X-Men: Days of Future Past

Mostly everything is explained and understood.

B+

Because he jumped into another body that looked exactly like him, as clearly shown in X3.

How are people still asking about this, X3 was quite explicit.

Why is Xavier still alive, when he clearly died in X3?

-Mystique. The film making her the focus just doesn't work. The emotional connection between her and Xavier just isn't strong enough. Oh and Lawerence really should try acting again. She seems to have lost the ability after winning the Oscar.

-Wolverine. All he does is send a message of the future, get Charles to stop taking drugs, and acts as a vessel to Charles to talk to Charles. His role feels so...insignificant.

I said 'mostly everything'. But I didn't even think about that. If this is true, then I would prbably downgrade the film. Although I'd have to watch X-Men: The Last Stand again. But I don't think it's too big of a problem. I mean, in a world where time travel and teleportation is possible, a simple resurrection (which has happened in MANY other NON-SCIENCE FICTION movies) should not be a cause for concern.

I looked around for the answer, and apparently in a post-credits scene in X3, it is revealed that the spirit of Xavier gets into his...... twin brother! So that twin brother is the guy we see in DoFP, while the original Xavier is indeed dead.

Man that's even more ridiculous than Xavier resurecting!

Aren't you just nitpicking? Can't you just enjoy the film? Why doesn't this even matter?

Hey, I read comics. I've mastered nitpicking and enjoying myself at the same time.

But more seriously, here's the thing about continuity. It applies to comics, and it increasingly applies to film sagas with seven sequels too. And the thing is this: if you want what happens in your films to matter, you have to pretend that there's something at stake.

This is something Marvel Studios understands. In building a world of multiple interconnected franchises, the events in one are reflected in another. Tony Stark didn't HAVE to have PTSD in Iron Man 3. He didn't HAVE to mention that he stopped an alien invasion. But the fact that he did? That's what convinces us these characters are able to grow and change. It's what gives the story weight. It invests us in the events that are happening.

And while this might seem like a nerdish desire for consistency, it's really not. It's the desire for the experience of watching a film to be as good as it can be. Bad continuity distracts you from what's actually happening on screen. It's not that it particularly matters how Professor X came back to life - it's that they didn't acknowledge it at all. If, in his first scene of DOFP, Professor X had said to Wolverine something like "I've died before, it's not necessarily the end" or "I've come back from worse", that would've been enough. Enough for the filmmakers to say "yes, we know he was dead, and now he isn't. But we needed him alive, so let's move on."

By NOT acknowledging the past, the filmmakers leave the audience preoccupied and confused. We're waiting for an explanation that isn't coming, instead of investing in the story we're watching. It sets a precedent that essentially stops filmmakers from engaging their audiences. Because if people are watching the X-Men films for the characters, and what happens to those characters doesn't stick from one movie to the next, it doesn't matter if we miss one.

And I'm no movie producer, but teaching audiences they can miss films? That seems like a bad idea to me.