Starring James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman and Michael Fassbender.
Directed by Bryan Singer
Runtime: 2hr 11mins.
X-men Days of Future Past is the best X-men movie to date. Here we follow our super mutants as they are forced to travel back in time to stop a sentinels apocalypse which pose a huge threat to their kind.
The Good?
Director Bryan Singer's direction of this sequel is excellent. He wasted no time in getting things going action-wise, as the movie opens up with a riveting action sequence which introduces us to new mutant characters and some of the cast of the original X-men trilogy. The situation at hand is explained thoroughly and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back in time. Both casts converges from the past and present X-men movies, as they work together to stop this apocalypse from happening.
Time travel is not an easy concept to execute in films but the director handles it pretty well, having us swing to and fro between past and future timelines without any major bumps and holes. Even though much of the film takes place in the past with the First Class crew, we never lose sight of the apocalyptic events occurring in the future with the rest of mutants, leaving me quite nervous as the race is on against an oncoming Sentinel attack. Amidst the time travel, the story follows your typical humans against mutants premise with its usual political influence. What I like about the X-men movies is how they plant themselves into an era and make use of historical events to its advantage. This is a major boost for its storyline which gives it a more grounded and authentic feel, not present in a lot of superhero flicks. It captures the 1970s well and you will also see references to characters and events which took place in that period. X-men: Days of Future Past really builds on the previous X-men films and the tie-ins were excellently done. Watching it reboot itself at the end and seeing the original cast sent me in a frenzy.
Like The Avengers film in 2012, there is a perfect balance of humour, character time and action sequences in X-men: Days of Future Past. No one character is really the focus but all characters feel relevant and contribute to the story in some way. The movie is way more hilarious than I expected and some of our characters are given even more depth (Mystique and Charles). The acting is amazing; James McAvoy does an excellent job as the young emotionally perturbed Charles Xavier trying to rediscover himself. Michael Fassbender plays the young hard-ass Magneto who is still hung up on mutant domination. Jennifer Lawrence does a great job as Mystique - a key character in stopping the war -- and of course, Hugh Jackman is the ever so bad-ass Wolverine. Even though he is given limited screentime, I thought Evan Peters was amazing as Quicksilver -- he was a mini comic relief and how his mutant powers were utilized in the movie was amazing.
The action sequences are great. As I mentioned the movie opens up with an excellent sequence which was just the tip of the iceberg. There are even a few impressive slow-motion sequences, namely the one involving the character Quicksilver which really blew me away. There was a moment where we witnessed fighting in both timelines at the same time which also blew me away.
The Bad?
Well, not enough Quicksilver.
Conclusion
I'm tempted to say that this is my favorite summer blockbuster so far this year but it is definitely the best X-men movie to date. The movie works as both a solid sequel to an amazing X-men: First Class and as a sort of reboot to the original X-men trilogy. I look forward to the next installment.
Grade: A
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