I was very surprised recently when I was talking about my excitement over the newest X-Men film, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and my friends whom I was talking either hadn't seen past X2: X-Men United or just hadn't seen any of the films. Does X-Men not carry the same pedigree as Spider-Man or Fantastic Four with my generation? (and by the way, the Fantastic Four movies aren't that good so stop saying they are)
If you haven't seen any of the X-Men movies, you can still watch this movie without having seen most of them. I would at the very least recommend watching X-Men: First Class as this film is the direct sequel to that one. Story from X2: X-Men United and X-Men: the Last Stand peeks its head in from time to time but all you need to know is that Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) killed a mutant and he is still emotional about it, and a military man made him into who he is/would be shows up. There you go. You are caught up.
The movie starts off in the year 2023 where mutants are running for their lives, because these machines called Sentinels are capturing and killing all of them. The remaining cast of mutants we follow is a mix of new and familiar faces. They have a plan to change the present by changing the past so the Sentinels would never be created. Time travel is involved though not by a time machine or anything like that so you will not see two of the same characters running around together in the same timeline. The way writers set this up is pretty cool.
The one who goes back by 50 years is Wolverine, but he isn't the pivotal character in this story like the trailers or even the early narrative would like you to believe. That role belongs to Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). Overall though, all the main players get a good chunk of screen time, and you get a good sense of their personalities and what is and has been going on with them.
The most fun character though has to be Quicksilver (Evan Peters). He is part of the most fun (maybe even the best) scene where he is running around a room in the Pentagon and takes out the guards in a split second. For the audience watching, time goes by a lot slower as the filmmakers shot the action on a camera going 6000 frames a second. It's crazy how fast they made Quicksilver seem. You'll be pretty amazed.
The movie as a whole has to be the best X-Men movie so far. The pace is good as goes quick while not making light of gentler moments. The storytelling is great though a lot of the dialogue is expository since the pace is moving quickly. The acting is spot on especially with Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (who knew Wolverine could be tough and funny simultaneously). The special fx look good, and Director Bryan Singer knew how a film like this was supposed to look with the way its shot. Plus, the tone strikes a great balance between being Christopher Nolan-esqe and fun like the Avengers.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is the best movie so far this summer.
0-100 Rating : 84
The answer is me! I knew that Wolverine could be tough and funny at the same time. I completely agree with your assessment of this film. X-men has actually always been my favorite. I use to read the Ultimate X-men series and a lot of the individuals' series too. I read Phoenix (Jean Gray), Rogue, X-23, Jubilee, Wolverine... etc... I don't know why the rest of our generation doesn't like them as much.
ReplyDeleteI also want to point out little things in the movie that people might not catch unless they know the comics. I love the how humorous it is. Quicksilver is actually Magneto's son. That's why in the elevator Peter says, "My mom use to know a guy who could do that." After Eric tells him he manipulates metal.
Good review Logan. Bleak, yet Bryan Singer makes it always engaging and entertaining.
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