X-Men: Days of Future Past Review
Posted by Stephen Lambrechts - 23/5/2014
As the film series that kicked off the superhero craze as we know it today (sorry Blade, this was way more successful), the X-Men saga has had its share of hits and misses. That might be underselling it a bit - the strike rate is roughly at fifty percent. With every X-Men or X2: X-Men United, there's an X-men: The Last Stand or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Thankfully, X-Men: Days of Future Past has something in common with the first two films in the series: it's directed by Bryan Singer. It also has another thing in common with them: it's X-Tremely entertaining.
Beginning in the distant future, X-Men: Days of Future Past tells the story of a world that's been completely devastated by machines called Sentinels. These machines were designed and commissioned by Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) to identify and track down anyone with the mutant gene and terminate them on sight. Eventually, the machines go nuts and attack normal humans too. This whole situation is kicked off by the shapeshifting mutant Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) who assassinates Trask in 1973, effectively making everything worse by not only causing the government to take that plan and dial it up to 11, but also by getting caught and having her DNA studied, giving the Sentinels the ability to adapt to every mutant's powers at will.
Only a handful of X-Men remain, including Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Storm (Halle Berry), Bishop (Omar Sy), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Blink (Fan Bingbing) and Logan a.k.a The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) all living out in the desolate wastelands, trying to survive. They do this by using Kitty Pryde's ability to send a person's consciousness to their own body from a few days in the past, sending the Sentinels on a wild goose chase. Unfortunately, this can only work for so long, so a plan is implemented to send Wolverine back to the '70s in order to track down young Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to try and convince them to help him stop Mystique from committing her assassination.
Right from the get-go, it's somewhat unnerving to see the X-Men we've come to know and love over the last 14 years in such a dire situation. The premise takes the stakes to incredible levels, with a Matrix-esque vision of our future world that is all black skies and no hope. The idea of a time-traveling, twisty Back to the Future-meets-Terminator plan to save the world is much bigger than this series, or any other filmed Marvel adaptation, has ever attempted before. Thankfully, Singer steers through all of the different timelines with an assured hand.
Which is not to say that equal time is given to each of the timelines. The majority of the action takes places in the '70s timeline, meaning that the older versions of characters spend most of the film watching an unconscious Logan with worried expressions on their faces. Some characters, like Halle Berry's Storm, feel like glorified cameos. In this respect, X-Men: Days of Future Past feels more like a direct sequel to X-Men: First Class for the vast majority of its running time, that is until the splendid finale that ties everything together like a well-placed rug.
Hugh Jackman once again makes for a great lead as The Wolverine, though while he anchors the film, the focus is more on young Xavier and Magneto, with Logan strangely sitting out of a couple of the film's major set pieces. Logan must try and convince a broken, drunken Xavier (played wonderfully by McAvoy) to break out of his stupor. Fassbender once again plays the role of Magneto with... ahem... steely determination. Nicholas Hoult also does solid work as Beast, and Jennifer Lawrence, now a legit superstar with her own billion dollar franchise, gets a much bigger role, with the entire film's premise hinging on her actions as the character of Mystique.
The film's MVP though, is Evan Peters as Quicksilver. He imbues the film with a sense of humour and playfulness that is impossible to dislike. His role is much smaller than the trailers suggest, which is a bit of a shame. He also doesn't really resemble his character from the comics in any way, though we've come to expect that from this series of films, haven't we? Look to Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron for what is likely to be a more faithful, if less fun, interpretation.
There are moments during its mid-section where X-Men: Days of Future Past sags, as there are only so many times where we can watch Logan attempt to motivate Xavier without getting bored, but it's a minor gripe, as the film kicks along with a sense of urgency for the most part. More time could've been spent with the mutants of the future to even things out a bit, as all of their powers tend to be cooler than those of the mutants in the past (especially Iceman *wink*). With that said, Bryan Singer has undoubtedly made the best X-Men film since X2, with a great premise that is not only complex and rooted in sci-fi, but one that also manages to correct just about every crappy decision made in X-Men: The Last Stand. Bring on X-Men: Apocalypse.
★★★★
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