Well, here's a report just sent to AICN Headquarters, and Father Geek urges you to remember that this is daily footage that may or may not make it to the final flick, but these discriptions combined with the trailer footage, stills etc... are starting to give us a pretty good picture of what the long awaited film will be like. This is spoiler heavy stuff so you may want to stop reading right now... STOP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!!
Hey Harry, Father Geek, Moriarty,
First time poster here. You can call me Magnum PI.
Last night I had the privilege of seeing some raw footage from the X-Men movie. A friend of mine was able to get a hold of it through a friend who was working on the movie here in Toronto. In total there was about 20 minutes of scenes (multiple takes) showing a chess game between Professor X and Magneto, part of a fight scene with Wolverine, a scene with Rogue and Mystique and Magneto, Storm bursting into a room with big news and Wolverine's first meeting with Prof. X and the X-Men in the X-Mansion.
Spoiler Alert From This Point On!!!
The chess game scene was dialogue heavy but it was difficult to hear what they were saying because the voice dubbing hadn't yet been done. This is the case with most of the footage. Hence the phrase "raw footage".
Multiple takes of Wolverine jumping down on somebody and pulling back his arm to strike with his claws (plastic with CGI to be added later on to make them look better). Due to the camera angle and brevity of the footage I was not able to tell who he was fighting.
The scene with Rogue shows her sitting on the floor handcuffed while Magneto talks to her and Mystique walks into the room. Only Magneto was speaking during this scene and he instructs Mystique to "Put her (Rogue) in the machine." I have no idea to what he is referring. Anna Paquin wasn't sporting the "skunk 'do" that the comic character is famous for. Maybe she gets it by the end of the movie.
Several takes of Storm coming into a room were shown. She announces that Senator Kelly is dead. Guess he won't be back for the sequel. Halley Berry seems to be speaking in some weird accent that sounds like an Indo-Carribean-British mix. It sounded so fake and ridiculous that I burst out laughing when I heard it. If she was going for an Egyptian-Kenyan accent (which would make sense if they were sticking to the comic origin) she failed miserably. Just my opinion.
The best footage by far was with Wolverine sneaking around X-Mansion and running into Prof. X. From what I could tell from the dialogue, early in the movie Logan and Rogue are saved from Sabretooth by the X-Men. They are brought back to the X-Mansion unconscious and housed in the lower levels of the school.
The scene opens with a hidden elevator door opening and an obviously disoriented Logan cautiously comes out. There he sees a large wood paneled hallway that is large and very majestic looking (this makes sense as I believe the X-Mansion scenes were filmed in Toronto's landmark Casa Loma). He begins sneaking around and hides as a group of about 10-12 young people walk by. It appears as though in the movie the Xavier Institute is being run as a fully functioning private school with more than just a handful of students. I like this as it makes more sense than the comics. After the students pass by , Logan ducks into a nearby room. This is followed by a point-of-view take of the scene from Logan's perspective.
The next scene shows Logan turning around and it is an office. Seated behind the desk is Prof. X and in front of him are several students. It appeared that Logan had interrupted a tutoring session. The professor dismissed the students. As they leave one forgets her book bag and returns for it. Professor X reminds her not to be late for her next class and calls her Kitty (I somehow get the feeling that Shadowcat AKA Kitty Pryde may be in the next movie). Professor X comes from behind his desk and you see that he is in a wheel-chair. At that point Storm, Cyclops and Dr. Jean Grey enter the room and are introduced.
Professor X then begins to explain how Logan got there, about mutants and assures him that Rogue is ok. Logan is clearly skeptical and rudely asks if Prof. X's code name is "Wheels". He then declares that this is "the stupidest thing he's ever heard" and starts to leave but Cyclops blocks his way. He grabs Cyclops by the collar and Professor X calms him down by mentioning what he knows about Wolverine's history. Apparently Wolverine has the same memory problems that he has in the comics and has been drifting around for about 15 years. He also appears to not know Sabretooth but Prof. X hints that they are connected because Sabretooth knows him. Professor X offers to help him remember from where (presumably the Weapon X program). The scene ends at his point and there are multiple takes with minor variations in dialogue and some bloopers.
From what I've observed and what my source tells me the movie will revolve a great deal around Wolverine, his history and his integration into the team. This won't be easy because Logan is such a loner.
That's all I have for now. I hope it is helpful.
Magnum PI
