Movie Info
Movie Name: X-Men: Days of Future Past
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Genre(s): Comic Book/Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): Movie Release Date
MPAA Rating: Movie Rating
The future’s not bright for the X-Men
Both humans and mutants are at their end of days. A force unleashed due to an event in 1973 has overtaken the Earth, and now Sentinels kill mutants, people who could potentially create mutants, and anyone who attempts to help them. The X-Men are broken and fighting to stay one step ahead of the Sentinels. In a desperate attempt by Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has his consciousness sent back to 1973 to his body in attempt to prevent the assassination of Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and save the future. Unfortunately Wolverine finds time are bleak in 1973…the X-Men are disbanded, Xavier (James McAvoy) has lost his powers, and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is imprisoned. Wolverine must reunite the X-Men to save the future before it is too late!
Together again!
Directed by Bryan Singer, X-Men: Days of Future Past is the follow-up sequel to the 2011 film X-Men: First Class and the seventh film in the X-Men series (following The Wolverine in 2013). Controversy preceded the release of the film with accusation of child abuse toward Bryan Singer which caused him to distance himself from the movie’s premiere. The movie was released to strong box office returns and generally positive reviews with some criticizing the plot’s somewhat gratuitous time shifting story. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
X-Men: First Class was maybe the best X-Men movie (X2 is a close second or first…I switch all the time on that one). With that sort of lead-up, I was worried X-Men: Days of Future Past would be a disappointment. It wasn’t a disappoint, but I think slightly behind First Class.
Mystique: Super-Patriot!!!
The plot of X-Men: Days of Future Past is based on a collection of X-Men stories throughout the years. The title comes from Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (January 1981-February 1981) from which a lot of the story was taken, but the movie also borrows from other storylines to modernize the story and fit in with the X-Men universe created in the films.
The story kind of ignores the idea of the can’t change the past concept of storytelling and also has a rather arbitrary way of getting Wolverine into the past (does it happen in real time or do the days in the past mean Kitty Pryde is having to maintain her hold on him for days as he flies all over the globe?) It is a pretty good lead-up to a nice final battle and that can’t always be said for a final fight.
So wait is his music playing faster than a speeding bullets so he can hear it?
*****Spoiler Alert***** The rest of the review contains spoilers due to the plot of the story. The end battle “saves the future” but I hope we can see a return of some of the characters including the fan favorite Blink (Fan Bingbing) who has a great power. I also disliked the rather arbitrary killing of the previous X-Men: First Class members (off camera). The changing of the future also changed the past and helped align/rearrange the X-Men to further tie in the previous movies…and also virtually eliminated X-Men: The Last Stand (in true comic book fashion) by having both Cyclops (James Marsden) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) restored to life at the end…plus sets up the next threat of Apocalypse in a post-credits scene.
I hate time trips!
The movie has a great cast which combines the two film series with Wolverine as the returning Hugh Jackman as the linking actor. Both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan play up their roles (though their future in the movies are a bit in question due to both’s increasing age), but I do love their past incarnations of the drugged Xavier played by James McAvoy and the much more lethal Magneto played by Michael Fassbender. Peter Dinklage continues to show his acting range as the evil Trask. The movie continues to set up Mystique as a solo player, and I believe that Jennifer Lawrence will get a solo movie if she wants it. Despite a small cameo by Havok (Lucas Till), the only other returning First Class member is Beast played by Nicholas Hoult (and also Kelsey Grammer). The movie features a lot of the original trilogy alumni including Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Elliot Page (credited as Ellen Page) (Kitty Pryde), James Marsden (Cyclops), Daniel Cudmore (Colossus), Halle Berry (Storm), and Famke Janssen (Jean Grey) and introduces Adan Canto (Sunspot), Fan Bingbing (Blink), Booboo Stewart (Warpath), and Omar Sy (Bishop). People were also very concerned about the Quicksilver character (played by Evan Peters), but I thought he was probably the most effective new character. The movie intended to have a bigger role for Anna Paquin, but Rogue only appeared briefly in the end scene.
Giant death robots on the White House lawn…what could go wrong?
Visually the movie has a great look. I like the funky ’60s of X-Men: The First Class, but this also looks good and used some great stylish looks like “home video” scenes with Super 8 film and uses of old TV footage. I wish the Sentinels closer resembled the original Sentinels, but they still were effective. I also love the Quicksilver “Time in a Bottle” scene though it doesn’t make much sense unless he’s listening to the song in extreme fast forward because a note wouldn’t have even played if he was moving fast.
X-Men: Days of Future Past was a great comic book movie with a real comic book feel. I really wish that DC would follow a similar path, and I still think I prefer the X-Men film to most of the Avengers films. X-Men: Days of Future Past was followed by X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016 (with the stand-alone movie Deadpool also released in 2016).
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