CinemaCon Day Four: ‘X-Men,’ Shailene Woodley steal the show

By CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

11 years ago

Shailene Woodley, a cast member in the upcoming film "The Fault in Our Stars," introduces a clip from the film at the 20th Century Fox presentation at CinemaCon 2014 on Thursday, March 27, 2014, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

This photo released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Ellen Page, left, as Kitty Pryde and Shawn Ashmore as Iceman in Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel’s "X-Men: Days of Future Past." (AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox/Marvel, Alan Markfield)

This photo released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique in Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel’s "X-Men: Days of Future Past." (AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox/Marvel, Alan Markfield)

Fox kicked off Thursday’s final day of CinemaCon, the yearly Caesars Palace gathering of movie theater owners and various sellers of processed, cheese-flavored goop.

Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann introduced scenes of their girl-power comedy, “The Other Woman,” which featured plenty of footage of their co-star Kate Upton running. In slow motion. In a bikini.

“New Girl’s” Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. hit the Colosseum stage in costume to show the trailer for their upcoming fake-police comedy, “Let’s Be Cops.”

But Fox should have handed out tissues before showcasing “Divergent” star Shailene Woodley’s next young-adult fiction adaptation, “The Fault in Our Stars.” Woodley, who spoke before the clip, said she told the studio she’d be a caterer or production assistant just to work on the tearjerky film about young lovers who meet in a support group for cancer patients. It could be huge. Not “Divergent” huge. But still.

The studio also screened the goosebumpy, epic-looking opening minutes of “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” which showed the titular mutants battling Sentinels, that grabbed me by my geeky parts in way’s last night’s reveal of 35 minutes of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” just didn’t.

Other standout footage included “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which takes place a decade after the uprising and revealed a small group of people, led by Jason Clarke and Keri Russell, trying to prevent an all-out war between the apes and other human survivors. (Spoiler alert: This time, the apes know how to use assault rifles.)

There was a sneak peak at haunting scenes from this fall’s “Gone Girl,” directed by David Fincher and starring Ben Affleck.

But some of the biggest buzz was reserved for the berserk-looking “Secret Service.” Directed by Matthew Vaughn of “X-Men: First Class,” the rough footage showed butt-kicker extraordinaire Colin Firth — yes, really — roughing up a bunch of toughs in a British pub using only a high-tech umbrella.