X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

x-men-days-of-future-pastIf you had a chance to stop a huge disaster in the future would you? In May 2014, we watched as the only hope the future had… was the past.

Directing this 131 minute action/adventure/fantasy/sci-fi is Bryan Singer.

Fighting for the future is: Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine, James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Hank/Beast, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, Peter Dinklage as Dr. Bolivar Trask, Shawn Ashmore as Bobby/Iceman, Evan Peters as Peter/Quicksliver, Josh Helman as Maj. Bill Stryker, Ian McKellen as Magneto and Patrick Stewart as Professor X. With appereances by: Halle Berry as Storm, Daniel Cudmore as Colossus, Kelsey Grammer as Hank/Beast, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, James Marsden as Scott Summers.

In the future, all those that harbor the mutant gene are being hunted down by robots called Sentinels. This hard fought war between mutant and Sentinel has taken it’s toll, leaving only a few mutants to continue the fight. So a plan is hatched, one that could save the future of mutant kind. An X-Men will be sent back in time to try and stop the event that started everything down a path to a dark and dismal future. This last ditch effort will either make history, or seal their fate.

I can’t say I’ve been a Singer fan when it comes to the X-Men franchise. I’m not saying Singer isn’t a good directer (sort of), it’s just that I’m a big fan of the X-Men and I can’t say he’s ever done them justice when it came to the films. Singer has skill, just look at the Usual Suspects (1995), which is one of my favorite movies. It’s just that after his first three attempts of making “X-Men movies” I really didn’t know what to think about this one or held much hope for anything great.

The storyline for the movie is based off of a comic book story told in The Uncanny X-Men, that was published back in 1981 by Marvel Comics and was written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. For any comic book fans, yeah they did change some aspects of the story from the comics to the movie. Basically because one name would sell better than the other (in my opinion), but I thought they did a good job on the script when it came to explaining the change up.

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Now, none of that will matter to the non-comic book reader, as far as the movie goes. Writers Simon Kinberg (who did the screenplay), Jane Goldman (who did the story) and Matthew Vaughn (who also did the story) did a great job in explaining what’s going on and why everything is happening. The storyline is well put together with a solid script and is very entertaining. As the X-Men franchise goes, this is their best work and almost makes up for the other films. Don’t get me wrong, this was a great movie, but sadly it’s out numbered by the bad ones. If all the other ones were like this, there wouldn’t be a disappointed fan in the house.

I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to the cast. There are so many great stars scattered throughout the movie that play around in the past and the present. Then you get a special treat (it was for me anyway) by getting to see some stars reprise their roles, like Grammer as Beast, which if even for a second it was still cool to see them. One of the things that had me wanting to see this film was the past and present pairings of McAvory/Stewart (Professor X) and Fassbender/McKellen (Magneto). Theses four men have done an amazing job in showing, or bringing to life, the bond of friend/enemy that Prof. X and Magneto share in the comics. I didn’t think anyone could do it better than Stewart and McKellen, but McAvory and Fassbender have done such a great job in showing where that bond started. Of course Jackman was awesome, but then again any chance to see Wolverine is a welcome one. Unless, we’re talking about X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), then that’s just a train wreck worth missing, especially if you’re a comic fan. Anyway, all of the past and present cast does a really good job, and Lawrence is finally starting to win me over with her role as Mystique.

As for the special effects, they were off the chart cool looking. Everything flowed and moved together well. Even the Sentinels (that I was a little leery of at first) turned out ok when it came down to the finished product.

One thing to keep in mind when going to see this one. Yeah it’s an X-Men movie with cool superheros, but even rated PG-13, there’s some intense scenes here and there that might not be the best for little kids. Like watching rebar being twisted in and out of Wolverine’s body. No blood, but could tweek a younger child out a bit. Also a little side note of possible joy. X-Men: Apocalypse, directed by Singer, should be dropping around 2016, lets hope they grab the same crew to get that one together so we can have another winner like this one.

Summary : This movie is super cool, but about the only problem I had with it was some of the characters that I've been waiting to see catch some real spot light time were still no more than flashing glimpses of cool action scenes. I was hoping to see a bigger part being played by some of these individuals but what can you do? So really if that's my biggest complaint I'm thinking I got off pretty lucky and got to see a really entertaining flick that turned out worth the money to catch it in the theaters.

It's rated PG-13 for violence and language.


Rating


Average

4

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Haricharan Pudipeddi

Lovely review. I had my own doubts when i read that Singer would be bringing back all the characters from the franchise in one film. I asked myself how in the hell is he going to do it. But he did it quite convincingly and managed to give us a highly entertaining summer blockbuster. Lovely review.

My first time on your blog. Have bookmarked it 🙂

Here's my review of the film http://movieroundup.in/x-men-days-future-past-entertaining-ambitious-ingenious/