All posts by Robert Yaniz Jr.

Franchise Detours Episode 65: ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ (feat. film critic Rosa Parra)

After The Avengers, superhero cinema has never been the same. Suddenly, everything needed to be interconnected, featuring tons of characters and an increasingly complicated timeline. Naturally, the X-Men series retroactively created its own shared universe of sorts with X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Fourteen years after the first film, director Bryan Singer’s film combined the original trilogy cast and that of X-Men: First Class to create a time-travel adventure that raised the bar for what Marvel’s mutants could do onscreen. Or at the very least, it put pressure on the series to be more ambitious.

Film critic Rosa Parra joins Franchise Detours to travel back to 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, a movie that feels like even more of a wild swing nearly a decade later. We’ll discuss its unique place in the series, that epic cast, and how this installment may have doomed the series going forward.

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Franchise Detours Episode 64: ‘The Wolverine’ (feat. Ryan Luis Rodriguez of One Track Mind)

Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has always been a fan favorite. But X-Men Origins: Wolverine called into question whether the mutant hero would get the opportunity to carry more than a single solo film. Thankfully, Jackman’s desire to take Logan to Japan paid off in the form of 2013’s The Wolverine.

Adapting one of the character’s most popular storylines, the movie marks a departure from its predecessor, tying more closely in with X-Men: The Last Stand than the first Wolverine film. It also marks James Mangold’s first time directing an X-Men movie, a decision which paid off remarkably years later.

Ryan Luis Rodriguez of One Track Mind joins us to break down The Wolverine. We’ll talk about how it draws inspiration from what’s come before — including X-Men Origins: Wolverine — bemoan the lack of Rila Fukushima’s Yukio in future projects, and that CGI-heavy third act.

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Franchise Detours Episode 63: ‘X-Men: First Class’ (feat. Kevin the Critic)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was meant to slash open a whole new avenue for the X-Men movie franchise. Yet, despite its commercial performance, the tepid reception ultimately led the series to take another approach: going back to basics with a fresh start on the whole mutant saga.

In hindsight, it might seem like 2011’s X-Men: First Class was always meant to be a prequel to the previous films. But director Matthew Vaughn described it as a reboot of the franchise. So which is it? And ultimately, does it even matter when the resulting superhero adventure is that much fun?

Kevin the Critic joins Franchise Detours as we head back to school for an in-depth chat about X-Men: First Class. We’ll discuss the chemistry between James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, how the story quietly retcons the series, and whether Vaughn deserves another crack at the Marvel mutants.

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