CinemaCon 2014: Fox Unspools Footage from ‘X-Men,’ ‘Gone Girl,’ and More

20th Century Fox wins the award for kicking off their CinemaCon presentation in the most entertaining way.

The studio opened Thursday morning’s festivities with a performance of a song off the "Rio 2" soundtrack from Ester Dean and B.o.B, plus a whole lot of Vegas showgirls dressed in Carnivale-friendly two-piece feathery costumes. Things continued to escalate from there, as Fox rolled out footage from their most highly-anticipated films: "X-Men: Days of Future Past," "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," "The Other Woman," "How to Train Your Dragon 2," "The Fault in Our Stars," "The Maze Runner," "Gone Girl," “Let’s Be Cops," and "The Secret Service."

Presenters included Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann ("The Other Woman"), Shailene Woodley ("The Fault in Our Stars"), who admitted the "Apes" footage made her "all sweat," and Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans, Jr. ("Let's Be Cops"). The last two came to the presentation in costume and used megaphones to shout at Fox exec Jim Gianopulos as they walked through the crowd to the stage.

Star power aside, here are the out-of-the-gate highlights from the never-before-seen footage screened:

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"X-Men: Days of Future Past"

The scene we saw is the first full-blown look at the force that will unite the X-Men to fight as one: the Sentinels. For those familiar with the comics and curious to know more about the big-screen version of the man-made killing machines, here they are tall, obviously, but also incredibly flexible and agile. We watch them decimate several beloved mutants without much effort, even up against some of the most potent powers like fire and ice. This scene likely sets up the "present" world, a grave example of why the X-Men must send Wolverine back into the past to fix things.

While we wait until that footage becomes public, here's a look at the film's theatrical trailer:

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

This new look at the upcoming sequel to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" demonstrates the great divide between the apes and the surviving humans. We see that the apes have established their own civilization away from the humans, while mankind -- led by a grieving government-type (Gary Oldman) who lost his children to the virus -- are trying to chase down a cure for the Simean virus.

Jason Clarke's human character is clearly on the side of studying and working with the apes, a middle-ground position that will likely cause trouble down the road. The kicker here was the final scene they showed in which an ape strolls up to two lackey humans with guns, and in the blink of an eye grabs one of the guns and shoots the people point blank. The intense scene shows a decidedly darker and violent tone.

"Gone Girl"

The first look at David Fincher's big-screen adaptation of the hugely popular bestseller "Gone Girl" was all about "She." "She," the titular "Girl" that has gone missing as well as the Elvis Costello classic which Fincher selected as the background music for this extended trailer. We meet Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) as he's addressing the community and asking for help to find his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike). We watch them search, in between flashbacks that show a portrait of what appears to be a perfect marriage. But things are not what they seem. In between cuts to the search for Amy, which began as a simple missing person case, there are scenes of a crumbling marriage and screaming matches. We see the police investigation turn to isolate Dunne as a suspect, then the prime suspect, with no sign of Amy except for a few traces of evidence actually labeled "clues," in feminine handwriting.

The trailer ends with Dunne's stern defense: "I did not kill my wife," he says. "I am not a murderer."

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"The Secret Service"

The surprise crowdpleaser was a first look at Matthew Vaughn's ("X-Men: First Class") action/adventure/James Bond-ian thriller "Secret Service." The clip centers around a very posh, put together Colin Firth meeting Eggsy (played by newcomer Taron Egerton), the son of one of his former colleagues. It begins as a quiet meeting with Firth's character giving Eggsy a talking to about not yet meeting his potential. They are interrupted by a group of young rebel rousers who want to beat up Eggsy for some unmentioned wrong-doing. Instead of leaving the scene, Firth's character shocks us all by kicking each and every trouble-making butt in the room. After his impressive fighting performance, he sits back down with Eggsy and asks him to join their elite British Secret Service organization.

The footage received the best audience reaction of the bunch, likely due to how entertaining it is to see Firth playing slightly against type with all the action and fighting and such.
"X-Men: Days of Future Past" opens May 23, while we'll have to wait until fall for "Gone Girl" (Oct. 3) and next fall for "The Secret Service" (Oct. 24, 2015).