Movie Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

His Movie Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past:

The day is finally here: X-Men: Days of Future Past has finally been released! This has been one of the top films I had been waiting for since its announcement some 3 years ago. X-Men and X-2 are two of my favorite super hero films that have been made, and with Bryan Singer returning to direct, it seems we might be getting back on track with the X-Men franchise, and hopefully avoiding the snafus of X-Men: The Last Stand. X-Men: First Class was a step in the right direction, but hearing the premise of Days of Future Past, I could not help but be overwhelmed with excitement. So now that it’s here, did it meet the hype?

The film stars James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, the telepathic leader of the X-Men, and Michael Fassbender with Ian McKlellen as Magneto, Xavier’s best friend yet biggest foe. So why are there two actors playing the same character? Well as the name might suggest, there are two timelines going on in this film–the future and the past. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine returns to the film as well, playing a pivotal role in both the past and future. Many other X-Men are also present from both the original trilogy and from the beginning of the new trilogy.

So I will begin the review spoiler free, but I will want to speak about some of the “spoiler parts”, but will warn when that is coming up. The movie begins in the future, around the year 2023, and it is a bleak universe. The reason? A rather conniving man, Bolivar Trask has taken it upon himself to deal with the mutant “problem”. He has designed robots, known as Sentinels to hunt them down. This chain reaction leads to a dystopian future. The solution? Professor X decides to send Wolverine back in time to stop the events that lead to the rise of the Sentinels and Bolivar Trask. He puts Wolverine in 1973 trying to piece together events in order to change the future.
This has all of the pieces for a truly epic superhero film. One of the greatest comic book teams, directed by the man who made the first two great films, combined with time travel. How could this not be great? The answer: It was great. X-Men: Days of Future Past was really a great way to combine the two different timelines that have been going, and at the same time being a great film in its own right. This film could almost be watched as a stand-alone, and you would be given enough information through the film to enjoy it. To get the most out of it however, it is recommended to have seen the previous X-Men franchise films. Yes, this includes X-3 and X-Men: Origins: Wolverine, just to see how the timelines are shifted. But Days of Future Past had an all-star cast, which performed superbly. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen have always been great at their characters, Xavier and Magneto, but James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender have done a great job as well. Hugh Jackman, as always, plays a great Wolverine. There was a lot of drama in the film, making you truly feel for the characters in the film, while also providing a lot of great humor, to lighten the film up some.

That isn’t to say that the Days of Future Past is perfect however. I do have a few problems with it. I should also mention, that now is the time I will be jumping into the spoiler part of the review. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! There are a number of consistency issues with the film, first of all. Wolverine is sent back to 1973 to find Xavier, and when he wakes up, he is in the US. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, shouldn’t he be in either Vietnam, Africa working with Stryker, or Canada after he left Stryker’s team? I guess he could have made a pit stop off in the US somewhere, but it was a bit odd, I felt.

Another issue I had was the lack of mutants in the past. I understand, mutants were supposed to be a new thing, and that there weren’t many, and the ones existing were hiding, but I thought it would have been more exciting seeing more than essentially Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Beast and Wolverine. We get some cameos of the First Class mutants: Havoc and a couple others, but they are barely in the film for more than a couple minutes. Most of the action scenes for the mutants/X-Men exist in the future, as they try to keep Wolverine safe–since both the timelines in 1973 and 2023 exist at the same time still.

Also, (BIG SPOILER INCOMING), Wolverine felt really underutilized in the film. Yes, he is the main person that is linking the two timelines, but his action scenes revolved around him taking out some thugs when he first wakes up, and battling Beast in the beginning of the film. Other than that, his battle with Magento at the end, he winds up being taken out of the fight real quick, and really has no bearing on the result of the final scenes. It really seemed kind of odd to me.

But overall, I have to say that X-Men: Days of Future Past was a very good film overall. I still think that X-Men and X-2 still have it beat in terms of awesomeness, it very well is either third or fourth, fighting with First Class. One last mention is that Evan Peters really surprised me in the film as Quicksilver, who I thought, prior to seeing the film, could be a terrible character. It turns out he provided a lot of fun and humor, and unfortunately I felt the film had too little of him. As for ranking the film, I will give it an 8.5 out of 10. I think it could have been a little bit better, but I can’t complain too much because it really entertained the entire time, and certainly opens the door for future X-Men movies. Who can complain about that?

Her Movie Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past:

Ever since we saw the trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past at San Diego Comic-Con last summer, which literally gave me chills as I was watching it, I had been eagerly anticipating this film. Bryan Singer, who directed X-Men and X-Men 2, was back on hand to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past, which features an ensemble all-star cast of Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Halle Berry, Peter Dinklage, and many more.

The movie starts off in the not-too-distant future, as giant, technologically advanced robots called Sentinels have hunted down and killed most of the mutant population, along with the humans who have tried to help them. A small handful of mutants that we recognize from previous X-Men movies, along with a few new mutants, have managed to survive the Sentinel attacks, thanks to Kitty Pryde’s power of being able to send someone’s consciousness a short time into the past into their own body, so as to warn the group about any impending Sentinel attacks. Professor X and Magneto have joined forces and come up with a plan to send the Professor back in time to 1973 to stop the war on mutants before it ever began. However, to travel that far back would be too physically demanding on the human body, so Professor X would be unable to make the trip. Because of his healing powers, only Wolverine would be able to survive the journey, so he is sent back instead.

Wolverine is tasked with finding a young, broken, and powerless Charles Xavier, and convincing him that what he is telling him about the future is true. Then they must get to Erik and work together with him to find Mystique, and stop the chain of events that lead up to the mutant war. None of these are easy tasks, but they all must be completed in a race against time.

I have to say, X-Men: Days of Future Past definitely lived up to the hype. This movie really came through for me, and is easily my favorite X-Men film. I always liked the X-Men franchise mainly because of the sci-fi element of superpowers. However, my favorite subgenre is post-apocalyptic fiction, and on top of that, I love the element of time travel. Suffice it to say, adding those two components to the mix made this film the perfect combination for me.

For the not-too-distant future setting, Bryan Singer did a great job of capturing that post-apocalyptic feel that I enjoy, and evoked a feel that was a combination between Terminator 2 and The Matrix, two of my favorite movies. Additionally, time travel can be a tricky thing, and I thought the writers did a great job of setting out the time travel rules in the beginning, and adhering to them throughout.

One of the few problems I had with the film was that a couple things weren’t quite believable as far as capability of superpowers go, as in, yes we know what their powers are, but it doesn’t seem like that particular power would allow them to accomplish certain specific actions. I’m mainly talking about Magneto here. If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. Another problem I had was how Mystique’s agenda seemed so obviously counterproductive to the mutant cause, and why she couldn’t see that. I’m also not convinced that stopping the one particular act that they set out to stop would have been enough to stave off the mutant war, or that the end resolution would have accomplished that either, especially in the wake of everything that was changed in the interim. That being said, I’m just going to go with it, and look forward to future X-Men films catching us up on all the history that was re-written.

Despite all of that, I greatly enjoyed this film. It was fun, it was action packed, it was humorous, and yet managed to include several dramatic, emotional scenes. The action sequences were all very cool, and I especially liked the parallel of the past and future fight scenes occurring simultaneously. The special effects were, of course, amazing, and everything looked so beautiful. The pacing in the film was spot on, and there was never a dull moment. X-Men Days of Future Past captured the sense of urgency inherent in the mission, but still allowed you to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, and I found myself consumed in every emotional scene. This is largely due to the superb acting from the amazing star-studded cast. I must admit, though, that newcomer to the franchise Evan Peters was a bit of a show stealer as Quicksilver, and I was a bit disappointed that he wasn’t in it more. The film definitely gave Jennifer Lawrence her fair share of screen time, and she made great use of it. Kudos to her for speaking three different languages in the movie!

All in all, this was a great movie, with fantastic characters, and all of the sci-fi elements you could want in a film. It leaves you feeling thirsty for more X-Men movies.

My rating: 9/10