By: Robert Murphy
Spoiler alert!
I like many of you were probably very excited for the latest
addition to the X-Men franchise with
the recent release of X-Men: Days of
Future Past. The reason I was so excited for this film was the fact that it
is based on my favorite time in the X-Men
universe where we enter a not so distant future where the world is in
disarray in the wake of the robotic creatures known as the Sentinels. These robotic
juggernauts were created by humanity to hunt down and if necessary kill them
all because of the threat they posed to the human race. This though proves to
be bad for both sides as the Sentinels are really out of control and doing
things on their own terms, so to prevent this the last remaining mutants must
send one of them back to the past to prevent any of this from ever happening.
The only person able to do this though is Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and he must
unite the younger versions of Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto
(Michael Fassbender) when they couldn’t bare to be around one another, but
uniting them regardless to save the future, for everyone.
Wolverine wakes up in his younger self in 1973 and I say
younger but he really just looks the same as always, anyway he has to track
down Charles as his younger self but he will quickly find that he is not the
man we all have known these many years, he is more of a lost and troubled soul
right now. Ever since the events of the last movie, X-Men: The First Class, he has lost everything, mainly his dearest
and closest friend Raven who was also known as Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). Mystique
will prove to be the main focus of the story as she is the driving cause behind
why all these events unfolded and her passion for her fellow mutants will be
let loose. Not only this but she receives many of her incredible martial arts
moves and acrobatic feats that we’ve seen her use in earlier movies but weren’t
present in The First Class, so no
more useless little girl for this character. Also after the events of First Class we see that the only friend
to have stayed by The Professors side is the young Hank aka Beast (Nicholas
Hoult) whose helping him in his time of need. And finally we have Magneto who
is in the midst of another extreme lockdown situation after certain events,
let’s just say he managed to curve a very life changing bullet and people were
not happy. The whole plot work behind this film is massive and where in most
films so many ideas and moving parts wouldn’t work, Days of Future Past managed to find balance and fix many screw ups
of the past films that annoyed fans like me.
Each of the core characters get their moments on screen
which is to be expected but what is great about it is that it doesn’t feel like
a setup, everything is important for the characters at that time and each
character has a drive or motive to them in earnest. Charles is having a hard
time as I mentioned and it will take wise words from not only himself but from
Wolverine as well, I say this shockingly because advice and patients isn’t his
strong suit and even he admits that. Wolverine almost becomes a teacher to
Charles in his own way during the film and what he does for Wolverine in the
future, he must now do for Charles, guide him and help him be the man he’s
meant to be. Mystiques role in Days of
Future Past was surprising to me, she was always a mystery in the original
three movies and while I like her more since The First Class, I was surprised to see how strong of a character
she is now. While the events in the future are important, the character don’t
get much attention, the Magneto and Charles we know as played by Ian McKellen
and Patrick Stewart do get their moment but the rest really don’t, I don’t even
think I heard Storm (Halle Berry) say more than one line. This was okay for me
though, they all still played their roles very well and came up more in the
fight scene portions of the film.
Speaking of the action scenes, these were very powerful
moments when you see them as they deal crushing blows to our favorite
characters a lot of the time. You will have to see some of your favorite
characters die in their fights with the Sentinels, who oddly look and behave a
lot like the Destroyer weapon from Thor.
These robots are merciless and deal horrible blows to some of the cast and it
really does hurt to see them fall to their knees, I won’t spoil any names
though. Other great scenes come from the present 1973 story telling such as the
incredible scene with Magneto lifting a whole baseball stadium around the White
House and showing just how powerful a mutant he is. Perhaps the best moment for
the whole film (comedy wise anyway) was during the prison break for Magneto and
watching the new character Quicksilver (Evan Peters) who completely steals the
show for this entire section of the film. And I know right about now you may be
asking about good old Trask (Peter Dinklage,) well I don’t know what to say, as
a bad guy he isn’t much of one and as a character he doesn’t stand out that
much either. I don’t blame his performance or anything like that, I just don’t think
he was that important in the film despite being the creator of the Sentinels,
he just doesn’t stand out.
In conclusion, I am absolutely blown away by X-Men Days of Future Past, I knew that
I would enjoy the film but I didn’t realize what a great addition it would be
to the franchise. As I casually mentioned before, I saw many fixes to story
errors the other films had made which was just great, it may be petty but the
adjustments are probably really appreciated and were definitely noticed by
myself. Everything was very ambitious for Days
of Future Past as it combined the classic characters and the new additions
from The First Class and we all know
how bad that can turn out but it comes out the best I’ve seen a film do in a
long time and was a stellar movie for the X-Men franchise.
Good:
- So many moving parts for the film that were all juggled very
well
- Excellent action
- Both the new comers and old favorites performed amazingly
- New additions like Quicksilver stole the show
Bad:
- Dinklage’s Trask wasn’t a very good villain and was more of
a background character it seemed
Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10
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