Logan is being directed by James Mangold, the man who did the previous excursion The Wolverine (also Walk The Line, which is funny considering the trailer’s choice of music). The list of writers is a little interesting. David James Kelly is making his big screen debut with this script and Michael Green previously wrote the Green Lantern movie. That’s… concerning.

It’s been 24 hours now since the trailer debuted so lets take a considered look at it.

– Interesting Factors

I like that the movie took the choice to move the story on to a future date. It really gives it a chance to do something different. For example, it seems pretty clear that Wolverine’s healing factor is no longer working.

– Chuck But No Chuckles

Listen, when they show you everyone’s surrogate grandfather in this sort of condition you can guarantee this isn’t going to have the kind of quips and light-hearted beats of previous X-Men films. Prepare to feel some feelings.

– She’s Like You

“Very much like you”. Yeah, I’m pretty sure we can rest easy knowing that little Laura here is the clone of Wolverine from the comics, X-23. Will she be a loyal adaptation though? Will she have the claws? We may have gotten a sneak peek at that later in the trailer (it’s unclear) but keep in mind what Fox did with the Deadpool character in the first Wolverine movie. She may be in this but she may not be the same…

– The End

The ending to this trailer looks and feels like it could be the last shot of the movie too but I don’t think we’re getting out of this that easily. If Wolverine doesn’t die in Logan I’ll eat all the hats in a hat factory.

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Overall: It looks a lot like the Old Man Logan comic that Marvel did a couple years ago, although a whittled down version of it which is a good thing. I can never be fully confident in a Fox superhero film living up to it’s trailer. Right now though, I’m interested, which I haven’t been for any Wolverine movie previously.

X-Men: Days of Future Past, based on the classic Byrne/Claremont story of the same name, is a fantastical beast in concept. It’s a sequel to both the original X-Men trilogy and also a sequel to X-Men: First Class. Uniting the two casts was an awesome idea and the hotly anticipated trailer lives up to that notion as we see the darkest chapters of the X-Men, both past and present. Take a look!

Old Man Logan

Let’s get the Hugh Jackman out of the way and say DAMN, he looks good with greyed temples. The basic premise has this older Wolverine is transplanted into the body of his slightly younger self in the 70’s to inspire a disillusioned Xavier (James McAvoy) to avoid disaster. To quote Maria Hill in Battle of The Atom: “God, when did Wolverine become the reasonable one?”

“The X-Men ARE the assassins!”

As well as young and old versions of X-Men we’ve seen before, we also get a bunch of fan favourites to round out the numbers, chief among them being Bishop, time travelling X-Man of justice. Not much is known about his character so far other than he’s a “guy from the future who fights for survival” according to his actor, Omar Sy. Along with him we get shots of who I believe to be Sunspot, Warpath and the reality-hopping elfen Exile known as Blink (Fan Bingbing)

Little Man, Big Ideas

Bolivar Trask, played by Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage, is presumably the primary antagonist of the movie as he is the creator of the Sentinels, an army of mutant-hunting robots. He’s an interesting casting choice but I have no doubt he has the chops to play a bitter, hateful character. One thing I’m sad about is that there’s a noticeable lack of giant purple robots in the trailer but from behind the scenes shots, they look pretty cool!

Messiah Complex

Here’s the shot many were waiting for. The thought of McAvoy and Stewart in a scene together whets my appetite for the movie and is a perfect way to top off the trailer. The younger disillusioned Xavier and the older, wiser and hopeful Xavier in a battle of wits and words. Wait, didn’t Stewart’s Xavier die in X-Men 3? OOOH, MYSTERIOUS!

Between an all-star cast, a great director and an interesting premise, this movie is shaping up to be one of the best X-Men movies to date! X-Men: Days of Future Past is due for release May 23, 2014.

There is a rather wonderful little project going on over in Tumblr-land. Steve Payne is using the 329 portraits of Russian generals painted by George Dawes and changing the faces.

He started out using his friends and family but has gone on to use some slightly more famous faces for his art.

Some look oddly out of place but others could convince you they’ve led armies to war. Have a look at some of my favourites below and check out the Replaceface page for the full compliment.