The Best Films of 2014 – the Half-Way Point

Looking at any annual film schedule, its evident that the first half of the year can never quite live up to the second and 2014 is no exception. This year really did get off to a rotten start with 47 Ronin, The Legend of Hercules and I Frankenstein dragging their heals at the box-office but this did pave a way for others; The Wolf of Wall Street and Ride Along both enjoyed three consecutive weeks at the top of the UK and US box-office respectively. Following that came some genuine surprises. Wes Anderson’s ensemble comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel reached 1st and 3rd in the UK and US against all odds and The Lego Movie, one of the most poorly marketed films in recent years, was an unexpected treat and certainly and future cult classic.

The biblical format seemed to increase in popularity around Easter with the low-key Christian dramas Heaven is For Real, Son of God and God’s Not Dead taking nearly thirty times their micro-budgets but these religious flicks aren’t proving successful outside of America, besides Aronofsky’s star-driven epic Noah. The “Katniss-effect” of The Hunger Games has evidently given studios the faith to put stronger female characters into the fray of action and adventure with Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent and Shailene Woodley’s Divergent winning out over Johnny Depp’s Transcendence or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Sabotage financially. Edge of Tomorrow even managed it to the extent of Tom Cruise needing saving from Emily Blunt’s ultimate warrior.

In the last six months, certain individuals are lighting up the box-office left, right and centre. Former comedian Kevin Hart has lead a trio of success, Ride Along, About Last Night and Think Like a Man Too, while the Jump Street quartet (director Phil Lord and Chris Miller/stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill) have a cinematic Midas-touch. It’s evident that Lego’s Chris Pratt can do no wrong and, with Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy coming soon, he’s well on his way to man-of-the-year status. The biggest winners of the year have to be Marvel. Even though their heroes are divided across Sony, Fox and Disney, Stan Lee’s creations of Spider-Man, Captain America (kind-of) and the X-Men are currently the three biggest films of the year so far and they’ll only continue to grow bigger.

Below you can find the international box-office top ten followed by our own personal picks of the year so far as well as the ten to look for in the rest of 2014:

International Box-office Top 10:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Director: Anthony and Joe Russo – Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily Van Camp, Samuel L Jackson, Hayley Attwell, Toby Jones – Box-office: $710.8 million
2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb – Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper – $703.3 million
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past – Bryan Singer – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Josh Helman, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till – $700 million
4. Maleficent – Robert Stromberg – Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville – $531.8 million
5. Godzilla – Gareth Edwards – Aaron Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche – $478.7 million
6. Rio 2 – Carlos Saldanha – Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Leslie Mann, Bruno Mars, Jemaine Clement, Jamie Foxx, will.i.am – $469.4 million
7. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders – $467.2 million
8. Noah – Darren Aronofsky – Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Anthony Hopkins – $356.2 million
9. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro – Eva Green, Sullivan Stapleton, Lena Headey, Jack O’Connell, Rodrigo Santoro, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham – $331.1 million
10. Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman – Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong – $298.8 million

Tuorhoth’s Top 10:

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past – Bryan Singer – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Josh Helman, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till
2. Godzilla – Gareth Edwards – Aaron Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche
3. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo – Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily Van Camp, Samuel L Jackson, Hayley Attwell, Toby Jones
5. Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman – Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong
6. The Two Faces of January – Hossein Amini – Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, Kirsten Dunst
7. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – Justin Chadwick – Idris Elba, Naomi Harris
8. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – Kenneth Branagh – Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Nonso Anozie, Gemma Chan
9. RoboCop – Jose Padilha – Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, Jackie Earle Haley, Aimee Garcia, Michael K Williams, Samuel L Jackson
10. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb – Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper

Top 10 Anticipated:

1. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – Matthew MacConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Topher Grace, Casey Affleck, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, Matt Damon
2. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Aidan Turner, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Sylvester McCoy, Lee Pace, Manu Bennett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee
3. Gone Girl – David Fincher – Ben Affleck, Neil Patrick Harris, Rosamund Pike
4. Kingsman: The Secret Service – Matthew Vaughn – Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, John C Reilly
6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – Jason Clarke, Andy Serkis, James Franco, Judy Greer, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit McPhee
7. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jena Malone, Sam Clafin, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Natalie Dormer, Philip Seymour, Hoffman
8. Fury – David Ayer – Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Jason Isaacs, Michael Pena, Shia LeBeouf
9. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott – Christian Bale, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley
10. The Judge – David Dobkin – Robert Downey Jr, Robert Duvall, Billy Bob Thornton, Vera Farmiga

X-Men: Days of Future Past review

Director: Bryan Singer

Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Omar Sy, Josh Helman, Lucas Till, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Daniel Cudmore, Evan Jonigkeit, Mark Camacho

Across fourteen years and seven movies, the X-Men have always been far behind their other Marvel counterparts, such as the multi billion Avengers or Spider-Man, at the box office and in recent years have slipped back from their critical credibility; the series only three three instalments to really be proud of, namely 1, 2 and First Class. Fox’s masterplan to return X-Men to its status as the superhero monopoly is to bring back Bryan Singer (the man who made the mutants into a success), take one the most famous X-Men storylines (Phoenix and Hellfire Club are already taken), unite two very different casts and ramp up the budget to $200 million, risky business for a franchise yet to individually surpass the $500 million mark.

The year is 2023 and The Sentinels, adapting robots programmed to kill all mutants and humans carrying the X-Gene, have ravaged the world into an apocalyptic wasteland. The remaining X-Men, Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (McKellen), Storm (Berry), Colossus (Cudmore) and Iceman (Ashmore), opt to use the powers of Kitty Pryde (Page) to project Wolverine’s (Jackman) consciousness into his body fifty years ago in order to prevent Mystique (Lawrence) from inadvertently instigating The Sentinels’ creation. To do this, Logan must unite the younger Charles (McAvoy) and Erik (Fassbender) at a time that they couldn’t be further apart.

Days of Future Past has divided opinion but it’s indisputable that its increase in scale confirms it as the first truly epic mutant adventure. It’s immensely exciting for X-Men comic fans to, at last, see the series finally reaching The Avengers’ heights. It may well be overshadowed by the recent Godzilla but, painstakingly trying to not give too much away, Magneto’s stadium sequence is one of the great set pieces of the year.

While arguably scattershot and rough in its plot, the film’s script, constructed in chief by Simon Kinberg, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, is the first to have genuine power in its dialogue – fans may get teary. The decision to make Mystique the villain who has to be stopped philosophically rather than physically is inspired. The Dark Knight can sleep easy and its still the best superhero film of all time but DOFP is by far the most emotional.

Across the giant ensemble, the majority of that emotional power comes from a masterful performance from James McAvoy. His Xavier is a broken one since his crippling incident eleven years before, regularly taking a serum that gives his legs life but crucially takes away his telepathic powers. Logan was once a recluse reformed by Xavier and, although the Canadian is infamously intolerant, he must now return the favour. This leads to the most electrifying discussion there’s been in an action movie in a meeting of minds between McAvoy and the equally admirable Patrick Stewart.

Hugh Jackman meanwhile is channelling his usual action steeliness but thankfully this is the first time that he’s really owned the role since X2. Wolverine’s action in this instalment is excellently wince inducing, at last ridding the artificial feel of the other films’ violence. The rebar sequence is exactly how to genuinely horrify within the 12A region

She may not have a scratch on Katniss (The Hunger Games) or Tiffany (Silver Linings Playbook) but Mystique is fastly becoming an icon of Jennifer Lawrence’s career and the X-Men franchise in general. Here, she finally has a role pivotal to the plot and Lawrence portrays the shapeshifter with a perfect mix of angst and mysterious allure.

Despite the mega cast, all the buzz seems to be around Evan Peters’ scene-stealingly charismatic portrayal of Quicksilver and deservedly so. Pietro Maximoff’s super speed antics during the Pentagon raid are undoubtedly the funniest action scenes there have ever been. I’ve now got serious doubts in Aaron Taylor Johnson’s performance in the upcoming Avengers sequel Age of Ultron.

Nick Hoult’s Beast (who subscribes to the same serum as Xavier) and Ellen Page’s Kitty (who’d be killed should the dormant Logan lash out at any given moment) are as lovable as ever while I admire the extension of continuity with the inclusion of minor roles such as Toad (Jonigkeit), Styker (Helman)and Havok (Till) but many classic characters are undernourished in a Xavier-centric storyline, most obviously Magneto. The series’ most formidable actor Ian McKellen is given frustratingly little to do while it seems that his younger counterpart Michael Fassbender never quite has the full on menace that he had in First Class.

Also criminally underused is fan favourite Storm, the only mutant who actually needs an origin story. While Berry herself brilliantly kicks off the most devastating scene in the film, she hardly gets a line in within the sprawling action and the same goes for Shawn Ashmore’s (now) bearded Iceman. Less surprisingly, Colossus is again deprived of the development he gets in the comics; casting Magik for future films could bring him to the forefront of the narrative. Maybe we shoud just feel lucky that they made it; we all know what happened to Anna Paquin’s Rogue

Alongside the traditional X-Men, DOFP introduces a new roster of mutants, Bishop, Warpath, Sunspot and Blink, about 50% of which are awesome. Blink, played by China’s Fan Bingbing, can essentially play Valve’s Portal in real life (the dream of every gamer) without the device while time traveller Bishop (French star Omar Sy), as well as giving the team some much needed ethnic diversity, just has a boss blaster. They both accelerate the mayhem of the frantic but ingenious opening set piece. Sadly, the addition of Sunspot (Adan Canto) and Warpath (Booboo Stewart) may excite the fans but their lack of contribution to anything but the spectacle only increased frustration that so many got so little.

The spectacle is something that Days of Future Past gets bang on. Singer doesn’t formulaically stream the CG into our eyes but uses to terrifying effect with the mutant targeting robots known as the Sentinels, the creation of falsely martyred monster Bolivar Trask (impeccably played by Peter Dinklage). They do begin as a bit of a standard giant robot in the ’70s setting but, in the future, they become truly demonic beasts.

Singer’s return to X-Men isn’t as dark as Watchmen, as smart as The Dark Knight or as plainly fun as The Avengers yet it has read a page of all of their books and is easily the most emotional superhero film of all time. It ramps the scale up to 11 and still retains its human drama. Way too many major stars get stuck in tiny roles but arguably that allows leads McAvoy, Stewart, Lawrence, Hoult, Jackman, Page and Peters to excel and it finally has a narrative that revolutionizes what we thought we knew about X-Men.

9/10

“The past: a place of potential promise, and possibility. We are the sum of our choices, as what we do now defines what we will do. Infinite decisions mean infinite consequences, for the future is never truly set.”

Alan Partridge confirms sequel, Holly Hunter and Tao Akamoto join Batman vs Superman and new X-Men Days of Future Past posters

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa was undoubtedly the most surprising British comedy hit of 2013, although, on paper, it sounded terrible. It sees TV’s beloved hapless presenter (brilliantly played by Philomena’s Steve Coogan) reduced to being a washed up North Norfolk Digital broadcaster who takes advantage of being in the limelight when fired-presenter Pat (Colm Meaney) takes the radio station hostage. A sequel now has been confirmed with Patridge and The Thick of It veteran Armando Ianucci working on the script. As long as they can keep up the same kind of comedy, less of the slapstick window-escaping and toilet-entering ventures that slightly dragged down the otherwise brilliant original.

300 and Watchmen’s Zack Snyder has already appointed an incredible ensemble for his Man of Steel sequel Batman vs Superman, although it hasn’t been titled yet. Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane reprise their roles while the film introduces Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg and Jeremy Irons. As if this wasn’t enough, another trio has been added but we’re not sure if they’ll be taking on the parts of Justice League members or classic DC villains.

The Wolverine’s Tao Okomato has been confirmed to star alongside four time Oscar nominee Holly Hunter (Broadcast News, The Piano, Raising Arizona, The Incredibles) and New Zealand’s rising star Callan Mulvey (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 300: Rise of an Empire, Zero Dark Thirty).

This year’s riskiest blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past is attempting to further penetrate its place in the summer release status by planting the words “Hugh Jackman” onto each poster. Bryan Singer (X-Men 2, The Usual Suspects, Valkyries) directs the ensemble cast of Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Halle Berry, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Daniel Cudmore, Fan Bingbing, Booboo Stewart, Morgan Lily, Omar Sy, Adan Canto, Gregg Lowe, Josh Helman, Evan Jonigkeit, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd

Batman vs. Superman – May 6th 2016

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa 2 – 2016

New X-Men Days of Future Past poster and Fox schedules sequels to Fantastic Four and Wolverine plus mystery Marvel project

Fox is overseeing the release of its tentpole X-Men sequel Days of Future Past but it’s going further to launch new Marvel projects into the future. Following DOFP is X-Men: Apocalypse (May 29th 2016), you can find more about that here, and then a reboot of The Fantastic Four, directed by Josh Trank, the man behind chilling superhero horror Chronicle, and was recently confirmed to be starring Michael B Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell. The latter is over a year away from release but Fox are confident enough to put in a rudimentary July 2017 release date for a potential sequel.

But that’s not all; we can pencil in the return of Hugh Jackman and James Mangold for March of that year as well as a mystery superhero outing in 2018. We’ve no lead on this so we can timidly speculate these three options First, there’s X-Force, an potential spin off for Days of Future Past’s Bishop directed by Kick Ass 2 and Never Back Down’s Jeff Wadlow. The other obvious choice is Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds’ oddball fantasy Deadpool. Perhaps it’s the long awaited Gambit spin off, starring Channing Tatum and produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, that we’ve heard so much about.

We finish today with another bit of exciting X-Men news. An awesome new poster has been launched. The time travelling thriller stars Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Anna Paquin, Booboo Stewart, Omar Sy, Adan Canto, Josh Helman, Fan Bingbing, Evan Jonigkeit, Daniel Cudmore and Halle Berry. It’s the biggest X-Men movie in terms of scale so far and will hopefully be the best.

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd

X-Men: Apocalypse – May 19th 2016

Deadpool – July 3rd 2018?

Gambit – July 3rd 2018?

X-Force – July 3rd 2018?

The Fantastic Four – June 18th 2014

The Fantastic Four 2 – June 14th 2017

The Wolverine 2 – March 3rd 2017

Fassbender and McKellen in Days of Future Past posters and peek at Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise

The Irish-Germanic Michael Fassbender is one of the most talked about stars of the moment having just picked up a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his acclaimed portrayal of slave trader Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave. However, his best known role is as X-Men’s Magneto, a role he reprises in this year’s hotly tipped sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past. Sir Ian McKellen, aka The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit’s Gandalf, will also revive his part the older version of Magneto, fifty years on. In official new posters that look pretty cool, they’ve been showcased. I hope this is the first in a new series of X-Men character bannerss. Bryan Singer’s superhero thriller also stars Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Ellen Page, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, Evan Peters, Omar Sy, Daniel Cudmore, Lucas Till, Josh Helman, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart and Evan Jonigkeit.

Another hugely anticipated superhero release of this year is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Glimpses of the Guardians, played by Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and Vin Diesel, have only been seen in concept art and one official still but the intergalactic vigilantes have now been immortalised in toy form in these new pics.

Additionally, the Guardians have been confirmed to soon be in LEGO form as this set is announced:

This intricate design will hopefully not only shows a first look at new villain Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) but proves that the film can’t be far from releasing a trailer – which we’ll look forward to immensely. Karen Gillan, John C Reilly, Benicio Del Toro, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Rooker and Glenn Close also star while James Gunn (Super, Slither) directs.

Guardians of the Galaxy – August 1st

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd

25 X-Men DOFP posters unveiled, first image of Capaldi as Doctor and new Maleficent trailer

One of the biggest releases of this year is a new, kind-of, prequel to a Disney animated classic. Maleficent is the titular character and villain of the original Sleeping Beauty. A surprisingly terrifying new trailer for the film is not only haunted by Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent but Lana Del Rey’s eerie reimagining of “Once Upon a Dream”. First time director Robert Stromberg is calling the shots while Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Sharlto Copley (District 9) and Elle Fanning (Super 8) make up the supporting cast.

Empire Magazine is not only the world’s biggest and best movie magazine; it has a huge fanbase here, at Tuorhoth Movies. To celebrate their 25th Anniversary and the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Empire have done something very special which is to release 25 alternate covers for their March 2014 issue. 15 covers have been revealed so far and more are being announced every hour.

There’s posters for all of the stars that you’ve seen already in the trailers, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen and Nicholas Hoult, as well as some we haven’t seen at all. First looks at Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Toad (Evan Jonigkeit), Havok (Lucas Till) and William Stryker (Josh Helman) are granted here. Ellen Page, Booboo Stewart, Fan Bingbing, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Omar Sy and Adan Canto also star and we can expect their covers to be unveiled very soon. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Stan Lee, Hugh Jackman, Shawn Ashmore and director Bryan Singer are all offering insights into this special event on Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, Doctor Who’s official page has launched the first image of The Twelfth Doctor in anticipation of this autumn’s series 8. Jenna Coleman has been confirmed to star as Clara and showrunner Stephen Moffat has hired Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field in England) to direct the first two episodes. For a start, I’m not convinced by the shoes or his arms’ impression of The Silence but Peter Capaldi has proved more than once that he’s capable of the charisma required for Who.

Doctor Who series 8 – autumn

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd

Empire’s X-Men: DoFP special – in shops 30th January

Maleficent – May 30th

Anna Paquin’s Rogue out of Days of Future Past in Singer’s X-Men cuts and trailer for Transcedence

Wally Pfister is an Oscar winning cinematographer and regular collaborator of Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige, Inception). However, he’s missing out on Nolan’s latest, Interstellar, as he’s busy making his directorial debut Transcendence. After a string of short teasers, the first trailer has taken flight. Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean), Rebecca Hall (Iron Man 3), Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption), Kate Mara (House of Cards) and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins), two of whom (namely Freeman and Murphy) are also regular Nolan collaborators, all star. The great cast and premise coupled with Pfister’s brilliant shooting and imagery should turn Transcendence into one of the hits of the year!

Rogue is one of our favourite X-Men and her portrayer, Oscar winning Anna Paquin, even featured in the trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past. However, director Bryan Singer’s (The Usual Suspects, X-Men, Valkyrie) ruthless editing has cut Rogue out of the film.

“Through the editing process, the sequence became extraneous,”  Singer told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a really good sequence and it will probably end up on the DVD so people can see it. But like many things in the editing process, it was an embarrassment of riches and it was just one of the things that had to go. Unfortunately, it was the one and only sequence Anna Paquin was in, the Rogue character was in. Even though she’s in the materials and part of the process of making the film, she won’t appear in it.”

So, we’ll have to wait until likely the Blu Ray for DoFP comes along in late 2014 to see Rogue. As for Paquin, the star of The Piano and True Blood is in the now about her removal from the project.”She completely understood,” Singer added. “It’s very disappointing, but she’s very professional and she knows that stuff happens, particularly with material you shoot early on in production. Films evolve.”

The film’s now gone from three to two Oscar Best Actress winning stars, Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) and Halle Berry (Monster’s Ball) also star, and an additional five Academy Award nominations thanks to Lawrence again (Winter’s Bone), Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), Ellen Page (Juno) and Ian McKellen (twice, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Gods and Monsters). Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Shawn Ashmore, Nicholas Hoult, Daniel Cudmore and Lucas Till reprise their roles from previous X-Men instalments while DoFP introduces fresh faces such as Evan Peters, Josh Helman, Fan Bingbing, Omar Sy, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart and Peter Dinklage, aka Game of Thrones’ Tyrion Lannister.

This time travel mash up could be the superhero hit of the year and Singer wouldn’t want to jeopardise that just for the sake of having every character in it. From that point of view, Singer is forgiven but it won’t take long for the comic book community to unleash Apocalypse onto him, get it? The X-Men saga continues with DoFP, James Mangold’s Wolverine 3 and X-Men: Apocalypse.

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd 2014

X-Men: Apocalypse – 2016

Wolverine 3 – 2016

Transcendence – April 25th 2014

X-Men’s The Bent Bullet plus Stan Lee talks new movie project and Crossbones’ future in Marvel

You could easily criticize me for an overload of Marvel news but they just have so much going on at the moment, namely the confirmed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Fantastic Four, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Force The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Amazing Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 4 and Big Hero 6, TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and the in production Captain America 3, Thor 3, Deadpool, Wolverine 3, Black Panther, The Inhumans and The Avengers 3.

The first bit of news comes from a second viral site for 2014’s most anticipated superhero project, X-Men: Days of Future Past. Before there was Trask Industries but now Fox have launched a conspiracy site called The Bent Bullet. Cast your mind to well over a year ago, Days of Future Past wasn’t yet the title of this film. First Class’ director Matthew Vaughn was set to call the shots and stated that he was considering “The Magic Bullet” idea that in November 1963, fifty years ago just now, when Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John Kennedy in Dallas the bullet hit but didn’t kill JFK and the young metal controlling mutant Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr (to be played by Michael Fassbender) manipulated the bullet to come back a second time to finish the president off.

As soon as Bryan Singer and Days of Future Past was announced in August 2012, we thought that idea was gone with the new story clearly about time travel. The Bent Bullet has proved us wrong as it’s filled the whole of Lensherr’s story in ’63. We can now presume that he goes on a wild rampage after crippling his closest friend, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), or, as he said, is framed, most likely by the mutant hating industrialist Bolivar Trask, who designed his cell because he wants him locked up for good after in disaster at Cuba in 1962, see 2011’s X-Men: First Class.

Ten years later in the film’s primary setting, 1970s Magneto (still Fassbender) escapes from his cell with the assistance of 1970s Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). However, Magneto isn’t best pleased that it’s took this long. Upon Magneto’s escape, Beast (Nicholas Hoult) confronts and attacks the master of magnetism. This is our own speculation but it’s likely that that’s what’s going to happen. Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Shawn Ashmore, Daniel Cudmore, Lucas Till and Ellen Page reprise their roles from previous X-Men films while Peter Dinklage, Evan Peters, Booboo Stewart, Omar Sy, Josh Helman, Adan Canto and Fan Bingbing take on new roles such as Quicksilver, Blink and Bishop.

Stan Lee truly is the grandfather of Marvel Comics, TV and film. With regular producing and writing credits, plus his priceless cameos, on the new pictures, he’s still a part of Disney, Sony and Fox’s continuation of his epic franchises from the 1950s and 60s. He’s teaming up with The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man and X-Men producer Avi Arad for a new top secret project that’s being kept within the closed borders of Sony so it could be a Spider-Man tie in, such as Venom, that we mentioned last week.

Arad, Sony’s Israeli secret hero, told the Hollywood Reporter that Stan Lee: “At the ripe old age of 90, can still put together magic. He’s as sharp as a Japanese cooking knife. His mind is as young as it used to be.” That hints at a brand new, original idea that Lee’s brought together in his imaginative cooking pot but, for now, I’m sticking with Venom. Arad added that the next step would be to find a writer.

Meanwhile, The Grey and Warrior star Frank Grillo is counting down the days until Marvel sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where his performance as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones should make him go stellar. He describes to Crave Online “It’s an origin film. You meet people who are going to be around for a while, so they introduce the characters. It’s almost like it’s a series. It’s fun. I can’t say very much about it because Marvel’s very strict about what you’re allowed to say. The movie, we’ve seen bits of it, and it is spectacular.” We think he could be referring to his future with new characters like Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) or Agent 13 (Emily Van Camp). Cap 2 also stars Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L Jackson and Sebastian Stan and is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo.

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd 2014

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – March 28th

Venom/untitled Stan Lee and Avi Arad project – 2016?

Sigourney Weaver joins Chappie and X-Men 7 full trailer

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

One of the X-Men returned earlier this year in the disappointing spin-off The Wolverine (read our review here) but Days of Future Past honestly looks like it could be one of the greatest superhero films of all time. Finally, director Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns and Valkyrie, is returning to his beloved franchise after a ten year break that saw ruin (The Last Stand, Origins: Wolverine) and a glimmer of hope (the Singer produced First Class).

The first Xavier focused trailer, published just a few hours ago, for DOFP has finally arrived. It’s Hans Zimmer style music, it might actually be Zimmer’s Inception score, sets a very Man of Steel esque tone. Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Storm – who looks like she’s returned to her home in Wakanda – (Halle Berry) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) are back into the black leather before we meet fellow mutants Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) with a beard with the now grown up Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and Rogue (Anna Paquin). The Last Stand certainly complicated the relationship of the latter three but it didn’t resolve who Iceman did indeed end up with.

Magneto (Ian McKellen) is back and is working with the X-Men to save mutant kind with some new recruits: Bishop (Omar Sy), Sunspot (Adan Canto), Warpath (Booboo Stewart) and teleporter Blink (Bingbing Fan). We then meet Wolverine, Storm, Professor X, Magneto and Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) walking through a mystical temple showing the full extent of their new battle gear. The Professor’s young self Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is introduced in the X-Mansion, flanked by who we know to be Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Wolverine in the sub 1970s setting where the young gang are trying to prevent an assassination that leads to global war and mutant extinction.

Also in that setting are the young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) who are slowly drifting towards evil. Their betrayal and crippling of him in First Class has lead him to abandon all he’s ever aspired to (I’m guessing at that but he’s having to blow the dust off Cerebro’s helmet so it hasn’t been used in a long time and his shaggy hair is looking nothing like the sophistication that we know Xavier for) but it takes the time travelling Wolverine to convince him to get back out there and do some good.

“Patience isn’t my stronger suit.”

We then find terror on the streets as a crowd pushes over a fence, Magneto floats in the air and Wolverine rages in a burning mystic temple. There’s panic in the White House as a secret door in the floor is revealed in the Oval Office and officials run around tensely. Gangsters shoot at the regenerating Wolverine. Cerebro starts to explode, shard of glass fall on a uniformed figure and Magneto runs through a darkened corridor with Iceman and an injured Rogue in pursuit. Mystique is charging through a panicking crowd with an elderly man in a hat, glasses and a long yellow coat just behind her (I’m not sure who he is).

Beast starts drowning the young Magneto and we meet Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) commanding his vast corporate empire. There’s some speedy shots of Wolverine taking down armed gangsters, Mystique taking down White House Guards and Magneto taking down Mystique. We also know that First Class’ Havok (Lucas Till), younger version of X2 and Origins’ villain William Stryker (Josh Helman), the super speeady Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and President Richard Nixon will all appear in DOFP but none of them feature in this trailer.

To finish off, we’ve got a couple of other news snippets. Sigourney Weaver was the star of Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl as well as James Cameron’s sci-fi hit Avatar and has a legendary status among horror fans for playing Ellen Ripley in the Aliens franchise. Her new role, which isn’t to be confused with her dedication to The Mortal Instruments sequel City of Ashes (2015), is with Hugh Jackman (X-Men, Les Miserables), Sharlto Copley (Europa Report, District 9) and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) for director Neill Blomkamp. He’s the man behind District 9 and Elysium but he promises this sci-fi comedy to be a much lighter affair.

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd 2014

Chappie – March 27th 2015