The original X-Men trilogy rightly painted the mutant Mystique as an incredibly lithe, nimble, athletic gymnast/martial artist, but that was one key element of the character that was really missing from Jennifer Lawrence's performance in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. While she used her ability to morph and imitate as a means to trick people, but at her young age she had not yet learned how to fight. Watching this brand new clip, it's very clear the same won't be true in Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Posted by Yahoo!, this quick scene from the upcoming comic book movie definitely reminds us of the Rebecca Romijn version, able to lift her leg above her head in order to kick a dude in the face. While I'm sure that the stunt team did quite a bit of work both in this sequence and the the whole movie(one of the benefits of all that blue makeup), I imagine that Jennifer Lawrence's preparation this time around was far more intense than her first time playing Mystique.
As fun as it is to talk about the mutant, though, there are also two very important characters in this scene that haven't been getting enough attention in the marketing so far. The man entering the room at the beginning of the clip is Bolivar Trask, played by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage. His company, Trask Industries, signs a deal with the government to start producing giant robot weapons known as Sentinels that are programmed to hunt down and destroy all members of Homo superior. Naturally, he's not seen as a good guy in the eyes of the X-Men, and he is basically the central antagonist of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
The guy in the military uniform waving his gun around is actually equally important in the X-Men franchise. That mutant-hater is none other than a young William Styker, who you may remember as the central villain of X2, played by Brian Cox. In X-Men: Days of Future Past he will be played by Australian actor Josh Helman, and from the looks of this clip he will be doing everything he can to help get Trask's Sentinels project going. How his role expands on shooting at any mutant that gets near him is unknown at this time.
All in all, this is a pretty badass clip that I'm really praying takes place very early in the movie (I will say that my spoiler sense is tingling). It won't be long until we get to see the finished product for ourselves, as the movie is now officially less than one month away, set to hit U.S. theaters on May 23rd. We're definitely excited - are you?
