X-Men: Days Of Future Past... No, Really

      Whether you read the initial comic books or watched any of the animated series, you have always wanted to see “X-Men: Days of Future Past” on the big screen. Not too long ago Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2 Director… First Class Producer) announced that the sequel to X-Men: First Class will be loosely based on the classic story from the comics, Days of Future Past. Every mutant fanboy has waited to see this classic story come alive in a big budget film since it’s original release in 1981. But I fear we shouldn’t get excited just yet. While there are plenty of reasons to suggest that this comic-to-movie idea will be great, we must consider what is needed in order for this film to be a success.

       First Class brought the mutant franchise back to life after the disappointing “Last Stand” and mediocre “Wolverine” films. It established brand new characters and revamped classic ones like Xavier and Magneto. One thing that Days of Future Past needs to do completely different from its predecessor is stay away from creating a “prequel.” The filmmakers of First Class must think we fans are completely clueless; to attempt to convince us that First Class was a prequel when countless errors were made in regard to that assumption: Alex Summers being born before Scott, Beast being “hairy” then not, and much more.

    Some quick, key elements that should be incorporated in the film include:

-       Sentinels, Sentinels, an army of Sentinels. They are a nearly endless, unstoppable force, worthy of battling the X-Men of the present and the future.

-       We all liked the cast of First Class, so we want to see as many of them return as possible. Also, since the story takes place in the future this is a great time to introduce new characters to the films; classic mutants like Bishop.

-       Trying to replace Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is like replacing Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, it can’t be done, so bring him back to the new film as an “older” Wolverine, trying to save the future alongside Bishop.

         The great thing about comic book movies (and what makes the majority of them a treat to watch) is the fact that the creators have years and years of classic characters and stories to examine and recreate. In my opinion, when a superhero film tries to create too much out of nothing it usually doesn’t end too well. First Class was a success due to the many references to the classic comics. This is very important in this case, especially when a very delicate and unique story like Days of Future Past is being used. My impeccable advice to the filmmakers is: try to make it as similar to the comics as you can. I’ll be happy, X-Men fans will be happy and you will be happy knowing you just created yet another successful X-Men film.

Marvel Series That Ended Too Soon

     It happens all the time, whether it was receiving bad reviews or because the company was being purchased by someone else, some good TV shows just get cancelled and there is nothing that die hard fans can do about it. Three series come to mind, Marvel series to be exact that ended too soon. Each one could have easily pulled off two more marvelous seasons but for whatever the reason, each show ended too soon. Spiderman: Unlimited, Wolverine And The X-Men and The Spectacular Spiderman. I didn’t think much about these series’ abrupt endings until I began watching the new Ultimate Spiderman series and it got me thinking. I’m a fan of the Ultimate series, its been pretty good so far, but I cant help but thinking that, a) This series only exists due to the Spectacular’s cancellation and b) is it too soon for yet another Spidey cartoon?

     In 1999, legendary cartoon shows of the 90’s were coming to an end and most of us thought we wouldn’t see another good superhero cartoon for at least another couple years. Then the WB released an icon in Batman Beyond, set in the same universe as the renowned Batman: The Animated Series, but 50 years in the future. The series was a huge success right from the start and the boys at DC loved it. Marvel began to take notice, although their successful series of the decade like The X-Men, Ironman and Spiderman had ended, Marvel still wanted to compete. So they took their most successful character (old Web-Head) and revamped him the way that DC revamped Batman, creating Spiderman: Unlimited. Taking place some time after the previous Spiderman series finale, it appears that Peter has found the long lost Mary Jane and is living happily with her, until he need to travel to an alternate Earth in order to save John Jameson, the astronaut. Along with a new, high-tech suit, Spiderman encounters alternate versions of The Vulture, Green Goblin and Kraven, not to mention his own versions of Venom and Carnage who followed Jameson to this other world for their own devilish reasons. The premise of the first season was to help Jameson and the rebels take down the High Evolutionary and his band of genetically altered animals so that he and John could return back to their own world, but in the season finale, while stopping the High Evolutionary, Venom and Carnage unleash the Synoptic, a large monster-like symbiote that begins its attack on the city, and then, Boom! Cancelled! Well, it didn’t quite happen that fast. The network is was running on wanted the air time for shows with better ratings so they eventually decided to cut the series from their network. The series only lasted 13 episodes and never made it to a second season. The plot of the next season would have involved the rebels working together with the Beastials to destroy the symbiotes. In my opinion, that would have made damn good television.