X-Men: Days of Future Past

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
 X-Men:  Days of Future Past
Released 5/23/14

BRYAN SINGER IS BACK!!!  Now this statement can be considered good or bad depending on which side of the aisle you fall on regarding the X-Men franchise (one I'm sure Marvel Studios is salivating to get their hands on).  While it's widely considered that Singer's first two X-Men films have been the best in the series, he hasn't been without his detractors for the lack of character development or the liberties he has taken with the material itself.  Of course, fans have seen how the franchise can spin out of control without Singer at the helm with the much maligned X-Men:  The Last Stand (which I didn't think was awful, by the way), X-Men Origins:  Wolverine, and the somewhat tepid fan response to last year's, The Wolverine. 

With Days of Future Past, Singer has combined characters from the first two X-Men films along with characters from 2011's critically acclaimed X-Men:  First Class from director, Matthew Vaughn (and, hey, Singer was a producer on that one).  Based on one of the most popular stories in X-Men lore, DOFP stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page (one of the few links to The Last Stand), and Halle Berry reprising their previous roles as our favorite heroic mutants (well, Magneto is debatable as far as being heroic).  For those not in the loop, that's a human being born with extraordinary abilities.

In a dystopian future, hunter/killer robots known as Sentinels have all but exterminated the mutant population and have also turned their attentions to normal human beings who are considered mutant sympathizers.  Barely surviving and still fighting the good, if hopeless, fight are a small band of X-Men who are cornered in Moscow.  After putting up a valiant fight, Colossus, Iceman (Ashmore), Warpath, Blink, and Sunspot prove to be no match for their invincible foes.  One X-Man, Bishop, is able to project his consciousness into his younger body in the recent past with the assistance of fellow X-Man, Kitty Pryde (Page, and how did she get this power suddenly?), to warn the group of the upcoming attack. 

The group rendezvous in China with Professor Xavier (Stewart), Magneto (McKellan), Storm (Berry), and Wolverine (Jackman) before the attack happens in Moscow.  There a plan is formulated. Since this present-day nightmare of mutant resentment and destruction can be traced back to one tragic event in the past, someone in the group must have their consciousness projected back decades in time to inhabit his/her younger body to try to stop the event from occurring.  It's decided that Kitty will send Wolverine back to 1973 to seek out a much younger Charles Xavier (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) to assist him in stopping the fateful occurrence.

 Said occurrence was created by the mutant shape changer, Mystique (Lawrence), after she fatally shoots military contractor and mutant experimenter/tormentor, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage).  His execution fuels anti-mutant sentiment and breeds the creation of Trask's Sentinel program with an added bonus.  The Sentinels have proven to be almost impossible to defeat due to Mystique herself as the shape shifting adaptability of her DNA is captured and used to make the robots adaptable to any mutant power used against them. 

So, a battle is waged on two fronts. One in the future where the Sentinels have located the X-Men again and the ragtag band must hold them off long enough for Wolverine's mission to succeed (and the audience is already privy to how well the mutant offensive played out in Moscow).  The other battle is waged in the past where Wolverine has to not only convince an emotionally broken Xavier to help, but also to work with the man he deems responsible for both his emotional and physical condition, his former best friend.  Even getting to Magneto in this time period will prove difficult as he has been blamed and captured for committing another tragic event in world history. 

The one thing that struck me about DOFP is that it was an X-Men movie with Wolverine that wasn't solely devoted to the characterization of Wolverine.  Don't get me wrong.  I love Wolverine, and I'm a huge fan of Jackman playing the character.  However, I will admit the focus on Logan has been at the detriment of the rest of the cast more often than not.  DOFP is clearly an opportunity that both Singer and the franchise have taken to capitalize on the current success and popularity of Jennifer Lawrence.  It's mainly Mystique's movie.  And, as has mostly been the case, Lawrence is up to the task and more than carries her weight as a conflicted soul torn between two ideologies (Xavier's and Magneto's). 

I was also intrigued by the young Charles Xavier speaking of a mutant in conflict.  James McAvoy does a fantastic job depicting a man with so much self doubt and self loathing that he's pretty much given up on life itself.  He's a sharp contrast from the sure and decisive older version of Xavier played by Stewart

An unexpected strength of the film was the introduction of Peter Maximoff (Evan Peters) to the series as a supersonic mutant with no code name as of yet (although comic fans know him as a tweaked version of the sometimes X-Men ally/foe, Quicksilver).  He added some much needed comic relief to an otherwise bleak-toned movie.  I have to admit the still shots I first saw of the character and the snippets revealed in the trailers didn't have me expecting much from him.  But, Peters has arguably one of the best scenes in DOFP during the Magneto breakout.  It's such a clever and brilliant scene that you'll be applauding both the actor and director.

For those wishing for a tighter continuity between the events in the franchise, you can rejoice.  DOFP effectively reboots the X-Men timeline.  So, if you have a bad taste in your mouth from X-Men Origins, The Last Stand, or even, The Wolverine, let's just say they didn't really happen (although I'm still trying to wrap my head around if The Wolverine should be included in this list).    You can now watch the X-Men movie saga through four movies (First Class, X-Men, X2, and X-Men:  DOFP).  And, this brings me to one of my problems with DOFP.  Not so much a problem as an observation really.

As a continuity buff, it's just a little too messy to say, "Here, audience!  Remember these good things that Singer did/has done, but not the bad things that he didn't touch."  In some ways, it's better to make a clean break and reboot the whole franchise a la Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy or Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man series (although that one hasn't been as well-received as hoped for), and the reboot of Star Trek.  A new director with a new set of ideas and a tightly-woven story can do wonders for an ailing franchise.  What Singer is attempting to do is reset on the fly. 

I particularly have trouble reconciling where/if The Wolverine fits into the current continuity at all having just been released a year ago.  Wolverine has bone claws at the end of that film, yet he has adamantium claws again in DOFP.  We also know that Professor Xavier and Magneto seek him out in the mid-credits scene advising that they need his assistance to stop a grave threat to the mutant race.  Logan is understandably shocked to see Professor X as he remembers him being obliterated in The Last Stand.  So, how much time has actually passed between the end of The Wolverine and DOFP?  We know the world isn't in ruins in The Wolverine, yet, everything has gone to Hell when DOFP begins.  When/how did he get the metal claws back?  Why does the Professor exist in his own body again?  Okay, that last part can be explained away if the Last Stand never happened, but it was still a story I would have liked to have seen pursued.  Also, Professor X and Magneto are two of the smartest men on the planet.  They couldn't have come up with a plan to stop this mess before the near-obliteration of mutantkind?  Wouldn't Mystique have killed Trask before X-Men and X2 took place?  Yet there was no mention of this in the first two films.  And, on a smaller note, just how did Magneto gain control of Trask's experimental Sentinels anyway when the robots supposedly "don't have an ounce of metal in them."  No metal?  It kind of defeats Magneto's power wouldn't you think?  It's almost as if the powers that be are trying to make the pieces fit where they don't. 

I know these are inherent problems when dealing with time travel and, it appears in this case, alternate timelines.  It doesn't always make a lot of sense and you can give yourself a migraine trying to figure it out.  It's not that these questions kept me from enjoying what DOFP was.  It's just that I would have liked for the pieces of the puzzle to fit a little more perfectly than they did.  It's something I'm really going to have to get over when the next Star Wars movie is released next year. 

I've mentioned this before, I believe, but given what Singer is attempting to do with the franchise, it bears repeating.  If The Avengers franchise has done nothing else, it has forced movie studios to look at this genre of film as more than stand alone, special effects extravaganzas.  Rich movie universes with strong storytelling are being mined from super hero material that was once considered to have fringe fan bases.  In addition to the aforementioned Spider-Man franchise under Marc Webb, we have Warner Brothers/DC Comics ready to do the same thing with the Justice League in a couple of years.  Continuity makes for tighter storytelling and endless possibilities from these characters' long histories.  Super heroes have gone mainstream.  It's the Golden Age for someone like me who grew up with the material.  And, fortunately, there's no end in sight.

Days of Future Past is a strong outing for Singer to get the franchise back on its feet and rolling in a clear direction.  With the reset button pretty much being pushed, the director has also given himself access to a few more pieces on the chessboard.  Pieces that had perished previously.  He has done the best he can to right certain things that happened when he wasn't in the driver's seat short of truly starting over from scratch.  Since he will be in charge for the next X-Men film in 2016, I'm sure Marvel's mighty mutants will be in good hands yet again.  Hopefully, there will be some development of other characters that haven't been given a chance to shine as of yet (Storm, Rogue, I'm looking at you).

As with most Marvel-related movies, there is an additional scene after the end credits that introduces the next "big bad."  It's not a jaw-dropping scene by any means, but it is an important one when you hear the chant, "En Sabbah Nur."  Yep, just let the Apocalypse out of the bag there.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

***3/4 stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.