Hank McCoy (Before the Fur)

I still can’t believe how enthralled with this next step in the X-Men film franchise I really am. I had given up some time ago and just settled into this idea that eventually, down the road, there’d be a reboot.

X-Men: First Class seemed carefully constructed in that way reboots often are: to not necessarily contradict anything you had seen in the original X-Men films. I dug it. I wasn’t totally satisfied with the way it sort of towed the line between a reboot and a prequel. But mostly I dug it.

I had always wondered just how well either of the Spider-man or X-Men film franchises were going to survive past a third film. Spider-man--while slated for six movies--didn’t quite get there continuously (you know Sam Raimi had the Sinister Six lined up for that final number too). X-Men: Last Stand, while not everything you may have wanted in a film, did do an admirable job of leaving the door open for more. But it seemed to me that that time had come and gone.

But the trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past? This TRAILER.

They’ve done more than a reboot. They’ve reclaimed and capitalized on everything they’ve done up until now (or at least the stellar trailer we’ve been exposed to would lead me to believe they are going to do this). I suspect X-Men: Days of Future Past will probably wrap up the story of the original X-Men movies by the events within, rendering the future obsolete. This would then pave the way for X-Men: First Class to be the new X-Men standard so to speak.

I could be wrong about this, but it’s an impressive and ambitious move tying the two movies together.

I notice that Sentinels themselves are conspicuously absent in the trailer. So we still haven’t gotten a chance to see the titanic death machines they will ultimately become in action and I think this is left to intentionally tantalize you. Images of mutants running through some kind of prison system bodes well though for the gritty and dark future of the X-Men universe being brought to life.

This thing might just compete with The Avengers in terms of "most ambitious comic book movie project." 2014 will likely be a very good year for X-Men fans of all generations.