What do you get when you put Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, and
Michael Fassbender (plus a whole bunch of others) together in a movie directed
by Bryan Singer? Awesomeness!
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” is my second favorite movie of
the summer so far. And it isn’t a
distant second, either. It was a fun
movie, start to finish. It was a great
mix of action, drama, and suspense, with just the right amount of humor added
in. The special effects were
excellent. The science that I care about
wasn’t too horrible. (Sorry, genetics
isn’t my field—so I can’t comment about the “believability” of that portion of
X-Men stories.) The story was very
enjoyable, though the ending left me with a lot of questions.
One of the things that I particularly liked about this movie
was that it paid attention to physics, to a point at least. There was one thoroughly satisfying scene
with one character with a mutation that gave him super-speed. The sequence shows him foiling the prevention
of a prison break by adjusting the trajectory of bullets, repositioning hands
and arms, and generally saving the day, all before Wolverine could pop his
claws. Granted, he should have caused
severe injuries to the men whose limbs he moved, but other than that, it was
one of the best uses of super-speed I’ve seen in film! He even knew that he had to brace the neck of
someone he was going to take with him at high speed to protect against
whiplash. Now that’s a great example of
writers paying attention to details!
(As a side note, I’m wondering how 20th Century
Fox and Marvel Studios worked out the use of this character in this film, since
the same character is showing up in the next Avengers movie. The character’s first name is slightly
different than it is in the comics, and his codename? alias?
super-hero/villain/anti-hero name? was never mentioned. Maybe that’s enough to not cause problems.)
Another thing that this movie did well was connecting the
past and the present—though those classifications are sort of reversed from a
movie-goer’s perspective. The characters
and actors from the first X-Men trilogy were there (movie-goers’ past, but
movie chronology’s present) as well as the new cast introduced in X-Men First
Class (movie-goers’ present, but movie chronology’s past). And tying it all together was my third
favorite comic book character, Wolverine.
There was even a bit where we were treated to glimpses of the previous
six X-Men movies (four team films and two solo Wolverine features). I thought that might have been an attempt to
maintain continuity, even though there have been some contradictions introduced
over the course of the film series. In
any event, it was a nice touch.
One of the few complaints that I have about the movie is
that there wasn’t enough Wolverine with his claws out, doing what he does
best. He had a couple good action
sequences, but I could have gone for more.
However, this wasn’t another Wolverine movie—it was an X-Men movie. Other characters and actors needed screen
time, so I guess I can get over it.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
The ending raised a lot of questions for me, hopefully to be
answered in another movie in a couple of years.
The premise of the movie was that Wolverine’s present consciousness was
sent back to his body in 1973 in an effort to change events that would lead to
a horrible dystopia. Of course he
succeeded, but now I have to wonder how much of the cinematic X-Men universe
changed? For one thing, the change
happened before Wolverine got his adamantium skeleton. So will he ever get that skeleton? Sorry, but bone claws aren’t nearly as cool
as razor-sharp metal claws. Another
question, do Professor X and Magneto become the leaders of opposing mutant
factions like they were in the previous trilogy? Is Mystique one of the good guys now? So many questions, and too long to wait for
the answers. But that’s what keeps
people coming back, isn’t it?
**NO MORE SPOILERS.
RESUME READING**
To sum up, this movie got a lot of things wonderfully right:
really good looking guys (Hugh Jackman is just getting better with age) that
are also really good actors; a compelling story that had me on the edge of my
seat waiting to see how it would all work out; special effects that paid attention
to physics; and a great balance in emotions—serious when it needed to be, but
with enough levity to make it an overall fun summer movie. I highly recommend and commend this latest
installment in the X-Men movie franchise!
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