We Know Their Past, But What Does The Future Hold For The X-Men Film Franchise

While I’ve only just managed to see X-Men: Days of Future Past, its release could not come at a better time, as it wasn’t until this year that I finally discovered the film franchise, based on the long running comic series, that started fourteen years ago. After catching up with the X-Men’s past, I am now looking at their future, and in which ways we could be seeing more of the Uncanny X-Men on screen. Here are some ways 20th Century Fox could be making some more money, off the films that have already made 2.9 billion, and counting, at the box office.

#1 Apocalypse – Not even my idea here, as it has been confirmed to be the next film in the series, hitting cinemas in 2016. Taking place in the 1980’s, it will feature the ‘first class’ cast, and will introduce younger versions of Cyclops, Jean-Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Gambit (who will be played by Channing Tatum). The return of Kurt Wagner, and the introduction of Gambit sounds promising. If you walked out of Future Past confused about time travel and timelines, better get you head around it, as this film will most likely take place in the new timeline that Wolverine created. Sounds like it will be a hit coming off the success of DOFP.

#2 Wolverine 3 – At the very end of Future Past, Xavier sits Logan down to tell him everything that has happened to him in this new timeline, before the screen cuts to Mystique, posing as Stryker, rescuing him from the bottom of the ocean in 1973. But we see nothing more. The next solo Wolverine film, which will be released a year after Apocalypse, should really show Logan in this new timeline, and how it all lead to him being a history teacher at the school.

#3 X4 and X5 – The Last Stand left us with the death of Cyclops, Jean-Grey, Prof. X, and the loss of Magneto’s powers. When we left Brett Ratner’s one-and-only X-Men film, Magneto was slightly regaining his powers, and a post credits scene showed that Xavier might be somehow still alive. Cut many years ahead to Future Past, Magneto’s powers have fully returned, and Prof. X is most definitely alive. But there is no explanation for this at all. I would love to see one, or even two films, focusing on Xavier, Magneto, Kitty Pryde, Storm, and Ice-Man as they reach the events seen in Future Past. Have the plot focus on first the group directly after The Last Stand, and then there involvement in the war. One cool thing about this, is that we would be able to see more of Bishop, Blink, Sunspot, and Warpath, all who weren’t a major part of the Future Past. Fan Bingbing, who plays Blink, revealed recently that DOFP is the first X-Men film out of her five film contract that she signed with 20th Century Fox.
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2015 in Films

We aren’t even half way through 2014, and I’m already looking forward to next year. Why, so soon? Next year will be filled with so many awesome films, and I thought I’d share with you some of them that I’m already keen to be seeing.

-Jurassic World (June), While it has been in development hell for many years now, I have faith that the fourth installment in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park franchise, and believe it might even me able to match the success of the original film.

-Bond 24 [working title] (November), Skyfall blew everyone out of the water in 2012, and now Sam Mendes will return to continue what he started. Daniel Craig will return for his fourth Bond film, as well as other stars from Skyfall, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw. Casting rumours have Benedict Cumberbatch and Penelope Cruz linked to the film.
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This Sorrowful Life

Over the past couple of months while catching up with friends from my past, I’ve been asked one same question multiple times:

“Don’t you get bored”

The answer is no. How could I be. While I’ve been trying some things out this year (vlogging, writing and podcasting) to see if I have a future at all, I simply enjoy some of the days being engrossed in pop culture. So for the people wondering, here are a few things that have kept me sane:

-Discovered the X-Men films (only took me fourteen years) and decided once and for all that I am team Marvel, not DC.

-Finally finished reading A Game Of Thrones. (RIP Ned)

-Was able to spend so much time watching my beloved Survivor, and got more involved in the fandom.

-Read more often. I know that’s a pretty simple one, but you can learn from reading right? I learn’t a lot from Twitter for Dummies, that’s how I have 700 twitter followers. Not really, I mean I DO have 700 twitter followers (bragging much), but I do feel sorry for anyone who paid money for a book like that.

-Attempted to be a sporty spice. Does Wii Fit count as exercise? 


John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars

Okay so last night I had the pleasure of being able to see the movie adaption of John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars. It was one of those rare modern movies were you know that this is going to be an instant classic, and will be watched and loved by many for a long time. This is mostly due to the films lead stars, Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, as Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters. I’m hoping Woodley will be at least considered, for her portrayal of Hazel, during awards ceremonies in January and Febuary of next year, as I know the Academy likes to over look any films with a teenage audience (we all remember how Harry Potter was treated). But I didn’t intend to talk about how good Woodley and Elgort were, especially since many other publications will spend a lot of time talking about there performance. I’d rather look at the supporting cast, and applaud them for adding so much to the film. While his character may have been idolised by many while reading the book, I wasn’t drawn to Isaac, but it was a completely different story in the film, when he was portrayed by Nat Wolff. It was proven that Wolff is one talented young actor, and this won’t be the last we see of him. Announced in March this year, Wolff will star as Q in another of John Green’s movie adaptions, Paper Towns. Laura Dern is another that will problerly not receive the praise that she deserves from the film. She was everything I could imagine Hazel’s mum being. While the these two don’t get a lot of screen time, their casting was spot on, and matched the vide of the film very well.

Youtube Culture & the New Age Celebrity

Recently there has been a lot of chatter amongst the Youtube community regarding how Youtube, in itself, has grown rapidly and how the culture has changed. A while back Louise, known for her channel Sprinkle of Glitter, posted a video addressing her concerns with conventions and the way people look up to her when she feels like she hasn’t done anything worthy to be idolised. Very modest, but you can’t expect to have millions of followers through your videos and twitter, and not expect people to be excited when they see you, or to be inspired by you. I do have sympathy for her though. I can understand how crazy it would be on stage at those conventions with the kinds of fans that there are.

Louise’s video brought up a lot of discussion with many on Youtube, who posted video responses with their thoughts. Zoe Sugg, known for her beauty channel Zoella, posted on her blog on the same topic as Louise did. The post was amusingly titled “Ordinary Girl in an Overwhelming World”. In her post she says she doesn’t believe she is a celebrity. I don’t know a word which would fit better than celebrity seeing that Zoe has over four million Youtube subscribers, and one and a half million followers on twitter. Maybe it isn’t the traditional sense of the word celebrity, in the way of Angelina Jolie or Britney Spears, but a new age celebrity. I highly respect both Louise and Zoe, so this isn’t any sort of attack on them, but more of a stone cold fact.
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The Rocky Horror Show

Last week I had the pleasure of going to see a brilliant performance by the 2014 Australian cast of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show. While the shows cast was marvelous, with Tim Maddren and Christie Whelan Brown as Brad and Janet, and Kristian Lavercombe the stand outs, the show is put in a make or break situation in regard to Rocky Horror’s lead, Frank N. Furter. Luckily for me and 1,000 others in attendance at the Comedy Theater, we were given one hell of a show, thanks to Craig McLachlan.

Giving what I would call one of the best performances I have ever witnessed, McLachlan played the part perfectly. While some may have found his constant crowd interaction annoying, I felt it showed just how comfortable he was in the role. And so he should be. Back in 1992, McLachlan shook the “soapie star tag”, after previously appearing in Neighbors and Home & Away, and made his stage debut as Frank. Joining him on stage was a star studded cast featuring Gina Riley as Janet, Peter Rowsthorn as Riff-Raff, Wilbur Wilde as Eddie/Dr. Scott, and Red Symonds as the Narrator. Since then he has gone on to star in Grease, Chicago, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. At the intermission, I overheard a conversation where someone asked if McLachlan was gay, which to the best of my knowledge he isn’t, but that isn’t important, is it? The only thing that’s important is that he, as Frank N Furter, was willing to take the role everywhere and anywhere.

So many singing shows, but so few singers

After seven seasons of Australian Idol, two seasons of The Voice, and five seasons of The X Factor, we have very little to show for it.

I could name contestants from American Idol in an instance, while I would have have to think real hard about singers on our local version. Keep in mind that I’ve never watched a full season of USA Idol, and know the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks, Chris Daughtry, and Jennifer Hudson due to their international success. With Australian Idol, Guy Sebastian and Jess Mauboy are the only two that have really continued on from their reality tv show fame, that come to mind instantly.

The Voice Australia is even worse. The show, which is currently in its third season, is a massive ratings hit, with many tweeting along every night. Season one winner Karise Eden has only released one album since her 2012 win on the show. The album, My Journey, featured one original, along with twelve other covers. She is also known for the biggest drop from number one in ARIA history. Her single “Stay With Me Baby”, which is a cover of Lorraine Ellison’s hit, dropped from number one down to number fifty four. A week after that the song was completely out of the top 100. Season two winner Harrison Craig, has faired no better. He managed to release a follow up to his debut album, titled L.O.V.E, but it was full of covers once again. Third place getter from season one, Rachel Leahcar, is in the same boat, as she has just released her third album titled, Here Comes The Sun, jam packed with covers of The Beatles. Do you see a pattern here.

The Voice’s rival The X Factor, over at Seven Network, has been more favourable with developing stars who have a chance of getting anywhere. The past three winners Dami Im, Samantha Jade, and Reece Mastin, have all had relative success with four top five albums between them, and all are currently working on studio albums full of ORIGINAL MATERIAL.

Still after all these years, our first Idol winner, Guy Sebastian, is the one and only to make a dint in the American market. At the same time we are currently watching the likes of 5SOS and Iggy Azalea become well known in the states. Makes you wonder. Are these singing shows around purely for our entertainment, or to create stars?

Survivor: Borneo, Australia, Africa, and … Cagayan?

While the twenty eighth season of Survivor wraps up today, I’ve just finished re-watching the first three seasons. Survivor Cagayan has been one of the best in recent years, and dare I say, one of the best in the franchises history, but there would of been many who have watched this season of Survivor, that have never seen the shows conception and beginning. I’ve heard over the years people saying the show is totally different now, than what it was fourteen years ago. Maybe in production value, but the core of the show is still there. Only thing is this year with Cagayan, it’s been as clear as ever, how this show is still the same.

What makes the first three seasons, Borneo, Australian Outback, and Africa, is the great characters and everyone’s desire to win. Nobody is sitting around for third place (which is another topic in itself). In Borneo every castaway that made the merge was memorable, and was given quality screen time. Same thing for Australia and Africa. I can also say this for Cagayan, while I can’t say that for all seasons from the past few years.

In this season we had Tony, the villain playing super hard. Spencer, the young underdog. Kass, the outspoken older woman. Trish and Woo, playing under the radar in Tony’s majority alliance, and the challenge beast, Tasha. This final six was one where every single person had a case to win. Which is not un-similar to the seasons I have mentioned, where their final six’s featured legends of the game like Richard Hatch, Rudy Boesch, Sue Hawk, Colleen Haskell (from Borneo), Tina Wesson, Colby Donaldson, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Amber Brkich (from Australia), Ethan Zohn, Lex van den Berghe, Tom Buchanan, and Teresa Cooper (from Africa). So if you’ve enjoyed Survivor: Cagayan, but haven’t seen how the whole show started, definitely check them out.

Safety Behind Bars

I remember people telling me about the change going from high school to University, in regards to how there is so little structure in your life. If that was a big change for people, then it doesn’t get any bigger than high school every week for six years, to nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m currently loving my life and year off, but waking up and being able to do anything is awesome and scary at the same time. It’s awesome that I am able to spend a whole day reading The Walking Dead comics and re watching old Survivor episodes. It’s scary how I can spend a whole day doing nothing. Literally nothing. So while high school was such a effort to get through, it really was safety behind bars.

What to watch: Orphan Black

As summer draws upon those in the United States, everyone’s favourite television shows will be coming to a close for another season. As much as we complain about how there is too much television to watch in one week, come summer, when you are all caught up on every Chuck Lorre show, there won’t be many options to pick from in your tv guide. Which means summer becomes a time to discover new shows, and some hidden gems that you haven’t had the time to binge watch.

One show that I recommend to check out if you already hadn’t is Orphan Black. This sci-fi action drama can get so confusing at times, that I wonder if even the writers know whats going on. No matter how many questions you have at the end of each episode, keep with the show. The one thing I’m sure of is how outstanding the acting is. In a show about the creation of clones, Tatiana Maslany manages to perfectly play them all, and switches accents from scene to scene. Along with the relatively unknown Maslany, is Jordan Gavaris who plays Felix, foster brother to Sarah Manning, the first clone we meet and the shows central character. Gavaris manages to bring some humor to the show, all while putting on a very convincing English accent. With the first season being only ten episodes long, and the show only three episodes into the current sophomore season, I managed to binge watch and catch up over three days.