X-Men Days of Futures Past vs Watchmen

CLASH OF THE RETRO ALTERNATE TIMELINES!!!

**SPOILERS**

This article spoils a great deal of both films. If you do not wish to be spoiled please look elsewhere. If you have seen one and don't care for the other then I can't really stop you from reading this. So, let's begin!

All out honesty, if I'm going to compare Watchmen to another film it should be The Incredibles. If you have seen both films, just think about that for a moment. Yep. Same story. Different execution. Different ending. And if I'm going to compare Days of Future Past to another movie it should be Terminator 2. Again, if you've seen both, think about it. So why compare Watchmen, the faithful adaptation of the greatest superhero comic of all time, against Days of Future Past, the inaccurate adaptation of one of the greatest and shortest X-Men stories of all time? Well that's because both films are set in alternate time periods. Well, 1/3 of Days of Future Past takes place in the year 2023 but a dominant portion still lives in the retro world. Believe it or not there are things that they have a lot in common.

COMPARISONS BEGIN

The Death of a Hated Figure brings doom

Bolivar Trask and Edward Blake

Both of these films are triggered by the death of someone. In Days of Future Past, that death was Bolivar Trask. In Watchmen, that death was Edward Black aka The Comedian. Both occur at the beginning of the story and propels the narrative. However where they diverge is that Watchmen is about finding out who killed The Comedian and Days of Future Past is about stopping the murder from happening. But the consequences of this figure's death brings about something apocalyptic. In Days of Future Past that would be the unstoppable Sentinels of the future. In Watchmen it is the death of 15 million people around the world. In a sense they are both apocalyptic with massive scale consequences. Though it could be argued that had The Comedian not died in Watchmen the ending would still happen, but this is more about his death sends the characters on their journey the same way preventing Trask's death put the X-Men on theirs.

We're not doing so good

Charles Xavier and Daniel Dreiberg

In Days of Future Past a young Charles Xavier has fallen from grace after feeling like he is no longer needed. In Watchmen a large majority of the former superheroes still find difficulty adjusting to their lives. While the former Nite Owl II aka Daniel Dreiberg may suffer from a psychological case of erectile dysfunction; which is not as serious as Xavier's drug addiction to get rid of his powers and walk; they both do have that sense of losing a part of themselves without realizing it is who they really are that will save them. Daniel realizes he can't live without being Nite Owl and Xavier realizes he can't live without the wheelchair. It is clear that Xavier is in a more darker place than Daniel but both of them still had to confront the facts: they are who they are and they should not change that.

Prison Break? That's illegal you know

This is more of a plot coincidence than an actual thematic similarity. But both movies do feature a scene where the heroes have to break out arguably the badass of their stories in order to progress the plot. Days of Future Past has the gang plus a newly recruited Quicksilver breaking Magneto out of the Pentagon. Watchmen had a sexed up adrenaline rushed couple break out Rorschach from prison. And yes, one looked cooler than the other. I'm not going to deny that. And you already know which one is cooler. Its just funny how they both have a prison break though, right?

The Badass never compromises

Rorschach and Magneto

You know who I'm talking about. No, not Wolverine. Young Magneto and Watchmen's Rorschach are the uncompromising "badass" characters in their respective films. Both of them have almost a black and white world view. Magneto does blur the black and white with shades of gray, but he still maintains the view that mutants are superior to humans. Rorschach on the other hand only and literally sees the world in black and white. His view is that evil must be punished, even if that means going to the extreme. Both of these characters are incapable of seeing anything different. When everyone else has fallen, they kept going with their causes. But that doesn't mean they're incapable of having friends.

Why can't we be friends?

I had to. Both films have a dynamic between a pair of characters with completely opposing views yet have a strange mutual respect towards each other. Daniel and Xavier can be viewed as fallen White Knights that have to pick themselves up again. And as I've stated before Magneto and Rorschach are the badass uncompromising Dark Knights that stay active in their cause no matter what. Yet both pairs need each other. Daniel and Rorschach both want justice but see different ways of going about it. Xavier and Magneto both want to ensure the future of mutant kind but have completely different methods of how to do so. Despite this, both pairs find a way to still remain friends. Though Daniel and Rorschach are not on opposing sides, the two of them are the only ones who can tolerate and understand each other. And even though Xavier and Magneto are on literal opposing sides, they do care about one another. But granted, if Rorshach and Magneto had to kill Daniel and Xavier, I strongly believe they would.

The "Villain" wants World Peace

Bolivar Trask and Adrian Veidt

Trask has similarities to The Comedian's intellectual rival: Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias. Both of these characters want world peace. Trask wants peace for humanity by focusing all their hatred towards mutants rather than each other. Ozymandias wants to achieve world peace by faking an alien invasion framing the all powerful Dr. Manhattan with the deaths of 15 million people. Their methodologies of redirecting everyone's hatred and fear towards another party are very similar yet very logical. They're not evil, but they're not above creating an evil for the world to turn against. In a sense they acknowledge that good and evil are only concepts but concepts that everyone believes in. So if the way to unite people is to turn someone into the source of all evil, then of course people will unite for a cause.

It all works out in the end (?)

Both films have happy endings....ish. Days of Future Past ends with the dark future being averted and everyone who died in the original timeline comes back to life. But the change in the timeline may have awakened Apocalypse. While Watchmen ends with the United States and Soviet Union calling off their Cold War to preach world peace. But Rorschach's journal being found by a newspaper intern may trigger an unraveling of the conspiracy to save the world. In other words, both protagonists seemed to have temporarily averted disaster. But as we all know, peace never lasts forever.

Final Thoughts

If you've been following me you'll notice that this versus is completely different from my Godzilla versus and Prehistoric versus. Here I don't really delve into who did it better (except the prison break sequence) but more about what they have in common. I can easily make an argument how Days of Future Past is better than Watchmen. Just look at Rottentomatoes. But then I could've easily made an argument why Watchmen is a far superior film to Days of Future Past. At least they stayed true to the comics. But unlike the American Godzilla films that have similar goals and similar plots, these two films may have similar elements but completely different plots. One is about hope, the other is about reality. I just found it interesting how they match up in so many places and thought I'd point that out. Apologies if you thought this was going to be a complete bashing of one film over the other.

Because we clearly know who the winner is (> . >) X-Men Days of Future Past