I don't worry much about film adaptations staying loyal to their literary origins. Resemblance is one thing, but too literal translations strike me as boring and somewhat pointless. However, I do have a strange obsession with internal continuity.
Last November I reacted to a Days of Future Past announcement by listing ten (or X -- get it?) X-Men film franchise continuity problems and how they might try to fix them. My anticipation continued to build until the movie's release, and all the positive reviews that came out last week led me to believe my expectations would be fulfilled. Was I right? See the updated tables below (which contain spoilers).
But in the spirit of not obsessing over little things like continuity, here are the things I really liked about Days of Future Past (again, beware of spoilers):
- Singer's signature style (opening and closing monologues, Magneto prison break, Mystique being awesome, etc.).
- Quicksilver.
- The joke implying Magneto is Quicksilver's father (per the comics).
- The homage to Magneto ripping out Wolverine's adamantium in the comics.
- The futuristic frame story as a "ticking clock" device for conflict and tension.
- Blink. Well, pretty much all the future team members who die twice. But especially Blink.
- The fact that Anna Paquin's Rogue has only a very small cameo. (She was my favorite character as a kid but the movie version doesn't do her justice.)
- The return of James Marsden's Cyclops! (I'll admit I like the actor more than the character.)
A few things I didn't like:
- No return of Moira from First Class.
- We wait seven films for an actual fight with the Sentinels (the homage in Last Stand doesn't count) and Wolverine is stuck with lousy bone claws!
- The strange ending with Mystique as Stryker. What in the world was that about?
- The disappointingly cryptic post-credits Apocalypse teaser.
- And, of course, the continuity stuff...
