The world is in peril, as mutants are hunted down and exterminated by humanity's fearsome Sentinel robots. In an effort to change the future, Professor Xavier and his old enemy Magneto send Wolverine into the past to change the future and prevent the war from ever starting. Wolverine must be quick in reuniting the younger professor and is rival, lest the world of X-Men be ended forever...
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The X-Men movie franchise certainly has its ups and downs. The first two movies based off this 1963 Marvel comic were met with great acclaim and were some of the earliest successful comic book movies. But after that things got rocky; there were movies that had positive reception (X-Men: First Class) and others that were universally despised (X-Men: The Last Stand).
I was first exposed to the X-Men through the beloved 90's TV series and various X-Men video games and toys. As a kid I loved them, though as a teen and adult I only paid a small amount of interest to them. Nowadays I'm more of a fan of Paramount's Marvel Cinematic Universe. But unlike the Spider-Man series, the X-Men movies always piqued my curiosity because of its continuous story and memorable characters. Here is my brief opinion on the X-Men movies released so far:
X-Men-great start, though it is a bit slow looking back on it.
X-Men 2-good continuation that expounds more on the characters and ends ominously
X-Men: The Last Stand-exciting climax, but was average and disappointing all around
X-Men Origins: Wolverine-incredibly, boring, dull, and lame
X-Men First Class: restored my faith in X-Men movies. Good action, character relationships, and drama. Was my favorite X-Men movie.
The Wolverine-blows the first Wolverine completely out of the water and actually makes me care about Wolverine
So now we have the 7th X-Men movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past. Based off the 1981 comic story of the same name, it serves as both a sequel to First Class and The Last Stand. I saw a few trailers and was interested at where it was going.
Oh, and because this is the umpteenth Marvel movie and some people STILL haven't taken a hint:
STAY UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE MOVIE.
Anyway...
This movie was really good. As a superhero piece it has everything you want in it: Action, superpowers, mystery, tension, comedy. But it also succeeds in the storytelling department too: Drama, character relationships, self discovery, redemption. I feel it to the best X-Men movie by far with only a few complaints here and there, and it convinced me that X-Men does not need to be bought out in order to be with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. X-Men is doing perfectly fine on its own, and it ends on such a great note that makes you yearn for more.
The story shifts between the dark future and 1973, allowing us to see both versions of Professor X (Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy) and Magneto (Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender). This is a great move as the two veteran actors are some of the best parts of the original trilogy while the younger actors are some of the best elements of First Class. For Stewart and McKellen, it's nice to see the two be together and be friends once again with the events of the first X-Men trilogy in mind. And then for McAvoy and Fassbender, we can see how much things have changed between First Class and the 1970's climate of this movie. In fact, that's really the core of the movie.
A major criticism of the past X-Men movies was the overly done focus on the character of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and it seems that director Bryan Singer and other writers got a hint for here. Sure Wolverine is the last hope, but he is not the main focus. He serves more as a motivation to help young Xavier, who fell off the slippery slope after First Class. It is complimented with young Xavier's splintered friendship with young Magneto and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). Mystique is the one that changes everything, because commits the one act that secures the dark future, and it is up to Wolverine to convince young Xavier to mend bridges and stop her. To complicate matters, Magneto uses the opportunity to enact his goals as well, and in the dark future, time is against the X-Men. It may look complicated, but depending on how invested you are in the movie you should not have any trouble following it.
The major characters are all fleshed out and given enough screen time to work. You can see how young Xavier is jaded, broken and slightly manic, and needing Wolverine to get him out of his slump. It makes his return to action all the more better as he acts more like the future Xavier seen in past movies. Future Xavier in this movie is not seen much, but Patrick Stewart's acting ensures that he makes a big impression. The big moment with these two is when they communicate across time, and see both Xaviers conversing with each other. Young Magneto also makes a good impression. In First Class we saw how Magneto was consumed by revenge against his mother's killer, but in this one we can see how dangerous he is when he is in the game. We see in young Magneto the levels of complexity seen in future Magneto of the past movies; he can be sympathetic, but he ultimately believes in the mutant cause even when the stakes are dire. It would have been nice to see Future Magneto more, but Ian McKellen once again brings so much to the character that he makes a big presence.
Ever since The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence has received tons of attention and accolades for her portrayal as Katniss Everdeen. When she was in First Class her role as Mystique was good, if a bit questionable, mostly because of the connections with the past movies and her character. In Days of Future Past, Lawrence hits bulls-eye with her performance, showcasing a wide array of emotions and allowing to do much more with the character. As she is front and center at the core conflict of the movie, the character of Mystique runs the whole gambit of emotions, and it is just excellent all around.
Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine, and what else can be said about his performance? Flawless as always. As said before though his character is secondary this time around, and for the better. Wolverine by this point has reached the highest point of his character after being a major player, if not THE major player, in most of the movies, so its refreshing to see Wolverine help in other ways aside from breaking out the claws. The other villain of the movie (Besides Magneto) is Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinkalge, Game of Thrones), creator of the monstrous Sentinel robots. Like the various regular villains of the past, he does what he does for the sake of humanity, and it's entertaining to see him as a cold, hard scientist and politician who is fascinated by the mutants.
Like X-Men movies before, we also have secondary X-Men who are fanservice to the hardcore lovers. Fan favorite Bishop makes his appearance here, and though he was not in it for very long he certainly made an impression. Iceman (Shawn Ashmore, Animorphs) and Shadowcat (Ellen Page, Juno) return from the third movie, which for me was great as they were one of the few positives of that one. Other mutants that appear are Havok from First Class, Colossus from The Last Stand, Storm from the previous movies (Halle Berry) and making their first appearances are Sunspot, Blink and Warpath. I never heard of them, but I'm certainly interested to see more of them now. But the secondary character that everyone is talking about is Quicksilver (Even Peters, American Horror Story). Much of the humor in the movie is derived from him, and I agree that for the few minutes he was in doing his bit, it was great. I certainly hope to see him back in future X-Men movies.
Production design really suited the movie, with the special effects done well. Special mention goes to the Sentinels, which outright kicked butt on the screen and is sure to satisfy fans of the 90's TV show. The overall look to the movie was sort of a washed out grey and dark with just a few hints of color. Some may find that a criticism considering the X-Men usually have a variety of colors, but for me it suits it because of the dire situations. The dark future really looked like a dark future and gave you a sense of unease and foreboding. A major positive is the camera work, which, much like 2012's The Avengers, had very little shaky-cam, and allowed us to see just what all these mutant powers can do.
But the one thing that everybody is talking about, especially among fan circles, is the story. Right off the bat the movie started off just right. This dark future is dark indeed, with humanity and mutants alike enslaved. They don't sugarcoat it here, characters die in this movie and they are really emotional. For longtime fans who followed the movies since the beginning, you can feel the loss and when characters die it hits you in the gut. At the same time there's the situation in the 1970's near the end of the Vietnam War and young Xavier, young Magneto and Mystique trying and failing to mend bridges. The major theme of the movie is the concept of holding onto hope no matter how bleak things get, and redemption and changing for the better. In the end, Mystique is prevented from enacting the event that changes everything, and all three part on good terms though they know they are all enemies now.
And with that one event, the biggest shocker to all the fans...the franchise is reset. Yes, that's right. Essentially, except for First Class, every single one of the X-Men movies NEVER HAPPENED. Characters that were dead before are brought back to life and everyone lives happily in the future. Fans are rightfully mixed on this, myself included. On one hand, I'm slightly bummed that some movies didn't happen, while on the other hand I'm happy that other certain movies didn't happen either. But it gives the movie franchise tons of material to work with. Indeed, there is already a sequel announced, and I'm very eager for more.
Final Thoughts:
In fact, this movie really convinced me. I was one of those folks that really wanted Fox to sell the X-Men movie franchise back to Marvel and Paramount so Wolverine could join The Avengers, but Days of Future Past showed that they don't need to. X-Men as a movie series has tons of its own things going on about it, and with the reset button pressed, they have tons of opportunities to expand its universe. If First Class restored my faith in X-Men movies, Days of Future Past made me an X-Men fan again. X-Men Days of Future Past is not only the best X-Men movie by far, it's one of the best superhero movies for me out there. Good action, and complex story make for a good time, and while the franchise reset may be a huge turnoff for some, it does allow for more X-Men to be made in the future.
And the future of the franchise is ominous indeed with the next one. Apocalypse is coming...
Score: 4.4/5
Trailer Thoughts:
Maleficent: To be honest I'm a little sick of seeing trailers for this in every movie I go to. But I'll certainly be going into this one with an open mind.
One Year From Now: Not much I can get from the trailer, except that Christopher Nolan is behind this. Kinda curious. I like Inception but I care very little for his Batman stuff.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: While I liked Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I didn't watch it in cinema. Not sure if I want to watch this one in cinema as well. I do like the Planet of the Apes movies, but not enough that I'd like to see them on the big screen.
How to Train Your Dragon 2: One of my biggest movie-going regrets is not seeing the first How to Train Your Dragon in theaters. This was back before I paid interest to DreamWorks, and people have told me that the first movie rocked so much. I have however watched the TV show, and I was entertained. Definitely something I'll watch...but I need to watch the first one before it comes out.
Next review: Maleficent
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