When you think of it, it’s quite a cinematic achievement of how long the X-Men films have been going. The first was released back in 2000, and there have been seven movies in the past fourteen years. Although some of the films were much better than others, the long life that the famous mutants have experienced on the big screen speaks of the volumes of stories that can be put to film.
Having not directed an X-Men film since 2003, Bryan Singer finally returns with “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” After Brett Ratner’s severely disappointing “X-Men: The Last Stand,” we were given a prequel five years later with Matthew Vaughns’s “X-Men: First Class,” which was a significant improvement that placed the franchise back on course. Now, with an experienced cast and a story that builds upon the mythology in riveting new ways, “Days of Future Past” is the best X-Men movie, so far.
In the future, highly evolved robots known as “Sentinels” are killing mutants and oppressing humans who have the gene to produce mutant offspring. A small group of mutants is able to escape the Sentinels due to Kitty Pryde’s (Ellen Page) ability to send a person’s consciousness back in time to deliver warnings. When her group meets up with Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Storm (Halle Berry), they devise a plan to help alter this bleak future.
They decide to send Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to 1973, with the hopes of preventing Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Sentinel creator Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), an event that will eventually bring about the horrible future that’s happening now. In order to stop her, Wolverine will have to bring a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and a young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) together and recruit their help. To make the plan work, these two rivals will have to put their differences aside to protect the world from a disastrous fate.
Seeing as the film brings in the casts from the original films and the prequel, this installment has the strongest ensemble out of all the X-Men movies, and probably out of all superhero films as well. One of the most significant factors of the film is that, for a summer blockbuster, it has a surprising amount of scenes that are reliant on the tense interactions between the characters, and doesn’t just go for the mutant action. Some of the film’s best scenes come from those involving Jackman, McAvoy and Fassbender because of how in tune they are with their characters. The three of them provide a dramatic depth from which big tentpole movies should not feel the need to shy away.
Knowing that Peter Dinklage was going to play the villain, I was very much looking forward to seeing his contribution to the expanding world of the X-Men films. He is indeed a fine actor, and does what he can with the material, but I felt as though his scenes could have been elevated if the story had allowed him to be more than simply a scientist trying to throw mutants into extinction.
A superb addition to the heroes is Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who has a considerably fun introduction as a fast-talking and fast-moving mutant who helps Wolverine, Charles and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) break Magneto out of his prison cell below the Pentagon. Quicksilver is only in the film for a couple of scenes, and he’s one of many highlights, so I’m eager to see how the filmmakers expand his role for the sequel.
The screenplay by Simon Kinberg doesn’t waste any time in getting its story started. Right after the first 10 minutes, Wolverine is already sent back to the past, and the narrative just continuously builds from there. A strong point of the film is how it doesn’t constantly transition between the past and future, but mostly stays in the former, which allows the audience to stay invested in what’s happening in the ‘70s storyline and the important events that unfold.
One of the most entertaining portions of the film is Magneto’s prison break, a segment that's on par with the opening scene of “X2: X-Men United.” It’s a creatively shot sequence, with help from cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, and is one of the best that Singer has brought to the franchise. It also helps that it includes Jim Croce’s song, “Time In a Bottle,” which is humorously added to the scene.
Similar to a couple of the better X-Men films that came before this, “Days of Future Past” is able to strike a balance between wonderfully staged action sequences and scenes reliant on the drama between characters. When most of an X-Men movie focuses on actors of high ranking, such as Jackman, McAvoy and Fassbender, you don’t want them to just throw around their powers for two hours. You want them to open up so we know the kind of people they are and who they will eventually become, and this film gives us that in abundance.
*The next paragraph contains a minor spoiler.*
Kinberg also makes a bold move with the film’s ending, where he crafts it so that it erases everything that happened in “The Last Stand.” That being an X-Men movie I’d like to forget about, the initiative that Kinberg takes fully pays off. When you think about it, his screenwriting actions parallel the world-saving actions of the mutants in the film: Kinberg wants to change the franchise’s past in order to make it great again, and the mutants want to change the past so they can have a promising future.
Bryan Singer, after having directed the first two X-Men films, has brought us a character-devoted and fast-paced sequel, and I would fully support him taking charge for as many of the sequels as he can. He clearly possesses an understanding of the source material, and has become one of the best directors currently working in the superhero genre. With his attention to character relationships and having an eye for action sequences that deliver thrills aplenty, it’s going to be difficult to wait two years to see what he does with the upcoming “X-Men: Apocalypse.” Now that “X-Men: Days of Future Past” has propelled the mutants’ cinematic adventures much further and fixed the problems caused by “The Last Stand,” the next film will likely continue Singer’s tradition of excellence in the X-Men series.
As Prof. X says to his younger self at one point in the movie, “Just because someone stumbles and loses their path, doesn’t mean they can’t be saved,” which is a quote that can be applied to this series in that, although it has had a couple of bad installments in the mix, Singer has brought back his trustworthy vision of the comics. It’s a vision that I have missed, and one that I will look forward to seeing again in the sequel.
Final grade: A-
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