X-Men: Days of Future Past Review

X-Men: Days of Future Past Review


4 stars_2
The Good: The action, the pacing, the acting. All superb!

The Bad: Wolverine. And when we say Bad, we meant, Bad-ass!

 The Ugly: Seeing known mutant character/s being ripped apart—literally. The violence is shocking as it is gripping.

He did it. I can’t believe he did it! Director Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2) was able to replicate his success and up the ante even more with the latest X-Men film to hit the silver screen. X-Men: Day of Future Past is one the best X-Men movie we’ve seen in a while.

 

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“Days of Future Past” is one of the more apocalyptic story-arcs in the X-men franchise. It is also one of the harder stories to tell. With a time-travelling angle, a bleak future where most of the X-men are either dead, incarcerated or being hunted and an enormous cast of characters to work with Bryan Singer had the monumental task to balance all this out and tell a compelling story. He does it with much gusto, finesse and a sense of ease that it’s mindboggling! Much like with X2, everything felt just right—and it is absolutely brilliant.

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The movie opens in a dystopian future where mutants and those who stood to protect them are pushed to the brink of extinction by shape-shifting Sentinels and their directive to neutralize everyone with the mutant X gene. In their desperation, the remaining forces of Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) formulated a plan to stop the threat once and for all by tapping into Kitty Pryde’s (Ellen Page) advanced mutant power of transferring someone’s consciousness into the past. This is how they are barely keeping a step ahead against the Sentinel threat.

The procedure to transfer the consciousness decades into the past is deadly and no one but Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), due to his healing factor, can physically take the trip. Not really the best choice of messenger, the Professor urges Logan to find his past self and prevent an assassination attempt by Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) sometime in the 70’s. This incident apparently triggers a chain reaction that would lead to their future demise. But to find Mystique, Logan needs to bring the past’s Erik Lehnsherr/ Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Charles (James McAvoy) together. The three along with Hank McCoy/ Beast (Nicholas Hoult) must find a way to ensure that their future will not be run by Bolivar Trask’s (Peter Dinklage) Sentinel program if they get to Mystique first. It’s a race against time as two realities (the Future & the Past) merges to fight against their race’s extinction.

2 Generations of X-Men Collide in this powerhouse movie event.
2 Generations of X-Men Collide in this powerhouse movie event.

It has been a while since an X-Men movie made me giddy like this. The last I remember feeling elated was with X2 and a little bit with First Class but with Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer is bringing everything he learned about directing and producing the X-Men films and distilling all the good parts  into one amazingly fun movie.

Sunspot vs the shape-shifting Sentinel (Nimrod)
Sunspot vs the shape-shifting Sentinel (Nimrod)

The action is something to marvel at as director Bryan Singer showed proper restraint and control on when to unleash the big action moments. With a dozen or so mutants, what should have been a chaotic train-wreck became a well-designed, well-paced action shot that adds to the story than muddles it. The future fight sequence in the opening and the 3rd act was superbly well crafted. It is both alluring and chilling at the same time. Minor spoiler, someone gets torn in half—literally. For a PG-13 movie, I was not expecting them to show that, but those sequences just adds to the danger and gravity that the whole mutant race is facing.

Evan Peter plays the mutant speedster, Quicksilver
Evan Peter plays the mutant speedster, Quicksilver

Visually the film is impressive. You can allay your fears of costume and set design as none of them look as stupid as the pre-production photos we all saw (yes, Quicksilver costume included). It baffles me how I’m not bothered by all of it when I see it on-screen. Even the scrawny-looking Sentinels appeared massive and commanding in their debut.

These sentinels may be scrawny, but they're no push-over.
These sentinels may be scrawny, but they’re no push-over.

In the end, it’s the amazing cast that ushers the story along with their brilliant performances. Each of the main cast lends his shining moment on screen but I have to give it to James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman for adding very interesting layers to the characters that we have known and love. McAvoy shows a very broken and fearful Charles Xavier – something we’re not accustomed to see. And when the internal pain seeps its way through the character, one only needs to look at McAvoy’s eyes to understand them.

You'll see a lot of familiar faces in this film. :)
You’ll see a lot of familiar faces in this film. 🙂

Jackman on the other hand portrays the best version of Wolverine/ Logan to date. Wolverine isn’t annoying and over-the-top in this film. Jackman creates a grounded performance, something that only comes when knowing a character for so long.

Best Wolverine Jackman has ever portrayed.
Best Wolverine Jackman has ever portrayed.

The rest of the present-day cast play their parts to a T. Jennifer Lawrence is compellingly beautiful as a much older and darker Raven transitioning to Mystique and Fassbender delivers bone chilling performance of Eric Lehnsherr. You see the tension build between him and McAvoy and it is just scrumptious.

This scene. THIS SCENE! *melts*
This scene. THIS SCENE! *melts*

Of course the veterans have their day as well. I won’t even bother writing about Stewart & McKellen as those two are just perfect actors. It’s the grown-up kids that need commending. Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) pull their weights equally among the more tenured cast. There’s a lot of fresh faces in this film as well and none of them ever felt out of place.

Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) tries to take on a future Sentinel.
Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) tries to take on a future Sentinel.

This, then, is the X-Men movie that we’re all waiting for—fun, entertaining & something with enough meat and substance that you’re willing to go through with the franchise towards the  future.

Very interesting poster rendition. #BoomPanes
Very interesting poster rendition. #BoomPanes

X-Men: Days of Future Past showed in the Philippines and around the world last May 23, 2014.
PS: As with movies of this nature, stay until the end for some post-credit scenes. 🙂

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