X-Men: Days of Future Past
(B+ or 3/4 stars)
The X-Men movie franchise started out with 2 solid Bryan Singer-directed hits (X-Men & X2), moving to a flawed, but 'ok' Brett Ratner-directed The Last Stand, then the substandard X-Men Origins: Wolverine, followed by a return to form with Matthew Vaughn's prequel X-Men: First Class, & then another 'ok' Wolverine flick. The good news about this new movie, 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' (directed again by Bryan Singer, yay), is that its narrative framework enables us to forget the various mistakes in this series. This new X-Men flick honors the origins of the comic story and ... it's just simply a solid motion picture, in general.
This complex, but smoothly executed superhero flick starts in the year 2023 in a dark, apocalyptic future where huge, seemingly indestructable robots called 'Sentinels' are sent by a government program to wipe out all the mutants & their human allies. The peace-loving Prof. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), his longtime friend/adversary Erik/Magneto (Ian McKellen), & a few other key mutants devise a plan to have Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) use her mutant powers to transport the consciousness of Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973 to change the course of events which would erase the fateful Sentinel program from history.
Claw-fisted Wolverine must convince young, reclusive, physically/mentally crippled Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) - who takes drugs to suppress the pain of his spinal injury - that this is what has to be done to save the future. With the help of Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), & Wolverine's new agile buddy Quicksilver (Evan Peters, of American Horror Story), they manage to infiltrate the Pentagon's maximum security holding cell, free young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) from incarceration (for a certain assassination attempt), and thwart the efforts of angry, anarchistic, blue-skinned, shape-shifting Raven/Mystique's (Jennifer Lawrence) plan to kill villainous Dr. Trask (Peter Dinklage), since that would show mutants in a bad light & only accelerate the Sentinel program.
'X-Men: Days of Future Past' packs a lot of plot into this story and, while it certainly helps to be well-versed in X-Men lore, this is a smart Summer movie that offers great superhero performances, stellar CGI, & well-orchestrated mayhem. The most inspired sequence occurs early with the Pentagon break-out of Magneto. The scene is shown from Quicksilver's perspective with everything around him moving at slow motion so that he can ably move around the room to alter everything (bullets aimed at our mutant heroes, etc.). Bryan Singer shoots it like a magician, with clever cause-&-effect concepts, witty reveals, & panache. Evan Peters has fun with the role. And the result is fantastic; my audience erupted in applause. Bryan Singer also provides smooth action (no soul-crushing shaky cams). The action serves the story; and you just rarely see that in action films nowadays. Singer also balances the action with interesting character scenarios. The characters' problems do not necessarily stem from villainous monsters or tyrannical baddies or time travel, but from their complex intrapersonal relationships.
With such a huge cast, it's expected that not everyone gets equal time. i.e., Storm (Halle Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), & newbies like Blink or Bishop (Bingbing Fan, Omar Sy). But Hugh Jackman gets a lot of screentime {as does his posterior, haha}, is as enjoyable as ever, and yet, gives way for McAvoy & Fassbender to shine. McAvoy - the true Lead of this film - is heartbreaking; having to face depression, drug issues, love/hate friendship issues (Magneto), betrayals (Mystique), oh, and being saddled with changing the course of history. He (and Fassbender) really impress in a fantastic plane sequence where their emotions cut to the bone. And Jennifer Lawrence is soid as the conflicted Raven/Mystique, whose loyalties shift almost as much as her chameleon exterior.
I am glad that Bryan Singer commands this X-Men franchise once again. I enjoyed this film. It's smart in the way it handles the going-back-in-the-future stuff. I love the actors involved. I've always admired X-Men for providing resonant themes of socio-political & psychological struggles; concerning mutants and where they fit in society. I guess I'm not jumping out of my seat because, aside from that Quicksilver sequence, and despite the fact that Singer doesn't make any missteps, I was rarely THRILLED. I look forward to the next film already, but will also continue to look for more unbridled moments of movie magic.
This complex, but smoothly executed superhero flick starts in the year 2023 in a dark, apocalyptic future where huge, seemingly indestructable robots called 'Sentinels' are sent by a government program to wipe out all the mutants & their human allies. The peace-loving Prof. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), his longtime friend/adversary Erik/Magneto (Ian McKellen), & a few other key mutants devise a plan to have Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) use her mutant powers to transport the consciousness of Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973 to change the course of events which would erase the fateful Sentinel program from history.
Claw-fisted Wolverine must convince young, reclusive, physically/mentally crippled Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) - who takes drugs to suppress the pain of his spinal injury - that this is what has to be done to save the future. With the help of Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), & Wolverine's new agile buddy Quicksilver (Evan Peters, of American Horror Story), they manage to infiltrate the Pentagon's maximum security holding cell, free young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) from incarceration (for a certain assassination attempt), and thwart the efforts of angry, anarchistic, blue-skinned, shape-shifting Raven/Mystique's (Jennifer Lawrence) plan to kill villainous Dr. Trask (Peter Dinklage), since that would show mutants in a bad light & only accelerate the Sentinel program.
'X-Men: Days of Future Past' packs a lot of plot into this story and, while it certainly helps to be well-versed in X-Men lore, this is a smart Summer movie that offers great superhero performances, stellar CGI, & well-orchestrated mayhem. The most inspired sequence occurs early with the Pentagon break-out of Magneto. The scene is shown from Quicksilver's perspective with everything around him moving at slow motion so that he can ably move around the room to alter everything (bullets aimed at our mutant heroes, etc.). Bryan Singer shoots it like a magician, with clever cause-&-effect concepts, witty reveals, & panache. Evan Peters has fun with the role. And the result is fantastic; my audience erupted in applause. Bryan Singer also provides smooth action (no soul-crushing shaky cams). The action serves the story; and you just rarely see that in action films nowadays. Singer also balances the action with interesting character scenarios. The characters' problems do not necessarily stem from villainous monsters or tyrannical baddies or time travel, but from their complex intrapersonal relationships.
With such a huge cast, it's expected that not everyone gets equal time. i.e., Storm (Halle Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), & newbies like Blink or Bishop (Bingbing Fan, Omar Sy). But Hugh Jackman gets a lot of screentime {as does his posterior, haha}, is as enjoyable as ever, and yet, gives way for McAvoy & Fassbender to shine. McAvoy - the true Lead of this film - is heartbreaking; having to face depression, drug issues, love/hate friendship issues (Magneto), betrayals (Mystique), oh, and being saddled with changing the course of history. He (and Fassbender) really impress in a fantastic plane sequence where their emotions cut to the bone. And Jennifer Lawrence is soid as the conflicted Raven/Mystique, whose loyalties shift almost as much as her chameleon exterior.
I am glad that Bryan Singer commands this X-Men franchise once again. I enjoyed this film. It's smart in the way it handles the going-back-in-the-future stuff. I love the actors involved. I've always admired X-Men for providing resonant themes of socio-political & psychological struggles; concerning mutants and where they fit in society. I guess I'm not jumping out of my seat because, aside from that Quicksilver sequence, and despite the fact that Singer doesn't make any missteps, I was rarely THRILLED. I look forward to the next film already, but will also continue to look for more unbridled moments of movie magic.