13. X-Men: Days Of Future Past Both X-Men Casts, Together
The X-Men franchise sits in a unique position insofar as it has two disparate casts operating out of separate time zones. Both the X-Men First Class crew and the present-day bunch are brimming with talented actors but with exception of Wolverine, there's no easy way both plot-wise and in ambition they can all be part of the same feature, which some view as a shame. So really, I sort of admire the almost-cheap way the producers behind X-Men got around that problem, throwing a collective 'screw it' and chucking time travel into the mix. In my opinion, the choice to set up the plot around the acclaimed Days Of Future Past story is already something of a masterstroke, entirely because it's going to bring two vast and well-established casts together. Combine this with the time-travelling 'prevent-the-future' logic and the chance to see just what a Sentinel apocalypse looks like and you've got a mouthwatering story of boggling scope for the bevy of actors to get involved with. And really, this also prevents the debate some thought was going to happen after X-Men First Class that despite both pairings of Professor X and Magneto being excellent in their own right (Michael Fassbender's occasional slip into Irish aside), and both Mystiques being pretty much awesome, we'd have to flip a coin and make a choice over which ones we wanted. The whole Days Of Future Past thing smacks of having your cake and eating it, something which I doubt most fans have any problem with whatsoever. They really are spoiling us this time, and it'll be good to see Hugh Jackman play Wolverine in a cast this time. I like the character, but they've gone as far as they can with him in solo vehicles, and frankly, his The Wolverine post-credits interactions with his one-time franchise stablemates was a pretty spine-tingling affair. Imagine him doing that across two timezones, and tell me that's not something that gets you excited. Plus, apparently, this film will negate everything that happened in X-Men: The Last Stand, and frankly, if that doesn't make you happy, I don't know what will.