All posts by James Henshaw

X-Men: Days of Future Past – First Look at Full Size Sentinel!

On Friday Bryan Singer gave us another peek behind the curtain for his upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past movie, this time revealing a full size Sentinel, and stood beside it for scale! As we reported last week, the X-Men: Days of Future Past marketing strategy seems to be really kicking into top gear now that The Wolverine and the other main summer super-hero movies are out of the way.

Sentinel

The Sentinels were first introduced in The X-Men (Vol. 1) issue #14 (Nov 1965) and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. According to Marvel canon, Sentinels are programmed to locate mutants, then capture or kill them. The Sentinel in Singer’s picture looks to be around 13 to 14 foot tall, which certainly gives it an imposing stature, but isn’t as nearly as tall as what we are used to in the comics were they are usually depicted as being around 3 stories tall.

Sentinel

As for the design itself? It differs significantly from the Sentinels we are used to in the comics and is even different in design from the Sentinel you may have spotted during the ‘Danger Room’ sequence in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the new design. I don’t think it evokes the terror that a Sentinel should. I do appreciate that things have to be redesigned with the times though. I also assume that within the context of the film they will also need to look a little cuddlier, being that they are initially introduced to the public as a policing force against the mutant threat.

Sentinel

Now, it is important to note that on the thigh of the Sentinel it does refer to them as SNTL2, what I expect is a mark-2 design. Bryan Singer did also caption the photo on Twitter with “Here’s to the next 50 years”. I suspect then that these may not be the only Sentinels featured in X-Men: Days of Future Past.  The recent viral posters also hint that they may get a little nastier.

Sentinel

X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters in the U.S.A on May 23, 2014. Let us know your thoughts on the new-look Sentinels below.

Kevin Smith Announces Tusk, Formerly The Walrus and the Carpenter

Last year Kevin Smith announced his retirement from writing and directing movies following the completion of Clerks III, bringing his career full circle. However, this no longer seems to be the case with Smith recently announcing via his Facebook page that Tusk, a film based on a Gumtree listing. Tusk will go into production in September in LA through Blumhouse Productions, with the intention of having it ready for Sundance 2014.

 

So what is Tusk?

Continue reading Kevin Smith Announces Tusk, Formerly The Walrus and the Carpenter

‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ – Viral Website Reveals Bolivar Trask and Sentinels!

That Bryan Singer is one sneaky little bleeder. Over the past few months Singer has done a superb job at raising the excitement levels of X-Men: Days of Future Past by dropping sneaky little Tweets and Instagram shots of new characters, costumes, set design and those beautiful character posters during Comic Con.

Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask

Now the promo job seems to have set itself into viral mode with the launch of www.Trask-Industries.com. The website itself was launched a little while ago during San Diego Comic Con, but at that time there was very little up on the site. Today there seems to have been a major update that gives us our first shot of everyone’s favorite Lannister, Peter Dinklage, in full 70’s Bolivar Trask get up.

We are also treated to a great little propaganda style Trask Industries infomercial explaining how, if the X-Gene is allowed to continue propagating without limit, that homo sapiens could cease to exist by the year 2030.

The website also gives us a nifty little bit of X-history with a timeline of the Sentinel program as well as the big reveal of the Sentinels themselves.

First Look at a Sentinel in DoFP

Now, this all sets up the premise and tone of the film very nicely and obviously starts to point us towards the dystopian future that Wolverine, Kitty Pride and the rest of the X-team inhabit. I imagine that most of the material used here, or at least the premise it sets up, will be covered briefly within the opening scenes or credits of the film once it is released. In the meantime it gives us good insight into were they are going with the film. One of X-Men: First Class’ main accomplishments I feel was the tone. By the looks of things so far, Bryan Singer has really picked up on that and is stylistically aiming to conjoin the two cinematic threads.

I particularly like the ‘Mutants are the Enemy’ posters that were popping up around SDCC and on the web. which you can see more of at the link above.

Mutants are the Enemy promo for Days of Future Past

There are a few things that worry me about X-Men: DOFP, though. I loved X-Men: First Class. In my opinion it was the strongest of all the X-films (I wonder how many more X-idioms I can use). It’s my opinion that the film that X-Men: DOFP bridges First Class with (X-Men: The Last Stand) is probably the worst. Singer revealed to UK magazine Empire that the future set parts take place 10 years after The Last Stand. This leaves a lot of questions to be answered, such as how Professor X is now inhabiting the body of Patrick Stewart again, and not that bloke in the bed who he ‘mind-swapped’? Also, there does seem to be a rather bloated cast. Will there be enough time to give them all the screen time they deserve and not turn it into the cameo fest that was The Last Stand.

Sentinels and the Government in DoFP

Ultimately, this could all be explained very easily and done satisfyingly. I for one am more excited to see this and hopefully Singer and co. will pull out all the stops to avoid X-fanboy ire.

X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on May 23, 2014.