Yes, time travel is sticky. You know what’s also potentially hazardous? Creating post-credit tag sequences before your next movie is actually ready. Yes, we’ve seen it backfire before. In “The Incredible Hulk,” Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark shows up and tells General Ross he hears he has a problem, with the Hulk saying, “We’re putting a team together.” (i.e. “The Avengers”). Of course this would prove to be wrong. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nicky Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who does the ‘Avengers’ recruiting, and the Hulk doesn’t turn out to be the bad guy in that super-team up.
Even Marvel head Kevin Feige admits they fucked up. “I will say that the Tony Stark cameo in ‘The Incredible Hulk’ required us to [laughs] get ourselves out of a corner,” he said in 2012 circa the release of “The Avengers.” “We do not follow up on that scene in the narrative in any of the subsequent features” he added and noted there’s a short film on the ‘Captain America’ DVD “that wraps that up and explains that.” OK, then, but by admission they flubbed that one hard.
Now try “The Wolverine” going into “X-Men: Days Of Future Past.” Set “two years later” after the events of “The Wolverine” (which is set in present day, post “X-Men: The Last Stand,” as Logan is grieving the death of Jean Grey in the movie), the post-credits tag in James Mangold’s film is set in an airport. Logan goes through airport security, sees a commercial for Trask Industries and then comes face to face with Magneto (Ian Mckellen) who warns him evil forces are mounting to bring about the “end of our kind.” Why would Wolverine trust him? Well, because he’s with Professor X (Patrick Stewart). Cue fan cheering.
But first off, just disregard that Professor X isn’t dead, given the events of ‘The Last Stand’ (which Prof X simply explains as “you’re not the only one with gifts”). The idea is that Logan teams with Professor X and Magneto to join forces against Trask Industries and their all powerful Sentinels. But how does this fit exactly?
Because in “X-Men: Days Of Future Past,” the planet has essentially been ravaged by Sentinels that seem to have demolished most of civilization in the name of destroying mutants. And while no timeline is really given in ‘Days Of Future Past,’ Sentinels were created in the 1970s and then wiped everything out… eventually? Are we to believe, that Sentinel technology was created in 1970s, but then lay somewhat dormant for 40-ish years? And two years after the events of “The Wolverine” (let’s call that 2015 for arguments sake – it is supposed to be set in close to what is “present day”), Professor X and Magneto band together to stop Sentinels that don’t destroy anything until 2023 (the year ‘DOFP’s future section takes place)?
Sure, that’s feasible, but somewhere between 2013-ish (the year “The Wolverine” came out) and 2023 The Sentinels were “turned on” even though Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) was killed in 1973 by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), turned into a martyr, but then his program wasn’t turned on until the 2010s? This just doesn’t really make sense. Is it because ‘DOFP’ is really an alternative future and if so, then why do the retconning actions of the movie affect the current past? Oy, are you getting a headache? Suffice to say, time travel logic doesn’t work and while the movie probably would have been logically flawed, with or without “The Wolverine” tag, it certainly doesn’t help. Are you as confused as I am now?
