1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Ellen Page as Shadowcat Nicholas Hoult as Beast Evan Peters as Quicksilver Halle Berry as Storm Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique 6. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine 7. Bingbing Fan as Blink 8. Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask 9. Patrick Stewart & James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier 10. Michael Fassbender & Ian McKellen as Magneto

It is very difficult to define Days of Future Past to someone who hasnt heard about it. Should it be referred to as a sequel, a prequel, a sequel to a prequel, a prequel to a sequel? It acts as a sequel to both X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class, but is also a prequel to the former in its featuring the characters of the latter. It also acts as a sequel

to Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine, and is a prequel to the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse or is it? Apocalypse is rumoured to focus almost entirely on the First Class cast, with Hugh Jackmans Wolverine reduced to nothing more than a cameo, and Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy taking the lead once again! Whatever you want to call Days of Future Past, theres no doubting its something very big, and something very special. Not since The Avengers have so many stars appeared in a film together, and not for many years has there been such a high-profile director comeback to a major franchise. Speaking of that cast, they have an innumerable amount of awards and

nominations between them. The four main female X-Men in the principal cast (Halle Berry, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page, and Anna Paquin) are all Academy Award nominees. The six principle male cast members (Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Peter Dinklage) are all Golden Globe nominees (Jackman and McKellen are also Academy Award nominees). Is it possible for there to be more actors in this film who are So Hot Right Now? Lawrence is currently the most famous person of Earth, with an Oscar win (and two additional nominations under her belt, alongside the lead role in the

most bankable franchise right now. Dinklage is riding high from three hugely successful seasons of HBOs Game of Thrones, the fourth of which will be on air when DOFP is released. Stewart and McKellen have just come off two years of Waiting for Godot on stage together. Fassbender is pretty much the Male Equivalent of Lawrence in his popularity. Seriously- if 20th Century Fox can find room in the marketing for all these stars, and their respective fanbases all turn up to see the film, we really are looking at the next Avengers here! As you most likely know, Days of Future Past is set on two separate timelines. The first is in the near future, several years after the events of Brett Ratners The Last Stand, where the (mutant) world has been ravaged by war. The

surviving X-Men need to use their powers to make up for what has happened, which involves sending SOMEONE from their gang back in time. In the comics, it was Ellen Pages Kitty Pryde who did the honours, but since a 20something actress was cast in the role, sending Kitty back to the 1960s timeline would result in a zygote being expected to fight and do super-stuff, which wouldnt make for great cinema. So, thanks to Jackmans star power, the producers realized that sending Wolverine back in time would result certainly in a more entertaining (and profitable) film. When Logan arrives in the 1960s (63 to be

Hugh Jackman (Wolverine)

Movie Taco is proud to present, over 5 pages, the cast of Bryan Singers Days of Future Past.

HALLE BERRY (STORM)

ELLEN PAGE (SHADOWCAT)

BINGBING FAN (BLINK)

exact), he must first free Fassbenders Past Magneto from a high-security prison. Why?, you ask, is handsome young Eric behind bars? The answer is blunt: because he murdered President Kennedy. Yup, Singer is at it again, meddling with the US history books (American History X, if you will). With Past Magneto and Past Xavier (James McAvoy) in tow, Jackman sets about saving the future by changing the past- which involves, in short, defeating Peter Dinklages villainous Bolivar Trask and his army of Sentinels. Bryan Singer and Peter Dinklage describe Boliver Trask as a peace-lover: "He sees the advent of the mutants as a way to unite people: when modern men came along it meant extinction for the

JENNIFER LAWRENCE (MYSTIQUE)

Neanderthal, and now humans are the Neanderthal, so this fight is for our survival as a species. He sees what he's doing as a good thing - his ambition is definitely blind. He's strove all his life for a certain respect and attention." Production designer John Myhre described the future Sentinels as having

MICHAEL FASSBENDER (MAGNETO) IAN MCKELLEN (MAGNETO)

EVAN PETERS (QUICKSILVER)

PETER DINKLAGE (BOLIVAR TRASK)

PATRICK STEWART (CHARLES XAVIER)

JAMES MCAVOY (CHARLES XAVIER)

evolved from machines into biomechanical weapons: "They are almost made up of magnetic plates slapped over one another, imagining that the plates could contract or grow, so the Sentinel can be skinny to get through a small space or the plates can open up to become a bigger shape. They have become virtually unstoppable - the ultimate version that can actually, in principle, stop the X-Men." Bryan Singer based the time travel in the film on string theory: "Until an object is observed, it hasn't really happened yet. The time-traveller whose consciousness travels through time I call The Observer, and until the Observer returns to where he travelled from, the result hasn't occurred yet. So he can muck about in the past and it isn't until he snaps back that the new future is set. As a result, we have parallel action, and there's underlying tension because there's always that threat Wolverine's consciousness could return to the future and leave the world in an even darker place." The addition of Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver to the cast sparked wide discussion over the direction of the character who is also slated to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Quicksilver had been discussed previously as a potential character in both X-Men: The Last Stand and The

Avengers, but legal complexities over the license to the character resulted in his omission from both films. However, in May 2013 both Marvel and Fox Studios announced a resolution to the previous legal issues, and that Quicksilver would appear in this film as well as an Avengers sequel, though under certain parameters: no reference to Quicksilver's membership in the Avengers can be made in an "X-Men" film, and no allusion to his relations to the X-Men or Magneto (the character's father) can be made in an "Avengers" film; the rights agreement between Fox and Marvel even goes so far as to stipulate the character cannot be referred to as a "mutant" in any Marvel film. Additionally, the day after the announcement of Peters's casting, Marvel and Fox entered into a legal standoff over provisions of the rights agreement for the character, including the issue of whether Peters would be allowed to portray Quicksilver in any other film outside the "X-Men" franchise, possibly necessitating a second actor to play Quicksilver in any Marvel film, resulting in two different versions of the same character appearing in two competing film series. As of May 2013, this dispute which also includes the character Scarlet Witch (Quicksilver's twin sister) has yet to be resolved.

Intended to be one of three Oscar Winners in DOFPs cast (along with Lawrence and Berry), it came as a shock to everyone when it was revealed that True Blood star Anna Paquin had been cut from the finished film, despite having only one scene in the first place. One of the main sex symbols of the original trilogy, Paquins Rogue even got an improved costume for the 2014 release (no more black leather!). Well miss you Anna!

If one were to ask any Marvel Studios employee what their brands main Unique Selling Point is, they
would almost certainly say that it is the fact that they do not see superhero as a genre, but as a framework for them to create genre films. The Iron Man trilogy are basically buddy-cop movies with cop replaced by billionaire playboy in magic armour, Thor is a Game of Thrones-esque fantasy adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy is Star Wars- with superheroes! Hence, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is really the first of the in-house Marvel films that doesnt fit into one cinematic genre- because its the first film that knows it is supposed to. At first, it is clear that the filmmakers (namely superproducer Kevin Feige, whose fingerprints are ALL OVER THIS, and Community and Arrested Development directors Joe and Anthony Russo) are aiming to make a modern version of the 70s conspiracy thriller, a fact highlighted in the marketing for the film and by the presence of the great Robert Redford in the cast. However, following some intelligently crafted political debates (largely involving Samuel L Jacksons Nick Fury and Redfords Alexander Pierce, SHIELDs representative on the World Security Council) and a thrilling raid on a boat in the

A WASHINGTON D.C. WINTERS TALE

Indian Ocean, everything goes a bit Hitchcock-shaped (a very good shape indeed, mind you) as Chris Evans eponymous patriot and Scarlett Johanssons stunning-as-always Black Widow (referred to almost exclusively as Natasha in this film) go on the run. THEN, right as the story is gliding along wonderfully, it seems that Marvel decided to suddenly make half a Warner/DC movie, and throw in a bunch of over-realistic, laughably inaccurate exposition scenes and twists which throw the action completely off-course and are far too confusing and implausible to be understood or accepted by even the most intellectual audience member, never mind the 9-12 year old children who make up a large percentage of the films core viewing demographic. Amidst all the craziness is Chris Evans, who continues to do extremely solid work in a role you know he wishes he hadnt signed up to play 7 films. As capable of handling both action and emotion as he is astonishingly handsome, he is the rock that stops the collection of ridiculously disconnected characters, storylines and ideas that is Captain America: The Winter Soldier from blowing away in the wind. Continuing this moderately successful analogy, Johansson is the nice flower next to the rock, Jackson is the hand that put the rock down and Redford is the head of the person whose hand put the rock down. And Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan and Emily VanCamp? Theyre probably part of the pile being held down by the rock, especially the latter two, whose presence in the film is questionable (yes, The Winter Soldier isnt the strongest thing about The Winter Soldier). Genre-switching and endless expositing aside, there are tremendous amounts of fun to be had here, with some top-notch action directing from the blockbuster-veteran Russo Brothers and the tightest script for a Marvel film since The Avengers. For the first time in several films, Marvels overlord input can be seen clearly throughout, with filmmaking decisions only Feige could have made as he sits in his lair plotting away as to how to continue his grasp on Hollywood for the next 15-20 years! There are cameos, there are explosions and there are all the staples of a good blockbuster adventure. But what do we want from The Winter Soldier? A good blockbuster adventure or something bigger (and better) than that? Thats arguably for each individual viewer to decide, but to this critic, it always seems like everyone either took an easy route and got something safe, or took a big risk and failed, throughout the film. The former is to be shrugged at, the latter to be celebrated. Without doubt, your Hollywood film-going year wont be complete until youve seen this film. Where doubt still rears its ugly head is whether or not your DECADE will be complete. Guardians of the Galaxy may be the next Citizen Kane, or it may be the next Big Mommas House 3. No matter what, Marvel are taking a risk with it, and thats very exciting indeed.

MARS ATTACKS!
In 2005, based purely on fan demand, Joss Whedon revived his short-lived cult FOX series Firefly with the superb feature film Serenity, which perfectly tied up all the loose ends of the FOX show whilst including all the fun of the characters and relationships, and Whedons trademark philosophical and theological themes. Whether or not Rob Thomas high publicised Kickstarter-funded reboot of his three-seasons-long The WB show succeeds to a similar extent, I havent a clue, as I frankly havent seen one frame of the Mars show. As someone who came into this film firmly from the outside, I can make two definitive statements. 1: This film does an excellent job of introducing the universe of the show to newcomers and quickly filling people like myself in on the various plot strands, tensions and relationships. 2: As a standalone crime thriller-comedy, this isnt very good. Sure, its got an excellent female lead in Kristen Bells Veronica, a no-holds-barred independent woman who dont take no shit from no man, as somebody somewhere might say. The characters seem very genuine, and the realism of the story is admirable, but in the end, theres nothing here that isnt on network TV every night of the week, and Thomas doesnt seem to have taken into account that he is working (pretty much) in the big leagues of FILM now (even if this did get a fairly limited release). The originality of the actual crime is lacking. However, im certain theres nothing here that the thousands who donated to make it exist wont be happy with, and my lack of interest in the finished product can quite deservedly be attributed to ignorance.

The World Holds Its Breath As Michael Bay Prepares To Give Everyone A Headache... Again! PLUS Edge of Tomorrow, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jupiter Ascending and more in our biggest issue of 2014! AND X-Men and Godzilla Reviewed!