X-Men: Days of Future Past

The first ever X-men film that I saw in theaters was "The Last Stand". Coincidentally, eight years later to the day, I saw "Days of Future Past" on the big screen. During that length of time, the franchise had been a downer with the exception of "First Class". The stories were not strong and did not add anything in the franchise. You could take both Wolverine stand-alone films out and you wouldn't miss a thing for example. The reason why "Days of Future Past" works so well is because the story was given the most attention with a lot of support coming from one of the largest ensemble casts I had ever seen in a movie up to that point. You had old friends reuniting and revisiting old times as well as new cast members who are fans of the original X-Men films of the previous decade. This allowed the final project to be infused with a powerful, sentimental spirit. This film had to combine two sides of one film franchise and things worked out very well in part because of the return of Bryan Singer to the director's chair. This is the "Avengers" and "Dark Knight" of the X-men franchise. I usually try to avoid spoilers but this is one review where it is nearly impossible not to. Heads up.

I can feel the same sense of verisimilitude in "Days of Future Past" that I feel when watching Richard Donner's "Superman". Singer has directed a Superman movie before so he knows how to win the audience over and accept what he gives them. His ability to mix realism with fantasy is something that made the first two X-Men movies such a success. There is honesty in the story and world that we are presented with. Usually when a movie deviates from its source material, the final product is not as good. In this case, I am glad for the departure from the storyline of the original comic on which this movie is based because Wolverine is the perfect character to bring these two groups of cast members together. You start off with a post-apocalyptic world following "The Last Stand" and then find yourself ten years after the event of "First Class" in the 1970's. There are a lot of bright colors with an emphasis on orange and brown shades to portray this decade. Besides the direction, the emphasis on story and the ensemble cast, the chemistry between Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy is what makes this movie fly. I like their dramatic scenes together as well as the scene between McAvoy and Patrick Stewart. I also like the moment when Logan comes face to face with Stryker and his 1973-self almost takes over. I was impressed with how Charles handled the situation. This was a scary moment for me in the story. My favorite scene in the movie though was in the kitchen at the Pentagon. At first I thought that my favorite new mutant for this movie was Blink but now I favor Quicksilver equally. That kitchen scene was a great use of special effects, the song "Time in a Bottle" and comedy. In most time travel movies, the time traveler has all the time he needs in the past but this show is different. The passage of time in the future coincides with the passage of time in the past, thus creating an entertaining climax. I like the subtle references to "Terminator 2" when Wolverine wakes up in '73. I loved when Magneto in the future applogizes to Professor X for all those years that they fought each other. The intercutting between the future and the past was well handled. I was so happy that Professor X is able to acknowledge Wolverine's arrival to the alternate future. It would have been pretty lonely and difficult otherwise for Logan. While the film has a very resolving and happy ending, room was left for the sequel. I also appreciated the angle of the Kennedy assassination in the X-men universe although making President Kennedy a mutant is a little hard to accept. At least the Magic Bullet conspiracy now makes sense (a lot more sense than complex theory of multiple gunman). The only inconsistency I can see with this movie is that Magneto does not help Xavier build Cerebro, as was established in the first X-Men film. I can overlook this though as well as other discrepancies from "First Class" because of how good "Days of Future Past" is.

I feel I have to mention most members of this extensive cast so as to best illustrate the power they give to the story. I cannot find a single example of recasting and I am so impressed that Singer went to all that trouble. It wasn't so much a struggle to get the former actors to say yes to being in this movie but rather to work out all the details. These cast members wanted to return to this franchise but their schedules conflicted in many cases. Thankfully, the crew did what they had to do in order to pull this off. This ensemble cast includes legendary performers, Oscar-winning & Oscar-nominated actors as well as many artists who briefly reprise their roles. This creates so much fun. This is the 7th time that Hugh Jackman has been Wolverine. In every one of those performances, he has done his part well but he best shines whenever Logan is at the head of the X-Men team that was established way back in 2000. Besides Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen provide the needed creditability for this show. As a fun fact, Halle Berry was pregnant during the filming of "Days of Future Past". I am impressed with how far the cast of "First Class" has come in just three years. Michael Fassbender wowed me with his Oscar-nominated performance in "12 Years a Slave" while Jennifer Lawrence has practically become Hollywood royalty. She has become world famous because of the Hunger Games franchise and in those three years received an Oscar win as well as her third nomination. I also saw Nicholas Hoult in "Jack the Giant Slayer". Unfortuantly, Fassbender's performance in this movie is not as powerful because he can be compared directly with Ian McKellen's work. Fassbender did better in "First Class" although in "Days of Future Past", he tried to adapt this vocal performance from the previous film to better match McKellen's. Ellen Page has also come along way since 2006 thanks to "Juno" and "Inception". The ending scene at the school was awesome and I was so surprised to see Kelsey Grammer, Anna Paquin, Famke Janssen and James Marsden. Peter Dinklage did a great job too. Bryan Singer and Matthew Vaughn swap the roles they had with "First Class" so that is neat. My most favorite thing that Singer did as a director was his use of Super 8 footage. The visual effects were such that they were nominated at the Oscars by the way.

There is the temptation to think that this movie was an attempt to fix the plot problems of "The Last Stand" but that doesn't make sense. "Days of Future Past" is my favourite X-men film released by Fox and it would have been my favourite movie from 2014 if it hadn't been for "Guardians of the Galaxy", another Marvel movie. This sequel did not rely on its large and impressive cast, although it did wonders. Rather, the story was well written and the drama was sincere. Whenever the story is the focal cinematic aspect of a movie, great things can happen. Singer's work was entertaining to watch. "X-men: Days of Future Past" was a great way to kick off the summer of 2014 and it is one of my top 25 favourite comic book movies. I was worried that the next film in the franchise would suffer the same fate as "The Last Stand" but that wasn't to be thankfully in my opinion. The failure didn't come until 2019.

4 Stars out of 5