What was the best part of "Xmen: First Class?" Undoubtedly there were some great action scenes but most people would say the complex relationship that had developed between Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr by the end of the movie was really gripping. Their individual stories were interesting by themselves; when they faced off with (and then against) each other though, it was electric scripting and also acting from McAvoy and Fassbender! This is a relationship that has had decades to develop through the comics, and to see something of how it began was really interesting, purely from a psychological level.
Sadly, the rest of the movie could not match the tension between Xavier and Magneto. The relationships were not there, and so the personalities never had a chance to shine. This is not surprising to First Class fans from before the movie, however. The relationship between Jean Grey, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman and Angel is no less complex and entertaining than that between the the Xmen's leader and their greatest nemesis.
First, you need great characters. Then, you add history between great characters, and you get great relationships! When Fox threw those relationships out the window and decided to change who was in the first class of X-men, that left them with some cool characters but not a lot of story between them at all.
I can almost imagine Fox execs looking at pictures of various X-men on a projector, deciding who to put on the team. They might say they like the fairy, because they think that she will drawn in more girls. They like Havok; he has a cool power, right? He's Cyclops' little brother you say? [frick]it, they like him and he makes shit blow up! We need a black character to kill off too...how 'bout this "Darwin" fellow? Throw in a guy that can fly for good measure, and why not Beast too... he's crazy looking!
Now you have a team with lots of personality...and absolutely no character. Let's treat them like teenagers and have them learn to work together And unfortunately...the rest is history:
So, now we have an X-men with no Cyclops to lead the team but Havok is there...There's no Jean Grey and none of the fun interplay between Jean and Scott, Jean and Angel, Iceman and Beast, and all the other relationships that make you really love not just the characters, but the team as a whole! Now, its 2013 and they have to steal pages from one of the most revolutionary and beloved X-men storylines to make 13 years of bad decisions fit together. "Days of Future Past" is a great story and it would be a disservice to the genre and the fans for Fox to use it as filler story to get them to a Fox movie Universe.
Remember "Iron man 2?" That was used as a filler movie to get to The Avengers, and it was roundly mocked for the obvious ploy. Why ruin DOFP (and any good-will left over with people who love American comics) by mixing and matching and turning a DOFP into another piece of big-budget spam?
I know that the movie is not anywhere near finished, but Fox should, FINALLY, take a look at what they did wrong in the past movies and try to LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES! There has to be a win-win, a way to please the original fans and draw in new fans who don't know how great the material can be!
Avengers proved that, in spades.
Ox out.