A good movie? Yes. Bryan Singer’s installment handles the tricky business of time traveling well in a world full of people with super-powered mutations. He even handles the inconsistencies of the movie franchise fairly well.
The plot of Days of Future Past consist of a doomed future where an army of robots (called Sentinels) were created to combat the mutant threat and have exterminated anyone on the planet that’s even close to be genetically linked to a mutant. Funnily enough, this is all the fault of Mystique back in the Nixon era. There’s a couple things that marks this as a different entry to the X-men franchise. 1) we see the veteran X-men (in the future) and some of those from First Class in the same plot, 2) this film is considerably darker than others, including the Phoenix meltdown. You see various characters speared through the chest, ripped in half, and several others having their faces melted off. As high as the onscreen kill count is, there’s another noticeably high killed list in the background. Fans of First Class will not be seeing Emma Frost, Azazel, Banshee, Angel, or that annoying guy who tossed around tornados. Unfortunately, they were disposed off in a single sentence, mentioned having fallen in the fight of Mutant rights, which is a real shame considering how much time was spent building them up in First Class and the freshness they offered to the franchise.
The X-Men franchise largely continues to follow the path of ‘Wolverine and the X-Men.’ Every movie is focused on him (aside from First Class, of course), and while Hugh Jackman does a fantastic job in the role, it becomes a little annoying knowing that the plot was changed to accommodate one actor. In the original Days of Future Past storyline, it was Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat that goes back in time, not using her powers to send Wolverine back. However, as First Class occurred in the 70s, Ellen Page’s character was far from being born (assumedly) so Wolverine was an ideal candidate (particuarly since he doesn’t age). However, perhaps due to her rising popularity as an actress, Jennifer Lawrence has most of the plot centering around her and her constant fight scenes. They’re not bad, nor do I feel the movie suffers for focusing in on their two biggest attractions in Jackman and Lawrence, but it’s noticeable and I can’t help but feel there’s more depth and potential to be explored in other characters.
The film does a fantastic job in capturing just how hopeless the future is. The Sentinels are actually terrifying, lacking humanoid faces, taking an unbelievable amount of punishment, and they continue coming. New, relatively unnamed Mutants are used in the future sequences and are highly entertaining in the fight choreography, pulling enough charisma out so the audience feels bad whenever their well being is threatened.
The X-men franchise hasn’t done as well as the Avengers universe in establishing proper continuity. We see Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier standing upright in Wolverine Origins, only for him to lose his legs in First Class. In this movie, Wolverine has his metal claws back in the future, apparently ignoring what happened (thankfully) in the movie simple titled The Wolverine. Also, Charles Xavier died at the end of X-Men Last Stand, and while there was an Easter egg explaining that he was back, there was little more explanation than that. However, Bryan Singer does deal with a few of those problems, somehow tying in Xavier’s paralysis being dealt with mutation-suppressing drugs and other minor pieces in the story. There is a part where Magneto claims he was trying to save JFK during his assassination, not by curving the bullet into his path, by claiming he was a mutant as well that feels incredibly cheap to me, stating only that and moving on. Whatever though, it doesn’t really ruin anything.
The film is very aware of itself as well, not just some of its continuity errors, but in relation to the comics. You don’t really get any cameos (aside from the extended scene from after the credits) but you can catch them as you watch. In particular, there’s a couple tied into the character of Quicksilver, the mutant with superspeed. In the comics, he’s the son of Magneto and has a mutant sister. When meeting Magneto and finding out he can control metal, Quicksilver mentions, “Yeah, I think my mom knew a guy like you.” There’s later a quick image of Quicksilver holding his little sister, as well.
Speaking of Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters of American Horror Story fame, anytime this character is on the screen, he steals the show. His characters stand in such thick contrast to the rest of the cast, being a kleptomaniac without really a care in the world. Everyone else in this movie is literally so stern and morbid, and they have reason to be. Not Quicksilver. Granted, being as fast as he is, they used him as a plot device and moved on. His inclusion to the ‘big ending’ would either be it to an anti-climatic end, or just be nonsensical. I have no problem with how short he was involved.
All in all, it was a pretty great movie. I cannot say if it’s better than Captain America: Winter Soldier or The Amazing Spiderman 2, but it definitely triumphs over and above some of the more worrisome titles in the X-Men franchise, with potentially good things to come.
About the Potential Future of the X-Men Franchise. Spoilers abound here.
Apparently most of the cast was revived through actions in history. This doesn’t include just the characters who died within this movie, but also mutants who died in other films, such as Cyclops and Jean Grey. With both of them, does that mean we get their offspring? And what about Havok? We know he’s Scott’s brother and that he appears to have survived Days of Future Past, so will he get a role? Does that mean Jean will become Phoenix again?
And speaking of Pheonix, there will definitely need to be some extra firepower to take down Apocalypse. We all know that Apocalypse is going to be the villain in the move, also titled Apocalypse. It’s pretty obvious. But currently, Apocalypse is to the X-Men like Thanos is to the Avengers. Way overpowered. Of course, there could be some kind plot device used, as lame as that may be. One can hope that Rogue will finally come into her own, being able to draw some power from Apocalypse to make for a proper duel. Chances are, though, Wolverine will probably solve it in some way.
Also, I am quite sad that so many supporting characters in First Class were killed off, as if there wasn’t a good enough reason to say they were captured or detained or something. It worries me, as Bryan Singer is back at the reigns for all things X-Men, that he decided there was no room for those characters in his great scheme and merely wrote them out of existence. And if that’s the case, what’s his plan for the younger, more fresh iteration of mutants? Will Days of Future Past be the last we see of McAvoy, Fessenberger, and Lawrence? I hope not, but then again, much of the cast was already cut out.
I suppose time will tell. There are directions that I personally believe that would enhance the X-Men universe and make itself more of a competitor against the film owners of Avengers and The Amazing Spiderman.
Travis's 2 cents 