X-Men Days of Future Past Review

X-Men Days of Future Past is one of the most anticipated films of the year for both comic fans and non comic fans, and I think the voice of critics and fans are unanimous "This is one of the best X-men movie to date". The movie did many things right but for me personally I did have a few gripes with the movie but still enjoyed it immensly. The movie is loosely adapted from the comic story line of the same name "Days of Future Past", by loosely I mean they decided to make Wolverine's conscious travel to the past instead of Kitty's. One of the things that this movie did really well was the time travel, they did it in such a way that they were able to logically avoid the time travel paradox which plagues many time travelling stories.

The future segment of the movie sees the remaining X-men (Professor X, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Colossus, Magneto, Bishop, Warpath, Sunspot and Blink) fight off constant onslaught from the sentinels which hunt them down, the catch being that there are too many sentinels for the X-men to take on so the X-men have no choice but to stall and run away before the attack even happens by sending Bishop's consciousness back to warn his previous self a few days ago to warn the X-men of the impending danger. This is the same concept that they use to send Wolverine back into the past to stop the sentinel program from happening. The sentinels of the future look bad-ass and remind me of the super skrull from marvel comics who have many abilities of the heroes in the marvel universe, the sentinels as you may have guess have powers of many of the X-men which makes them difficult to deal with. 

Without spoiling too much of the movie I will say that the movie blends the past and present really well and shows you the tale of hope seamlessly without taking you out of the movie. I walked into this film expecting a movie along the lines of first class i.e a bit of action mixed with a good story what I got was a very well done adaptation of the story with little action (compared to first class) which was good in itself but I did feel a bit let down as I was hoping to see more mutants fighting it out. The story itself felt a bit linear for me but I did enjoy how they didn't really force wolverine on us unless the movie was directly talking about the future which I loved as I believe that wolverine is kind of a boring hero in the movies. That being said wolverine was actually fairly useless in the movie as a mutant, almost as useless as Peter Dinklage as Boliver Trask. By no means was Dinklage bad in the role but he wasn't threatening as a villain should be, literally anyone could play Boliver Trask and the movie would be the same because Trask didn't really have a moment which made me feel like "Woah, now thats a bad guy", sure he created the sentinels but that's all he literally did in the movie.

The rest of the cast in the movie was good especially Fassbender, McAvoy, Lawrence and Holt who pretty much carried the movie with the other mutants playing a supporting role. But there was on character who was beyond good to the point where every time I think of this character I will picture this actor now and that ladies and gentle men is Quicksilver. Quicksilver literally stole every scene that he was in and I hoped that the movie would have more for him to do but alas he was only there for a small amazing portion of the movie. Like most good movies with a big task, each character in the movie had their purpose regardless of how small it was. 

The film's action sequences were amazing and well choreographed but as I have stated before the movie was lacking in that department for my tastes. The movie also had a few more flaws which took me out of the experience, the first being that they had the constant need to remind us how the time travelling trope worked which I found fairly annoying. The second fairly minor thing I disliked about the movie was how they portrayed Bishop, the actor wasn't bad but just the way that he was executed felt a bit lacking for me. The movie however was a really entertaining watch and the post credits scene was amazing and I can't wait for X-Men Apocalypse to hit the theaters. Overall I would say that this movie is my second favorite X-men movie, the first being X-Men First class which I enjoyed slightly more than this sequel. Also I think it is worth noting that this movie did something spectacular that made me smile, it erased the abomination that was X-Men 3 from the movie storyline, also going ahead into X-Men apocalypse the directors will get to cast new (younger) versions of characters who appeared in the original trilogy such as Cyclops and Jean Grey!

Review written by Naveed

Usually superhero blockbusters turn into fan-boy gimmicks rather than a respectable film, but 2014 has been a big step up for Marvel. First Captain America: Winter soldier and now Days of a future past, the plot focussed approach has really improved their quality. Of course the homage to the comic books still exists, and even though Marvel has learnt to manage its dosage, it’s this constant need to throw in comic-book Easter eggs that ultimately sets apart Marvel from say, Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Some of the bonus characters like bishop and blink end up convoluting the scenes and seem to serve no real purpose. Their time on screen seems redundant as it will leave the people who should have enjoyed them (i.e. the fan-boys and fan-girls) thinking, “that’s it?” Nonetheless the film follows two timelines and these cluttered scenes, appropriately set in the dystopic future, are a very short slice of the film. The rest of the film, which is more structured and enjoyable, is focussed back in the past.

One of the crucial developing points of the story lies in time travelling- and fortunately director Brian Singer pulls it off very well. Hollywood has never been able to portray time travelling cleanly, but this film gets closer than any other. Without the time traveller’s paradox itching at the back of your brain, it’s a lot easier to focus on the plot and not ask yourself every few minutes, “But wouldn’t that mean there’s two of him?”

Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine and is the vessel to the past; the link between the characters we met in First Class, and those we met in the X-men trilogies. From the previous film, Michael Fassbender reprises his role as Magneto, and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Both do a fantastic job like the first time around and their time on screen is really capitalised on. The characterisation was perfectly built up from First class (especially Fassbender’s Magneto) leaving a relatively effortless transition into this film- but that wasn’t fully the case. The script does the acting talent injustice as character’s motives may perplex you; as if they’ve changed since the last time you saw them- or can we just blame it on chronology? But what is sacrificed for characterisation the film trades for in story, as lot of the complications begin from rusty relationships.

The plot is easy to follow and will keep you engaged as the situation is constantly taken to the next level. What the film does best is strip away the escape button. Each complication will make you believe that “it can’t possibly get any worse”… and then it does. Each progression of the film will keep you surprised, and neatly integrated allusions to modern history will have you grinning (let’s just say what First class did for the Cuban missile crisis, this film does for the JFK assassination). 

Review written by Saqif

This movie earns a 3 and a half Hugh Jackman heads out of 5. Definitely check this movie out in cinemas if you can, it is probably going to be one of the top 5 summer blockbusters this year. Just don't expect anything mind blowing. Amongst all the clever intricacies, the cleverest would have to be how the ending of the film nullifies the tawdry X-men trilogy. It’s a satisfying goodbye and a purging of what was holding back the reputation of X-men films. First Class and Days of a future past is a fresh new beginning and has something to offer for both hardcore fans and the general story lover.