X-Men: Days of Future Past / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Bolivar Trask's dwarfism in this film has cast his antagonism of the mutant race in this light for some viewers. He either admires mutants and just sees them as a means to an end for protecting Earth, or he resents that he was born with a mundane and useless mutation while all other mutants have won some form of Super Power Lottery. Note that this is an interpretation Peter Dinklage and Bryan Singer disagree on; Singer brought the theory up as a possibility, while Dinklage was strongly opposed (the man has made "not playing a dwarf" his life's ambition). And to the movie's credit, no one ever really mentions or even seems to notice that Trask is a dwarf (except maybe that one senator during the first congress hearing who subtly compares him to a Neanderthal). If he were played by a non-dwarf actor, almost nothing would need to be changed.
- Had future Magneto truly undergone a Heel–Face Turn, or was he just stuck in an Enemy Mine situation, in which he didn't so much regret his actions, as the consequences they brought? His last words to Charles before bleeding to death, however, suggest that there is at least some sincere remorse on his side.
- Did future Magneto honestly believe 70s Magneto would help Wolverine and co. and that him going rogue was unforeseen, or was it all part of his plan? He might not have known how his younger self would react, but his little smirk when commenting the plan might work after all implies something more.
- Based on his portrayal in this movie, was Toad always a Super Supremacist or was his treatment during and after the Vietnam War a Cynicism Catalyst?
Broken Base:
- The Cosmic Retcon done to X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine due to the events of this film. To some, it's great news because of the lackluster reception those films got, while others who liked those films feel it's disrespectful to the other directors to retcon them out of existence entirely. The status of the first two X-Men films is also up for debate, especially given the more sympathetic approach to Mystique, which is at odds with the murderous Mystique seen early on in the films. The Wolverine is also erased, but since Wolverine still remembers the events of that film, it isn't as bad.
- The decision to make Wolverine the main character of the storyline when Kitty Pryde was in the comics, as well as pushing Kitty into what was Rachel's role, which involved giving her completely different powers out of the blue. It makes more sense with the movie series's established plotline (Wolverine is sent back via Mental Time Travel to the 1970's and Kitty hasn't been born yet), but it's still a bitter pill for Kitty fans and people who wanted to see another X-Men movie where Wolverine was NOT the main character. Of course, it also goes in reverse; many fans who have stuck with the series since the release of X1 have argued that the film would have had a drastically reduced emotional impact if we had Kitty instead of Logan, seeing as how little screen time she had in the previous movies. Although Logan's role in the movie is fairly minor; in the 1970's, he takes a backseat to Charles, Erik, and Raven.
- Some reviewers of The Rogue Cut thought the new scenes helped flesh out the story and characters, while others saw them as Padding that ruined the pace. Though for the latter group, this is somewhat migitated by the fact that the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of this cut include the theatrical version as well.
Common Knowledge: It's often stated that despite saving a load of people in his appearances, Peter is only ever thanked by Logan. But Charles actually does thank Peter for his help when dropping him off at the plane.
Continuity Lock-Out: Very few would argue that the film strikes with full impact if one has skipped some or all of the other X-Men films. At the very least X-Men: The Last Stand, which explains Logan spazzing out over the random redhead (a very much alive Jean Grey) at the end and X-Men: First Class, which explains... everything else.
Dancing Bear: The omnipresent Stan Lee does not make any cameo in the film. He explained that "It also could be they didn't want me to do the cameo because, without my cameo, the movie will make more money... You see, somebody watches the movie and the movie ends and the person says, 'Wow, I didn't see Stan's cameo. I must have missed it.' So what do they do? Right back to the box office, buy another ticket, and watch the movie again. So I think it's a big moneymaking ploy on the part of the producers."
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Blink is one of the highlights of the movie because of her unique look and creative uses of her power in the action scenes. Most fans predicted this, since the character's comic counterpart is already a pretty big fan-favorite, and for the exact same reasons, no less.
- Evan Peters' Quicksilver appears in only one part of the movie (breaking Magneto out of prison), but his fun, mischievous personality endeared him with many and the "Time in a Bottle" sequence is considered one of the best X-Men movie scenes ever. He got more screentime in the sequels, and became the second actor to reprise his character in the MCU^note.
Even Better Sequel: While First Class was well-liked by fans for bringing the X-Men series back on track, DOFP has been even more well-received and cited by a few reviewers as the best of the X-Men movies. It even currently has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score in the main series at 91%, placing DOFP among the best-reviewed Marvel movies of all, Marvel Cinematic Universe or otherwise. The movie has also become the top-grossing main series X-Men film in terms of worldwide box office by far, usurping the position previously held by The Last Stand.
Fandom Rivalry:
- As with Sony's Amazing Spider-Man films, many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe criticized this film just for existing and maintaining FOX's hold on the X-Men film rights, since they wish the rights would go to Marvel Studios (as they would eventually in 2017). All the more since the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Quicksilver had already appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and later in Avengers: Age of Ultron. And then there were accusations of Marvel trying to undermine Fox's success by downplaying its X-Men marketing in the comics and cancelling its Fantastic Four titles, while playing up lesser-known concepts such as the Guardians of the Galaxy and especially the Inhumans. Given that most of these franchise's box office draw comes from movie goers and not comic fans, however, one has to wonder how people got this assumption.
- Note that this MCU rivalry is different for X-Men than for The Amazing Spider-Man (which has a Fandom Rivalry with DOFP in its own right). Due to DOFP's very positive reception, the rivalry is less "they're turning the series into a Franchise Zombie just to hold on to the rights"^note and more "which Marvel movie series/universe is better".^note
Fan Nickname:
- "The Incredible Hank" for Beast due to him Hulking Out every-time he gets agitated. There is also "Hulk McCoy."
- In order to avoid using the terms like Younger/Older, Past/Future, and 1973/2023 to differentiate between the two Professor Xs and the two Magnetos in this movie, some fans refer to James McAvoy's Charles as "McXavier" and Michael Fassbender's Erik as "Fassneto."
- 1973 Xavier is occasionally called "Hippie Jesus Charles."
Harsher in Hindsight: The movie's ending becomes this due to the Happy Ending Override brought about by Logan. Wolverine's comical interaction with Cyclops and Jean, as well as his heartwarming reunion with Xavier, become much harder to watch with the knowledge that the former two will be killed in the following movie, while the latter will succumb to a neurodegenerative disease.
Heartwarming in Hindsight:
- McCoy asks Charles, "Are you sure you should've let them [Magneto and Mystique] go?", and Xavier's reply is, "I have hope for them. There's going to be a time, Hank, when we're all together." He's half-right, because Raven does come home to him in X-Men: Apocalypse as his team's Number Two. Although Erik doesn't stay after he helps Jean to rebuild the school, he and Charles do reconcile, and Lehnsherr's farewell hints that he'll return to visit some day.
- The farewell scene between Xavier and Peter turned out to be an important piece of Foreshadowing because Quicksilver becomes Professor X's protégé after the Final Battle of X-Men: Apocalypse. In 1973, it was Charles (and not Erik, who was the subject of the prison break) who had thanked Maximoff for his help, gave the teen a task which required some responsibility (i.e. returning the rental car), and offered him a paternal-sounding "Take it slow" as a goodbye, which made Peter grin. That small gesture ended up carrying a lot of meaning because Quicksilver chooses Xavier as his Parental Substitute over his own father a decade later.
- The older Professor X reassures his younger self that empathy is "... the greatest gift we have: to bear their pain without breaking." That must have sounded like a bold statement to his 1973 self because at the time, he regarded his psychic nature as a grave weakness, but his elderly self is proven right in X-Men: Apocalypse. Xavier shoulders the burden of Jean Grey's distress over her telepathy, and this forges a strong father-daughter-like connection between them. Through The Power of Love, he helps her to conquer her fears during the climax, and she is able to use the Phoenix Force to save his life and the world.
He's Just Hiding: Not every fan is willing to write off Emma, Sean and Riptide as dead despite Magneto's claims, given how their autopsy photos don't appear and they could have been kept prisoner alive somewhere. Adding to this is existence of Theresa Cassidy (who Sean would have been too young to father if Trask did kill him in the seventies) in the original trilogy, as well as Sean's name appearing on a list of (presumably active) mutants in X2.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Has its own page.
Ho Yay:
- When the younger Charles loses his temper with Erik on the plane, his outburst demonstrates quite clearly that Erik's betrayal in First Class (where their friendship had only lasted a few months) had hurt him a lot more than Raven's (who grew up with him as a sister figure for 18 years).
- Of course, that's probably at least partially because he's the one that told Raven to go with Erik, but still...
  Charles: YOU ABANDONED ME!!! You took her away, and YOU ABANDONED ME!!!
- When Logan asks Hank as to why Charles is in such bad shape, Hank lists Erik before Raven and the spinal cord injury, implying that the loss of Erik upset Charles more than the other two.
  Hank: He lost everything: Erik, Raven, his legs...
- After Charles punches Erik very hard in the face, not only does Erik not retaliate at all (it's extremely rare for him to not respond to violence with violence), but he simply wipes his mouth where he was hit as he cheerfully greets Charles without any sarcasm. After believing for 11 years that he'd never see Charles again (and 10 of those were spent in solitary confinement), Erik is so darn grateful to be in Charles' presence once more that he isn't the least bit angry by the latter's punch.
  Erik: Good to see you, too, old friend.
- Without any context, this scene would look like Erik and Charles are engaged in a romantic Held Gaze. This io9 article mentions "Young Professor X and Magneto smoldering at each other!" as one of the highlights of the trailer.
- Considering that chess is sometimes used as a metaphor for romance and sex, there is a slight Double Entendre when Erik attempts to persuade Charles to join him for a game of chess as a peace offering.
  Charles: It's been a while since I've played.
  Erik: I'll go easy on you.
- Ian McKellen wishes there was a scene of Erik making love to Charles... only to reveal that "Charles" was Mystique in disguise. (So what the actor is suggesting is that Magneto only became romantically involved with Mystique because he couldn't have Xavier.)
  McKellen: I thought it would be wonderful to have a scene in which you saw Magneto waking up, probably making love to [...] Mystique, and it would begin with Magneto making love to Professor X who turns into her. Wouldn't that be fun?
- Hank staying behind with Charles and taking care of him for a decade. James McAvoy even joked about the inherent slash-iness of the two characters in this interview.
  McAvoy: Hank is my enabler and my bitch.
  - There's a brief moment in the Gag Reel on the Blu-Ray/DVD release where Nicholas Hoult lifts James (who is much shorter than his younger co-star) into his arms and performs a Bridal Carry.
Hype Backlash: The film is hyped as being a return to form for the X-Men films, mitigating all the troubling qualities of the previous installment (and with the following movies -saving perhaps Apocalyspe- turning off some people for being too dark and/or of poorer quality), and is said to be as good as the Marvel Cinematic Universe films or even better than the average MCU one; in other words, it's very, very hyped up. For some, it really doesn't live up to it, especially those who still see many of the same issues as before creeping in.
I Knew It!: On the "Fridge" tab for X-Men: First Class on This Very Wiki, one troper actually proposed the theory that Magneto was responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy about three years before that became a major plot point in this movie—although in the actual movie, Magneto is imprisoned for assassinating Kennedy, but insists that he actually tried to save him (it's left to the audience to decide whether he's telling the truth).
Improved by the Re-Cut: This film has The Rogue Cut, an alternate version of the film with 17 minutes of additional footage, released on Blu-ray/DVD in 2015. It is generally considered an improvement over the theatrical cut due to adding a subplot involving Rogue and giving other characters a bit more development.
Mentor Ship: There has been a small, but noticeable increase in Charles/Logan◊ shippers thanks to James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman sharing a lot of screentime together. It's a pairing that works both ways because Logan counsels the younger Xavier in this movie, but Professor X is Wolverine's mentor in the original trilogy.
Moral Event Horizon: Much of the film's plot is built around Charles, Hank, and Logan trying to prevent Raven/Mystique from crossing her (In-universe) MEH of killing Trask. Erik tries to stop her at first, but tries to push her into murdering humans when her blood is taken anyway.
Narm: Here.
Narm Charm: The 1973 scenes may look a tad colorful and flamboyant, if not outright dorky, to a 21st century audience. But they really do give an authentic '70s feel and even add to the tension.
Older Than They Think: This film introduced mainstream audiences to the character of Blink, whose power is essentially to create portals. This resulted in many people saying the character must've been inspired by the video game Portal, even though the character Blink predates that game by over a decade.
One-Scene Wonder:
- Quicksilver appears briefly to help break Erik out of prison, being both marvelous and hilarious in the process.
- The guy in The Stinger (Apocalypse) also leaves a mark.
- While they appear in several scenes, most of the future mutants appear for such a small amount of time, but have such impressive fight scenes that it can lead to this.
Only the Creator Does It Right: Cemented by having Bryan Singer back in the director's chair and getting an overwhelmingly positive reception, with many calling it the best mainline X-Men film in the franchise.
Pandering to the Base:
- The Cosmic Retcon of the two most disliked movies in the series, as mentioned under Author's Saving Throw and Broken Base, can be seen as this. Even more so since among the things retconned out is Origins' reviled version of Deadpool, which eventually opened the door to a more faithful version of the popular character.
- Making Kitty the key to sending people into the past may have been an attempt to placate the fans who were mad that Logan was sent back instead of her. In this case, it's something that only pleased some of the base.
Portmanteau Couple Name: "Xavierine" for Xavier/Wolverine and "Cherigan" for Charles/Erik/Logan.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Before the movie's release, Evan Peters' portrayal of Quicksilver was already being highly criticized for a) not being the same as Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Avengers: The Age of Ultron and b) his costume, which many called ridiculous. When the people got to see him in the film, the public's opinion of him changed radically after the Pentagon kitchen scene.
Salvaged Story:
- Magneto's helmet, while still recolored red from its natural silver color, is a lot darker and a lot less goofy-looking than what he wore at the end of First Class. It applies to the rest of his costume too. Since so many laughed their asses off at his costume back then, it's pretty obvious why the change was made.
- Given how poorly X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were received by fans and critics alike, them being retconned out of existence by the ending of the movie qualifies. Most fans are content to pretend those two films didn't exist, although some still take issue with it. Mitigated a little by the fact that the events of these movies still happened in the original timeline, and are still remembered by Logan (in fact, the film telegraphs this in dialogue early on), but were changed after the effects of Wolverine's journey settled in.
- X-Men and X2: X-Men United were much better received, but for ages people have complained about how Wolverine tended to steal the spotlight from the other X-Men, most notably the team leader Cyclops. Although he's a major player in this film, he certainly doesn't hog the spotlight nearly as much, as much of the ensemble (Professor X and Mystique especially) get a greater degree of screentime. The events of those films may have still happened, but only in Broad Strokes, as the Cosmic Retcon of the movie more or less leaves the revised future a blank slate. This has given the other X-Men their chance to shine in future films, including Cyclops as his death in The Last Stand was undone.
- Xavier's fans were extremely annoyed when he was given the Angst? What Angst? treatment in X-Men: First Class after the trauma he had experienced during the climax, so Days of Future Past rectifies this by revealing that Charles had bottled up his emotions as a coping mechanism, but the dam he had placed over his pain finally bursts when he's forced to close his school after a single semester. Moreover, First Class was heavily advertised as containing two lead characters of equal importance, but in truth, Magneto was the main protagonist, so those who liked Xavier more were understandably disappointed. Bryan Singer, a Professor X fanboy, balances out this inequality by giving the younger Charles the most Character Development in the sequel.
- A small one, but this film explains how Hank could be Beast in X-Men: First Class, but appear human on TV in X2, and how Xavier could have the use of his legs in X3 and Origins. ^note
Ships That Pass in the Night: Blink and Warpath have been fairly popular with fans, despite the two of them not sharing any dialogue with each other.
Signature Scene:
- The conversation between the younger and older Professor X. Pretty much every trailer either began with or ended with the two Xaviers facing one another, a metaphorical and literal meeting of the prequels and the modern-day.
- Peter's Bullet Time run through the Pentagon kitchen is one of the most famous parts of the film and has been endlessly referenced and parodied in pop culture.
Special Effects Failure:
- The special effects are extremely top notch, but there are times when the '70s-era Sentinels (notably the one that Magneto places metal into on the train) look off.
- In the stinger, Apocalypse's pyramid-forming looks a bit on the conspicuous side.
- The triumphant moment of Mystique smiling at Xavier and Beast after refusing to kill Trask is somewhat marred by the dodgy CGI effects used on her eyes when she looks over at them. The compositing of the CGI makes it look like she's going cross-eyed.
- Beast, where in his other appearances looks very feline, here looks like Teen Wolf...
Spiritual Adaptation:
- Guy gets sent to the past to save someone whose death is a crucial factor in the current Robot War. Sounds familiar... However, the film is based on a comic book that pre-dated Terminator. And Bryan Singer even asked James Cameron for advice on pulling off time travel.
- Ever wondered what a big-budget Portal movie adaptation would look like? Blink's fight scenes give you a pretty damn good idea.
Strawman Has a Point: The film presents the inverse of the situation seen in X1. This time, it's the government who takes the side of the mutants at Trask's Senate hearing and refuse to give the funding he needs to create the Sentinel program. The problem is that Trask has very well-founded fears that the audience can sympathize with. He correctly points out that the U.S. and Russia nearly went to war in the course of a single battle as a result of mutant intervention (which they officially deny, but are later seen to have removed several pieces of clothing and technology from and stored). After the Paris Peace Accord incident, he then points out that the participants include a man who can direct metal (and is the prime suspect/convicted prisoner in the death of a sitting U.S. President), another who believes that mutants will drive humanity into extinction, and a third who can shapeshift into anyone and order a nuclear strike if she felt like it. It doesn't justify his genocidal tendencies towards mutants, but there are some very real fears.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The film is not only seen as a massive improvement on X-Men: The Last Stand by critics and fans alike, but it even goes the extra mile by erasing the previous movie's controversial plot elements from the film canon via Cosmic Retcon.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Wolverine being the one to travel back in time rather than Shadowcat, who did so in the original storyline. Part of the reason this causes backlash is that Shadowcat's role has been played by another character before, by Bishop in the '90s cartoon (presumably in an attempt to capitalize on the then-recently introduced character's popularity) and by Professor X more-or-less in Wolverine and the X-Men (2009).
- Pietro being renamed 'Peter' to Americanize him is also a point of contention for some. Especially as it comes after the many times the films have turned non-American characters into Americans, including changing their names to more American sounding ones.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- The only mutants in the future who get any meaningful dialogue are Xavier and Magneto, with the rest essentially being glorified cameos, even established characters like Storm, Iceman, and Kitty Pryde. This is mostly a result of several scenes cut from the film in order to keep the runtime short.
- Bishop in particular. Although the '90s Anti-Hero fad burned out a long time ago, he remains a rather popular character (very much like Cable) and enjoys the honor of having been the character sent back in the 90's animated adaptation of the storyline (which is presumably why he appears in this film and is the first character seen using the travel). However, his film version lacks any meaningful background or motivations, shows a notably different personality, and barely has any lines at all. As this is the only film in the franchise to deal with one of the X-Men's many potential future timelines, many people would have wanted to see his character used for something more than being one of many red shirt heroes.
- Those hoping for more of the First Class mutants in future installments had their hopes dashed when nearly all of them were killed offscreen. Unless said characters are revealed to be Not Quite Dead (which certainly could happen with Emma Frost as she was not among the autopsies of confirmed dead mutants) or come Back from the Dead, they aren't going to be used again—which is a bit strange when you consider that this movie resurrected every other character.
- Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch is reduced to a baby Mythology Gag rather than exploring her as a character and relationship with Quicksilver and Magneto. The Rogue Cut extending this scene doesn't help much either, as Ms. Maximoff mentions a second sister who never appears on-screen.
- With Banshee's sudden death between First Class and this film, he can't possibly be the father of Siryn like in the comics.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: At the end of the film, pre-Adamantium Wolverine is dredged out of the Potomac River and released into Stryker's custody. Only it's not actually Stryker, but Mystique in disguise. Stryker getting his hands on Logan in such a manner would have been the perfect way to maintain the connection between their characters and subject him to Weapon X. Fortunately for the detractors, the next film put this issue to bed by essentially retconning it away.
Too Cool to Live: The two strongest mutants of the future team are taken out before the final battle against the Sentinels can properly take place. Magneto is mortally wounded when a piece of shrapnel pierces his stomach, while Storm is impaled in an ambush attack by a surviving sentinel before the rest of the army shows up.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?:
- Despite having the same age rating as most other superhero films, the film goes so far with some of the deaths in the Bad Future that it should have received a higher age rating. The opening scene is disturbing and highly non-child-friendly.
- Wolverine's naked ass, after getting out of a bed that was also occupied by a naked woman.
Win Back the Crowd: With the success of The Avengers (2012), some fans began clamoring for the X-Men characters to return to Marvel Studios. Aside from the obvious crossover potential, those fans thought that Fox wouldn't be able to do the series as much justice as Marvel would. It was then up to Fox to prove that they could. Word of God from the creators was that the film was specifically conceived as an "apology" to everyone who was disappointed with X-Men: The Last Stand.
The Woobie:
- Charles. His whole world has collapsed around him, he's plagued by bad dreams, and has basically become a drug junkie. He is very clearly in need of major hugs.
- Everybody in the bad future. They've clearly been through hell and especially Bishop, since he's usually the one who goes back in time to warn the rest of them after a Sentinel attack. It gets into Nightmare Fuel territory when you think about how many times he must have had to hear his friends being brutally murdered behind him while hoping that he and Kitty will be fast enough to alter the timeline.
- Future Magneto when he holds Xavier's hand as he's dying and laments that they wasted so many years fighting each other when they should have been working together all along.
- Raven, who has had many former friends killed, sees what they were put through For Science!, and wants to kill Trask for it, and still shows herself to be very conflicted and uneasy about doing it.
- Wolverine. His life has been one tragedy after another. Despite Past!Charles being in a terrible place, his reaction to reading Logan's mind is one of shock and sympathy.
  Charles: You poor, poor man.
- Kitty, who gets sliced to hell when Logan freaks out in the past and spends the rest of the movie trying to hold him there while slowly bleeding to death. By the end, she's openly crying in pain, but she doesn't let go. The Rogue Cut changes this. She still gets stabbed, but is only able to hold on for so long before Rogue is brought in to replace her. Rogue mentions to Kitty that Bobby didn't make it, which only increases the grief in the room.
- In The Rogue Cut, Rogue has spent years being experimented on to further the Sentinel Program and the moment she is freed doesn't mean she's any better off. Especially since her ex-boyfriend is killed in front of her eyes. Also, watch her face when one of the Sentinels bursts into the monastery, ready to fire. She knows it is the end.
- Thankfully several of these tragedies are undone when the Bad Future timeline is erased.
WTH, Costuming Department?:
- Magneto's chest piece gets flak for looking cheap and silly. Also, Magneto of both past and future has a cape with one half full and the other half only a half cape, making some bizarre 3/4 cape. It sort of makes sense for Future Magneto (fashion choices are limited in a Bad Future), but then his 70's self rolls out with it and we're left to assume that, no matter how many options Magneto has, he just has no taste in clothing.
- While the mostly dark or black future outfits aren't bad by any means, there have been a lot of complaints for them being rather dull and unmemorable. This is a problem people have had with the costumes since the first film, with the exception of the blue and yellow costumes from First Class.
- Quicksilver's outfit also generated a lot of grumbling over the silver jacket and such, although this dialed down after the movie's release.

YMMV / X-Men: Days of Future Past

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