Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Anna Paquin, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackman, Ellen Page
Certificate: 12
Running Time: 149 minutes
Premiering Saturday at San Diego Comic Con, X-Men Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut has intrigued us ever since it was announced that the bulk of Anna Paquin‘s scene’s as Rogue had been unceremoniously dropped from the theatrical cut. One of the main reasons cited at the time was that the sub-plot which included her character made the film over-long, and interfered with the pace too much. Director Bryan Singer did promise however, that the scenes would be re-instated at a later date, and now we finally have access to them.
The new cut of the mutant movie features a whole seventeen minutes of additional footage which predominantly features Rogue. If you are one of the millions that has already seen the theatrical version then make sure to be patient as the new footage doesn’t start to filter in until around the hour-forty-five mark.
The story starts in a distant future where mutants are hunted by machines known as sentinels. The last remaining band of resistance fighters group together and come up with a plot to stop the carnage. They send Wolverine back in time to the inception of the machines, and must unite a warring Magneto and Professor X in order to stop Raven/Mystique from kicking off a chain react that will end their kind.
Interesting and intriguing, X-Men Days of Future Past: Rogue Cut is exactly what you want from a director’s cut; the fresh footage isn’t just shoe-horned in, instead it manages to transform it into an almost entirely different film.
The scenes are great. They feature Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart‘s alter-ego’s Magneto and Professor X undertake a stealth rescue mission. The prison breakout scene in particular gives the older duo the chance to have a go at some of the action.
Whilst it is nice to have Rogue back, you can’t help but feel bad for Ellen Page‘s Kitty Pryde as she is cast aside in favour of the more well known character. If you’ve seen the theatrical version of the film then the end sequence with Kitty is pretty much just replaced with Rogue instead. Those familiar with the comic origins know that Kitty has already had a tough time in this story as in the original story it is she, not Wolverine who is transported back into the past.
The rest of the film is just as it was previously, but with a huge ninety minutes of bonus material this release is a must buy for fans of the brotherhood of mutants.
X-Men Days of Future Past- The Rogue Cut is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD.
