X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2014.
Directed by Bryan Singer.
Starring Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Daniel Cudmore, Evan Peters, Booboo Stewart, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Evan Jonigkeit, Josh Helman and Peter Dinklage.
SYNOPSIS:
The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.
Attempting to condense the events that occur throughout X-Men: Days of Future Past into a short, precise snippet is nothing less than a struggle. Returning director Bryan Singer throws all to the wall, and although not everything sticks, he succeeds in an unprecedented manner that by all accounts will please the fanboys and newcomers alike. In truth, Days of Future Past feels like an exercise – an incredibly successful one – in how to carve out a Universe with an understanding of the product, a concept Brett Ratner failed to comprehend. Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand now has no place in the pantheon of X-Men features – instead, it can now be viewed as a lucid dream, one we have only just awoken from.
In the dystopian future lies the X-Men we are most familiar with. Indestructable robots Sentinels have decimated all they have ever known forcing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen to send back Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) into the mind of his younger self in order to stop the war before it has even started. Complex enough. Upon finding himself in his younger body, he must bring together the crew of X-Men: First Class in order to stop genocidal maniac Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage).
It’s a shame Peter Dinklage, so impressive in Game of Thrones, is kept on a leash. There are glimmers of darkness but Singer uses him as a tool for exposition. Instead of playing for sympathy or out there psychopath, he stands awkwardly in the middle, never truly convincing.
Following the events of the previous film, McAvoy is now a powerless washed up alcoholic, Fassbender is in a cell 100 floors beneath the Pentagon, Lawrence is doing her thing and Nicholas Hoult finds himself playing Alfred. Mystique, a role so often used as eye candy, has the meat of the action. The plot relies entirely on her and although her motives are slightly foggy to say the least, she grounds the film. In a similar manner to that of Rebecca Romijn, she does parade half naked for a large block of the film.
In comes Quicksilver (Evan Peters). Maligned before he had even a chance to discuss the role, Peters stands out amongst the many disposable new mutants. Echoing the breathless appearance of Nightcrawler in X2, Quicksilver is found breaking Magneto out of the Pentagon. Headphones on, he flicks away bullets, nicks hats and ultimately is a nuisance to all those around him without breaking a sweat. And then he disappears from the film. His set-piece lingers throughout and the film never truly recovers from his abrupt dismissal. Good luck Joss Whedon – Evan Peters and the X-Men have the upper hand.
As with First Class, real life politics leaks into the plot. Richard Nixon plays a major role as does Vietnam. Lawrence (looking like she stepped off the set of American Hustle) bears the brunt of this, sewing together the horrors of Vietnam with Singer’s story. At times trying too hard to allude to real life politics, Singer abruptly halts this by shifting the RFK stadium onto the lawn of the White House. Innately silly but certainly quite the spectacle.
As a result of the 1970s portion of the feature being so strong, it is inevitable for the dystopian future to feel slightly off-key. Of course, mutants are disposable; Booboo Stewart as Warpath does little, while Omar Sy as Bishop stands about commanding before using a ludicrous weapon. Thankfully the action sequences, from the first breathtaking introduction to the genuinely perilous finale, sew both plots together.
What lacks is backstory. The prologue tells the audience where exactly we are but the new mutants are simply bodies for the plot to dispose of as and when it so chooses. Ian McKellen is shamefully underused and the charismatic and charming Peter Dinklage is given a character with little to no past.
To Singer’s defense, on the few occasions the film falters, he instills a witty one-liner. The gags are well timed and the humour is broad in its scope – no need for satire – and they succeed wholeheartedly. There’s a strange sense of glee watching James McAvoy f-ing and blinding his way through a superhero film.
As the film comes to a neat and fully satisfying conclusion, Singer throws in a few treats as to what the future will hold for both generations of the X-Men (as with all Marvel films, stay for the end of the credits). Very possibly the strongest, most compelling X-Men film to date, Days of Future Past rewrites history. No more will The Last Stand be canon. Brimming with confidence and a rightful ego, Singer brings harmony back to the X-Men. Now for the nightmare-ish wait for X-Men: Apocalypse.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Thomas Harris
Originally published May 13, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
