The X-Men are back in town.
Hugh Jackman returns to the role of Wolverine in X-Men: Days Of Future Past.
But your favourite mutants never really left in the first place.
In the last 14 years, there have been seven movies based around the popular Marvel franchise, with X-Men: Days Of Future Past the latest addition.
Its stars, Hugh Jackman, Peter Dinklage and Fan Bingbing, flew to Singapore last week for the movie’s Southeast Asian premiere, where they walked the blue carpet and took selfies with adoring, patient — and sometimes screaming — fans.
A sequel that links 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, 2011’s X-Men: First Class and 2013’s The Wolverine, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, which opens in Thailand tomorrow, sees the mutants engaged in a survival war spanning two time periods — the near future and 1973.
In the future, Sentinels — super robots with the ability to locate mutants, absorb their superpowers and use them against their owners — hunt down the mutant race, which rapidly dies out. It’s up to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), then, who the current X-Men send back in time, to prevent the death of Dr Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the creator of the Sentinels, whose demise served as a turning point and a catalyst for the further development of the killer bots. To do so, he’ll need the help of younger versions of the X-Men themselves.
Days Of Future Past features a stellar cast which brings together the original X-Men with the mutants of First Class — Magneto (Ian McKellan and Michael Fassbender), Professor X (Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Storm (Halle Berry) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) — as well as a few new additions.
“It is truly an ensemble piece and that’s why it attracts such a great group of actors. You’re a piece of a puzzle. It’s not solely resting on one of us. It’s resting on all of us at the same time,” Dinklage, who is most recognisable for his role as Tyrion Lannister in HBO’s scorchingly popular Game Of Thrones, said in a round-table interview.
Fan Bingbing stars as the teleporting Blink.
Director Bryan Singer, who is in the midst of legal woes involving allegations of sexual assault, returns to the acclaimed franchise, after helming First Class and the original two films, X-Men and X2, in 2000 and 2003.
Jackman, too, returns to a familiar role. The actor has played Wolverine in all seven of the franchise’s instalments (albeit briefly, for about 10 seconds, in First Class) and seems to be genuinely in love with his trademark tough guy with retractable claws and accelerated healing ability. During the press conference, he joked with journalist, but switched into character at the snap of a finger.
“This movie is my most favourite. It’s exciting, it’s fresh and it’s new. It’s almost like a beginning,” said Jackman. “I like that it’s always different. The writer always finds different sides to [Wolverine]. The movies are getting better and better. Being a little older also helps playing Wolverine, as it turns out, because I’m naturally much grumpier. As long as they want me, as long as I feel as good as I do and the scripts stay good, I’ll stay.”
“If you go back to [the first] X-Men, look how Bryan opened it in a concentration camp. He immediately sent a message that this is not men in tights or women in some suits. This is about characters and human nature. Even with superhuman abilities, it’s going to be about relationships, frailty and vulnerability — some of the themes are political themes of tolerance and acceptance. There’s a lot of depth,” he added.
Dinklage said he also appreciates the franchise’s subtexts.
“No matter who you are in this world, I think we’re all related to being different or an outsider. I can firmly speak about that, not because of my size and being physically different. Emotionally, I have days where I feel alone and separate from the herd. I think whether it’s emotionally, physically or mentally, we’ve all felt that way, and I think [the film] speaks to that, whether we’re proud of our disabilities or ashamed of them,” he said.
Jackman said he feels that time-travelling is perfect for Wolverine, and that Days Of Future Past fixes a lot of consistency issues, answering questions that die-hard fans throw at him on a daily basis.
“It’s one of those things that the more you get into it, the more it unravels. For Wolverine, it’s an interesting concept because he could be 200 years old or 250, you know. He has lived many, many lives. As an actor I get to play all of them; it’s amazing. I can link the future and the past simultaneously because I’m the only actor that plays both sides of it. Who knows what will happen to Wolverine. I just love the idea.
“I love being back in the 70s. I feel like Wolverine is from the 70s — his clothes, his hair — you know, he’s a mix of Easy Rider, Mad Max and Dirty Harry. In that way, he’s perfect,” he said.
Both Jackman and Dinklage said their favourite scene involves a time-stopping escapade at The Pentagon in Virginia, in which Quicksilver, a new addition to the X-family, takes centre stage in a visually stunning stunt which is both humorously choreographed and highly entertaining. Played by Evan Peters, Quicksilver, a mutant with a supersonic speed, will most likely prove a big hit among moviegoers, even though he has little screen time.
Another new addition to the X-Men is the teleporting Blink, played by Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing.
The difficulty of big-movie special effects, a lengthy make-up and wardrobe process and trying to stay beautiful while performing stunts in high heels was tough, she said, but worth it.
“It was such an amazing experience. I’ve spent 14 years watching X-Men movies and one day I’m in it. It’s like a dream coming true. It’s just unbelievable to share scenes with such great actors like Hugh Jackson, who is a warm, loving and caring person. It’s a true honour,” she said.
Dinklage, whose appearance in Days Of Future Past marks his first in the franchise, delivers a subtle performance as the villainous Trask.
“He’s the kind of villain you pass by on the streets. He’s very influential and he’s very smart. He exploits people’s fear of the unknown. That’s where Trask gets his villainy. He’s profiting from it and that’s pretty terrible,” he said.
Dinklage’s portrayal of Trask is complex, multi-dimensional. There is twisted sense to the villain — he doesn’t hunt down mutants for the sake of completing a storyline.
“He thinks what he’s doing is a heroic deed,” Dinklage said. “He’s proposing to save humanity. He sees mutants as the next rung of the evolution ladder and he feels threatened by that, like everyone else. I think he’s envious of them. He sees how powerful they are.”
The next film in the franchise, currently titled X-Men: Apocalypse, is already planned for 2016, in which Channing Tatum is set to join the cast as the energy-charged-playing-card-throwing Gambit, a Cajun mutant who will also get his own standalone film. An as-yet-untitled Wolverine sequel is also on the horizon, set for 2017. The franchise, all signals show, is stronger than ever. As it is, Days Of Future Past looks set to repeat the same success of its predecessors.
“It’s a summer blockbuster, but it has a real heart,” Jackman said.
X-Men: Days Of Future Past features a stellar ensemble cast.
