Like the 2000 film that started the franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past opens with a holocaust. But unlike the first movie’s Nazi Germany past which gave the metalhead Magneto his tortured origins, this holocaust takes place in a horrific future (and not just horrific because movies like X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine still exist). Continue reading…
Last night’s Academy Awards were in many ways predictable, rife with the pomp, circumstance, film montages that are supposed to recall the majesty of movies, awards for mostly unsurprising recipients, and almost-funny jokes that we’ve all come to expect. On a side note, one of the evening’s sole surprises was that Hugh Jackman proved to be a very competent master of ceremonies, perhaps, precisely because he is not a comedian with neutered material suitable for prime-time broadcasting. His lack of professional hilarity made it okay to laugh at any semblance of humor, and helped to numb—though not completely alleviate—the pain of Jon Stewart not being asked to host again.
But amidst all of the evening’s self-importance and manufactured magic, something quite wonderful did happen.