happened at the same time. I saw an overhead shot of it fracturing in every direction from his head and him being ejected out at the same time. It username an alternate take to show off Fassbenders reaction and fear from what I’ve been told.
-Hologram scene featuring the D’Bari home world destruction was redone. This is entirely different in good ways and bad ways. Notice most of their speech between each other doesn’t feature their mouth on screen.
-Jean was also to have slight fire in her hair in this scene, part of which was completed from the first original version of the film and wasn’t altered for the new 3rd act yet, which saw it removed.
*EVERYTHING after Jean stopping herself now from killing Xavier is from reshoots with the sole exception of the school rename and Summer Fontana’s astral plane scene.
-Most of Chastain’s lines after Jean stops attacking Xavier were new, Xavier was just supposed to say “she will kill us all” and she hisses “yessssss”
-Can’t remember if I saw it in the final cut or not but I’m almost certain that it’s cut. Vuk was supposed to have a full face reveal after she gets up on the roof after Scott blasted her, while they were all being carried away. Then we were to see her face heal over itself and her stare at the stars taking in her newfound heightened senses. Then she was to look down at the mutants being loaded up into armored vans.
-Scott had a speech about what Raven would have done that united both sides as they were captive. All that was cut, it was repetitive to Xavier’s speech but it should have gone to Scott.
-Train fight was mostly the same, hard to tell it was pre-viz when I saw it intercut with fresh, bare, footage. I did notice that they took a shot out of a ship flying above the train and a lot more alien soldiers raining down on the train.
-Chastain was supposed to do a superhero landing on the team, with the speed pushing her skin she grew out of place and it healing back. THEN she was to rush at Beast.
-PHOENIX FORMING AROUND JEAN AS IT INTERTWINED WITH THE TRAIN AS ITS CARS FLOATED IN THE SKY. Was entirely Pre-viz so probably cut for budget and impact of the space Phoenix.
-ALL of Jean’s fight choreography was cut. She was to have a massive fight with onslaughts of the aliens that were coming out of the rubble ending with her disintegrating then all after being stabbed with the pole.
-When Vuk rushes at Jean, Jean was supposed to dodge left and they had a brief fight before Vuk grabs her neck.
-Their exchange in space is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.
Vuk “
You could have been a God”
Jean
“I’d rather die a mortal”
-There was an additional shot back to the bar Jean and Chastain met in with the tv news now with Jean Grey as being remembered as a hero, having died while saving Earth from unknown forces.
Overall, I liked some of the tweaks pertaining to two scenes in particular for personal reasons, but I felt that the pacing was much stronger in the longer cut. All of the film’s non script related issues could have been avoided. With all of the above 22 minutes were cut, I was told.
I thought something felt familiar about that!
