FACE SLAP!! How the HECK Did I Miss THAT!!!

How do you reboot a successful film franchise while NOT loosing your popular characters or the actors who portray them?  Well you take a page from the recent Star Trek play book, with a twist!
In Star Trek, an accidental incursion through the space-time continuum by future Romulans sets off a chain of events that alters history as we know it, thereby allowing the writers to revisit old plot lines with new twists.  Well, in X-Men: Days of Future Past" that time slip is intentional.
OK: WARNING!!!  SPOILER ALERT!!!
(This Saturday Angi and  I FINALLY got a chance to get out and hit the movies!  Unfortunately, I was having a weird day, and was in a mood.  The inevitable consequence being, something was bound to screw it up.  I'll get to that shortly.)
In short, in the near future, Mutant hunting robots called "Sentinels" are created and then modified into adaptive killers.  Eventually they not only hunt mutants, but humans who help or shelter mutants, and even those humans who possess the latent "X" gene that would eventually sire children or even grand children with mutant powers, thus leaving all of Earth a desolate war zone. 
Held up in a Tibetan Monastery the few remaining mutants stage a last minute attempt to alter the course of history, as they discovered the moment in time where everything went wrong.  1973 is the year that they have to reach to stop Mystique, who discovered Boliver Trasks goals for eradicating mutantkind, by unleashing the Sentinels.  She figures, kill him, end the project.  But Nay, nay!  They capture her, and use her mutant ability of shape shifting to upgrade the killing machines adaptability, as her actions of killing him publicly fuel the anti-mutant hysteria. 
Kitty Pryde processes the ability to send a persons consciousness back in time, with the knowledge of the present, to their younger self.  However, the ability to do so is limited to a few weeks, as anything more could harm the person.  Wolverine steps in, as his whole body can continuously regenerate itself, thereby being able to (supposedly) withstand the stress.  (OK.  For the record, the Kitty Pryde I knew possessed the ability to phase through solid objects.  I never knew she could do the whole
consciousness thing!) They succeed, Wolverine slips into his younger self (but as he doesn't really age, he looked the same) and he has to recruit both Professor X's, and Magneto's younger self to stop Mystique from inadvertently destroying the world.
WHEW!  With me so far?
Eventually they not only succeed in altering history, they actually make it BETTER!  Magneto (the younger one) takes it upon himself to destroy not only Trask, but President Nixon and a multitude of his staff, at the unveiling of the Sentinel project on the White House lawn.  Mystique stops him, and at the psychic persuasion of Professor X does not kill Trask, but  instead proves herself a savior of the President and his staff. 
The end result?  Wolverine wakes up, his consciousness having returned to his present body, in his room at "Charles Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters" and quickly discovers the world is a VERY different place then he left.  As he enters the hustle and bustle of the hallway he quickly recognizes many of his fellow mutants, chief among them Rouge (obviously NOT stripped of her powers), Storm, a fellow teacher and most importantly Jean Grey and Scott Summers (Cyclops) alive and well!
OK...here's where I pause and bring you up to speed on the moment my movie going experience was detrimentally harmed!
Once it was apparent that Wolverines history had changed, and I saw Rouge I knew that both Jean and Scott must be alive as well.  I waited anxiously for the "reveal" and as he walked down the stairs they focused on a very red headed lady standing in the Professors door way, with her back to him.  As he approached, she turned and revealed she was in fact Jean Grey, I was thrilled, therefore I did the only natural thing I could think of, I clapped.  Three times to be precise.  Actually, Angi and I clapped each other's hand in a brief rabid fire (yet muted) high five.
Then it happened.
An usher, some young girl with an authoritarian complex, came up the stairs and down the isle to tell me I needed to be quiet, so as NOT to disturb the other patrons!
I.....could.....not......believe.....it!
I was hushed, demeaned and embarrassed because I applauded!?!?
I wasn't talking on my cell phone or texting.  I was not some obnoxious teenager yakking with my friends, I wasn't some asshole, oblivious parent letting my two year old scream half way through the late show because they were tired.  No.  I applauded!
I was incensed!
To some, such a thing may not be a major issue, but to me, a HUGE movie fan, disturbing my film going experience, after I have paid my fourteen dollars for something SO ridiculous, is inconceivable.  It set me so far off, I almost got up and walked out to talk to the manager!  The only thing keeping me from doing so, was not wanting to completely ruin the evening for Angela, and I also didn't want to miss the rest of the film.  It was tough though.  As it turned out, Angela was JUST as angry, and not wanting to wait to voice her opinion (and also, seeing as she knows me, wanted to stem the tide of the potential onslaught my anger might wrought) got up, walked to the usher, got her name and went to talk to the manager.  She handled it very diplomatically, and very wisely attempted to dissuade me, when I finally exited the theatre, from confronting the manager.
Unfortunately (in retrospect) I did not heed her gentle urgings to not confront the manager.  She saw the look in my eye's however, and realized she was not going to deter me from making an ass of myself.  Much to his credit, however, Cody, the night manager, handled himself very professionally, in light of my vitriol fueled tirade, and merely reiterated his apologies and assurances that the employee would be spoken too.  Suffice to say, later today I will be contacting him and extending my deepest apologies for my atrocious behavior.  Being in business myself, and having had to deal with the repercussions of employees actions, I should have curbed myself, as I have been on the receiving end of tongue lashings in regards to someone else's actions. 
Yep.  I was a real $#!+.
ANYWAY.
Back to the film.
In effect, what the franchise did, by altering the timeline, was eradicate just about everything that occurred in the original trilogy.  The events set forth in the fourth film "X-Men: The First Class" having been unaltered, sets the path for the obvious sequel.  By obvious, I mean, the traditional Marvel "after ending credits" sequence sets the stage for the next one!  And here, I'll be honest with you, I watched it and had absolutely no idea what it was about!  I actually had to go online this morning to get the skinny.  Turns out "X-Men: The Apocalypse" features an immortal, reality altering Mutant, named....Apocalypse!  The obvious reason I know of the name but NOT the storyline, is that the whole thing unfolded shortly after I stopped reading X-Men.  Sure, I was still in the biz at the time, but I merely gleaned a few tidbits about it from those that followed it.  The one thing I AM looking forward to is that Angel played a major role in that storyline, having changed into "Archangel".  He was always my favorite X-Men character, and his appearance in X-Men 3 was all to brief!  But,as this sequel is to take place in the early eighties, there is no telling which group of mutants will be around (although rumor has it Wolverine will be there, and is proposed to die...but then they said that about the latest film, so who knows!?)
The really surprising part of this film is not only did they introduce a few new mutants, chief among them Quicksilver (which in itself is somewhat confusing as the Avengers franchise has him and his sister Wanda appearing in Avengers 2? (they were in the snippet at the end of Captain America 2, as teenagers, but he was shown as a teenager in  this film in 1973!?!?!))  but they brought back a major portion of all the X-Men, from ALL the movies in this one, portrayed by the original actors!  I mean, Halle Berry as Storm had one line?  Anna Paquin, as Rouge had NO lines, just a brief cameo!  Even Kelsey Grammer as the Beast showed up, went through FULL make up to deliver one casual line to Wolverine  while walking through the hallway!   Very impressive dedication to continuity!
All in all, it was a very nice "happy ending" book end to the original trilogy!
ANYWHO!
Sorry, but I was in a movie mood this morning! 
And all do respect to my Mother who merely "skims over" the movie reviews!
On to work!
Only managed to get out three new rides Saturday.  We would have done more, but...er...ah we have run out of material.  Well, material we can work with.  We do have a few sitting in Bone Row to build, we are just waiting on the right parts!  Saturday was busy, but not overly so.  I would have to blame the incessant weather for that!
We will dig about today and see if there is anything to play with.
SO, OK... I best get something going, as I feel I have gabbed enough!
See ya all soon!

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