[VonPooten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trivial Psychic

DoFP is probably my favorite film of Singer's, just barely edging out X-2 and First Class (which are interchangeable in my eyes.) simply because it gave us something I'd never thought we'd see, Sentinels, and it made them work. They were terrifying to watch in both the future and the past, and for the first time I think, I was actually able to empathize and vicariously understand just why mutants feared them so much, which was something that's much more difficult to convey in the comics when Rogue and Wolverine are routinely tearing them limb from limb without sustaining so much as a scratch in between the panels. Add in Singers pretty ingenious retcon to correct both his and Ratner's previous sins, and it gives me faith that despite the naysayers, Apocalypse will be just fine.

DoFP was a resounding success due to this fact in and of itself. The Sentinels have never exactly been the threat that X-comics have wanted them to be. Due to their robot status, it gives artists an excuse to draw otherwise gory fight sequences without editorial coming down on them, so Sentinels have really just been cannon fodder to, as you said, Rogue and the like.
The first time one was really depicted as a force to be reckoned with, I think, was in the cartoon X-Men: Evolution. When a Sentinel finally appeared, it was this behemoth that was nigh indestructible, took out most of the X-Men AND Brotherhood, and also resulted in the mutants' exposure to the world at large.. and that was only one Sentinel! The feeling that episode ebbed was certainly reignited in DoFP, where the mutants were, fundamentally, screwed to hell and back. Granted, the mutants were severely under-powered (although Storm activating the nuke inside the X-Jet was genius), but those organic, mutating machines accompanied by the Inception-esque soundtrack was quite jaw-dropping.

I have faith in Singer, and honestly am in the vast minority when I say that First Class is my least favourite out of the bunch. Mystique as Xavier's adopted sister, Moira as an American CIA agent, Sebastian Shaw's power set, Xavier as a weird playboy, and Emma Frost's atrocious character in general were just unforgivable. All terrible, terrible choices which were FAR worse than even Ryan Renolds' Baraka-pool in Origins: Wolverine. The stupendous scenes with Michael Fassbender couldn't save the film for me, unfortunately.