X-Men DOFP-RC thought
So I recently had a chance to watch the Rogue Cut of X-Men Days of Future Past and I had a thought.
I remember noting at the time that Kitty’s power makes no sense. For one, what do selective immateriality and mental time travel have in terms of connection that she would have both powers? And two, how would she ever learn to do it? To learn to do it she must successfully send someone back to change the timeline, thus erasing the timeline wherein she learned to do it. Yes I know that it’s Kitty because she was the character who time traveled in in the comic, but the movie version is a big thing to put on our suspension of disbelief; it doesn’t quite break my suspension of disbelief as it’s a good movie around it and within its illogic at least it’s consistent.
Still, wouldn’t it make more sense if she did remember when time was reset? I’ll admit that for the theatrical cut, I don’t see much upside in having Kitty remember at the end; having Logan as the only one who remembers the old timeline works as he entered the story as a man missing his past and we leave him with just as little understanding of how he got here. Since the story hadn’t been about Kitty up until then, putting her in that complicated position at the end and not taking a fair bit of time to address it would have been wrong.
But in the Rogue Cut it would then actually be Rogue who ended up remembering and thematically that would have been perfect. Because then in the end Logan and Rogue wake up in the X-mansion not understanding the world they find themselves in, just as it was in X1. They never get a proper reunion, just a recognition as she takes over Kitty’s place (though I am glad the Rogue Cut gives us something at least since those two were are viewpoint characters in the original trilogy); in this hypothetical ending they could have at least had a moment as they go down to talk to Charles. The two people who arguably most would have wanted to forget that world of pain and loss, cursed to remember but it’s very much worth it to see the world alive and hopeful again.
And, cards on the table, I would have squeed the squee of a happy shipper because those two are kind of my first love of this series.
In general I can see why they trimmed away from the Rogue Cut for the theatrical version, especially when having her in the driver’s seat of the time travel didn’t really effect anything in the story. I don’t actually remember the theatrical cut super well, so I’m not entirely sure what was changed in the 1973 stuff, but I know some of it was changed and the Rogue Cut version seems to drag a little more than I remember the theatrical cut doing. But as special edition I like the extended cut especially for Rogue, I mostly just would have liked it to go that one step further with it.
I remember noting at the time that Kitty’s power makes no sense. For one, what do selective immateriality and mental time travel have in terms of connection that she would have both powers? And two, how would she ever learn to do it? To learn to do it she must successfully send someone back to change the timeline, thus erasing the timeline wherein she learned to do it. Yes I know that it’s Kitty because she was the character who time traveled in in the comic, but the movie version is a big thing to put on our suspension of disbelief; it doesn’t quite break my suspension of disbelief as it’s a good movie around it and within its illogic at least it’s consistent.
Still, wouldn’t it make more sense if she did remember when time was reset? I’ll admit that for the theatrical cut, I don’t see much upside in having Kitty remember at the end; having Logan as the only one who remembers the old timeline works as he entered the story as a man missing his past and we leave him with just as little understanding of how he got here. Since the story hadn’t been about Kitty up until then, putting her in that complicated position at the end and not taking a fair bit of time to address it would have been wrong.
But in the Rogue Cut it would then actually be Rogue who ended up remembering and thematically that would have been perfect. Because then in the end Logan and Rogue wake up in the X-mansion not understanding the world they find themselves in, just as it was in X1. They never get a proper reunion, just a recognition as she takes over Kitty’s place (though I am glad the Rogue Cut gives us something at least since those two were are viewpoint characters in the original trilogy); in this hypothetical ending they could have at least had a moment as they go down to talk to Charles. The two people who arguably most would have wanted to forget that world of pain and loss, cursed to remember but it’s very much worth it to see the world alive and hopeful again.
And, cards on the table, I would have squeed the squee of a happy shipper because those two are kind of my first love of this series.
In general I can see why they trimmed away from the Rogue Cut for the theatrical version, especially when having her in the driver’s seat of the time travel didn’t really effect anything in the story. I don’t actually remember the theatrical cut super well, so I’m not entirely sure what was changed in the 1973 stuff, but I know some of it was changed and the Rogue Cut version seems to drag a little more than I remember the theatrical cut doing. But as special edition I like the extended cut especially for Rogue, I mostly just would have liked it to go that one step further with it.