7. X-Men: Days of Future Past
Release Date: 2014 After Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn made his follow up film with 2011's X-Men: First Class, which was a strong reboot/prequel/preboot for the franchise and arguably the best X-Men film yet. Vaughn gave the film a 1960s James Bond film vibe, particularly in Michael Fassbender's performance as Erick Lensherr and it was the perfect change of direction from the excess of Last Stand. The film chronicled the friendship between Erik and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik's eventual transformation in to Magneto, and it had the proper scale for an X-Men film and Vaughn did a excellent job balancing the spectacle with solid character-driven drama. Vaughn will return to helm this sequel, whose title suggests it'll be following the famous Chris Claremont/John Byrne storyline in which there exists an alternative future where mutants are held in internment camps. An older Kitty Pryde transfers her mind to her younger self in order to help the X-Men prevent the event that caused the anti-mutant movement. The sentinels are a part of the dystopian future and it'd be amazing to finally get the sentinels in a feature film. It's still up in the air how the film will adapt the storyline. Bryan Singer, who directed the first two X-Men films, has hinted that there may be some crossover between First Class and the original films:
"It's going to be very ambitious....I think there's a strong desire to broaden out the universe... I think it's time to reach out and explore it and perhaps even bring some connectivity between the films."
Ambition, especially in terms of the superhero genre, is always welcome nowadays. First Class, as good as it was, was more of a set-up film, and with this sequel, it sounds like Vaughn will have more room to play around with this expansive universe.