Home Buzz X-Men Triple Bill At Cineworld Review – A Super Sweat Box
X-Men Triple Bill At Cineworld Review – A Super Sweat Box

X-Men Triple Bill At Cineworld Review – A Super Sweat Box

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Words by Kevin Coffey 

On Tuesday May 17, Cineworld on Parnell Street held an event showing the three most recent X-Men movies, First Class, Days Of Future Past and the midnight premiere screening of the newest instalment, Apocalypse. I was just lucky enough to grab myself a seat to this sold out event and, although others may not delight in the idea of spending 8 hours straight in a packed cinema, I was beside myself with excitement.

After stopping into the nearby Tesco for drinks and snacks to last the total runtime, myself and my partner in crime wandered over to the cinema for the 6.30pm start time. Seating ourselves at the back for optimum viewing, we got to see the full range of X-Men fans (X-Fans?) in attendance, most notably a man wearing a comic-style Wolverine beanie. After a short stint of trailers, the night’s event kicked off with First Class and it was nothing if not ‘first class’… did that land? Did I get away with that? Alrighty then.

anyway

But seriously, this has to be my favourite X-Men movie because it has an entirely solid plot from start to finish. Before this, I didn’t think anyone could replace Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen as Xavier and Magneto, respectively, who were nearly pulled straight from the comic, but James McEvoy and Michael Fassbender do a stellar job portraying these characters in their prime and deserve every ounce of praise they get. It was also really cool to see a bunch of obscure mutants most people (myself included) would never have heard of, including Banshee, Darwin and Havok, taking the spotlight.

Also, Shaw’s (Kevin Bacon) death scene is one of the most gruesome deaths to watch for me personally. This was a fantastic movie to revitalise the franchise (after the double blow of The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine) and begin tonight’s triple bill. As First Class’ credits started rolling, most of the crowd started stirring for snack/bathroom breaks, but not both at the same time (or maybe they did, I’m not stopping them).

snacks

About 20 minutes later, Days Of Future Past came on and it is at this point that we realized that the screen does not have any air conditioning and the sweats started to set in. And although the seats of Cineworld are actually super comfy, things began to get pretty uncomfortable. This in mind, DOFP is a solid movie and I enjoyed it. It was super cool getting to see both old and new Xavier and Magneto in the same movie and that Quicksilver scene still holds up and probably will always hold up. It’s pretty funny and ‘Time In A Bottle’ by Tim Croce works absolutely perfectly!

so damn hot

An interesting thing I only thought about while watching these two movies back-to-back is the fate of most of the mutants from First Class, barring Havok, only realising they had died, a point I completely overlooked watching it the first time with such a gap of time between the two movies. I really liked how this movie used Wolverine, the franchise’s mascot, as basically just a point of view character for most of the movie, as there were fears before its release that the movie would be just about him. As this movie ends, completely retconning the events of The Last Stand in the process, we came ever closer to the main event of the night!

kramer

And as Apocalypse drew ever nearer, so too did my sanity dwindle in the giant sauna that was Cineworld! It turns out sitting in comfy seats in sweltering heat at roughly midnight makes you tired! Honestly I’d say the only reason I survived the event is because I realized only 5 minutes before the movie started that they were selling Slushpuppies. They were beautifully cold and gave me just enough energy for one more movie!  I’m not going to dive too deep into Apocalypse (you can catch Anthony’s review here), but on the whole I did enjoy the movie, from what I remember of it (brain being a baked potato and what have you…).

so excited

A funny thing I only noticed watching all three movies back-to-back is that they all take place in different decades; First Class in the 60s, DOFP in the 70s and Apocalypse in the 80s, with the latter really driving home that it’s in the 80s, with the inclusion of Jubilee and Metallica’s ‘The Four Horseman’ (which tickled my interest in particular). This makes me wonder if the fourth instalment will be super grungy and 90s.

air conditioning

So as the night came to a close, the tired masses shuffled out of the screen and into the fresh chill of the Tuesday night. There is an odd sense of freedom in the air tonight as everyone present sat through intense heat, sweaty pits and the lingering odour of cinema nachos (seriously, why do people buy them? They can’t be classed as food…) for roughly 8 hours. But as I wander the late Dublin streets flagging down a taxi, all I can think about it just going to bed. Overall, I’d only recommend doing one of these late night marathons for something you’d really like, otherwise it could be an absolute slog to get through, but this was definitely an experience I don’t regret.

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