I guess if you’re making a time travel movie, you may as well get some advice from James Cameron. And if you seek his advice, you should probably take it. Which is exactly what Bryan Singer did with the end to X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Singer told the story to Coming Soon, explaining that his editor wanted a blurry, dreamlike quality for the end of the film. Which has Wolverine succeed in his mission and wake up in a universe where X-Men: The Last Stand never happened. Singer showed the sequence—minus a few giant cameos—to Cameron. According to Singer, this is what Cameron said:
“Bryan, that blurry thing made me think that the wool was going to be pulled out from under me and I was not satisfied. I thought it was going to be a lie and it had failed and it would all be dark, and then suddenly it was okay.” It was the only note Jim gave me.
And it was a good one! The last thing that bit of retconning needed was to be more confusing. He was right that we all just wanted to enjoy a happy ending. Maybe Cameron’s missed his calling as an editor.
Oh, and when Cameron found out that the version he saw was missing three big cameos? He said, “OH Why didn’t you tell me that? That makes a big difference, dude, in letting me enjoy the ending of the goddamn fucking movie!” I really, really hope that Singer is dead on accurate with that quote. It’s perfection.