Should You Bother?: X-Men- Days of Future Past- The Rogue Cut

Back in 2014, I remember seeing this one in a Theater.  It was great.
It was a big, ridiculous Movie in all of the best ways.

In 2015, Fox put out a second cut which added Rogue into it (besides just her ending Cameo).
I never saw that.

Cut to 10 years after that came out and I got the Blu-Ray (and Digital) at a Goodwill.

Let's get a quick recap in there, since this is not an official Review...

In the year 2023, things are bad.  Not our kind of bad, mind you, but the World is mostly devoid of life, Mutants are in Camps and the Sentinels run everything.

A group of mutants- Storm, Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto- team up with another group- Kitty Pryde, Blink, Sunspot, Bishop, Colossus and Iceman- for a risky gambit (no pun intended).

They can send someone back in time to stop the event that led to the Sentinels being made.

That means sending Wolverine- who can survive the experience- back into his younger body.  He must get a burnt-out Xavier, Beast and Magneto to stop Mystique for accidentally setting things in motion.

Can they do it?

In a nutshell, it's a convoluted way to get the current X-Men Cast- from First Class- and the OG X-Men together in a Film.

As for this Cut...

Should You Bother?

At first, things don't feel that different.

It is a few little things, like Wolverine doing more in his 1973 Intro, a second F-Bomb being dropped and slightly different versions of other Scenes.

We also meet Quicksilver's Sister...but also hear about another Sister?

Is that Polaris?  Who knows?!?

Eventually, we get to the meat of it.

In both Cuts, Kitty is slashed inadvertently by Wolverine and hurt.

In the Theatrical Cut, she gets iced up by Bobby and soldiers on.

In this Cut, Iceman leads a mission- with Xavier and Magneto- to rescue Rogue and bring her there.

Unfortunately, that ends in Iceman's death- in footage repurposed for later in the Theatrical Cut- and the X-Mansion being destroyed.

The Rescue is crosscut with 1973 Magneto breaking into a Government Building to get his helmet.
This Film loves crosscutting.

We also get more Mystique, as she goes from the Airport to the Mansion.
She gets a nice moment with Beast, but has ulterior motives.

She breaks into the basement and destroys Cerebro.

She's thorough.

I honestly wonder why they cut this at all.

As for Rogue- who this Cut is named after- she drains Kitty and takes over.
We get a line of dialogue from 1973 Wolverine (a great car!) where he knows this...somehow.

Other than that, her role is just to be there.
That's it.

It does lead to a change- Kitty pulls Magneto into the Base, as opposed to Blink doing it in the Theatrical Cut.

Yea?

Otherwise, it is still mostly the same Movie.

Verdict: Yes

While not as notable as other Director's Cuts I've covered, this one adds many good moments.

The main selling point- Rogue is in this- doesn't amount to too much in the grand scheme of things.
I enjoyed rewatching this one for the first time in years (I must have rented it at some point between 2014 and 2024!).

Even so, I joked to myself about how long it was until Rogue was even mentioned (about 90 minutes).  The way her stuff is added was well done- it just wasn't like she suddenly got a Character Arc or anything.

The changes improve the Movie.
The changes don't drag the Pacing down.

Plus, if you get the standard release of this like I did, you have both Cuts anyhow.

Don't worry- they didn't cut the 'Time in a Bottle' Scene.

A Fun, adventurous Film that gets lots of minor, but also substantial changes.  The Film is still good though.