X-Men: Days of Future Past - Review

X-Men: Days of Future Past is the sequel to 2011’s X-Men: First Class as well as being Bryan Singers first film back after X2 and the first film that truly links all of the X-Men films we have seen so far together (except X-Men Origins: Wolverine which I think we can all agree will not be missed). Days of Future Past rights the wrongs of past films and sets up the rest of the series excellently whilst generating new problems of its own.

Days of Future Past’s story is a little complicated due to the inclusion of a rather strange form of time travel (more on that later). If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to pay very close attention whilst watching a film, you might want to make an exception for this one. The film is split between two time periods each with its own cast of actors. The majority of the time is spent in 1973 and follows the cast of X-Men: First Class; the rest of the time is spent in the not too distant future and follows the cast of the original X-men trilogy. Overall, I enjoyed the main plot of the film despite its complicated nature, and whilst I felt that a few casting choices weren’t so great, the acting was of a pretty high standard too.

The main focus of the film was on the young Charles Xavier trying to find a “better path” as the film put it. James McAvoy’s performance as Xavier was perhaps the strongest in the film. His tale of regaining his former self and righting his wrongs in order to become the Xavier as portrayed by Patrick Stewart was enduring and often quite emotional. This is an area that the X-Men series succeeds in where other superhero franchises fail; it tells compelling human stories, that other films (… Man of Steel) neglect in return for extra long action sequences that often detract from the overall experience.

(Left to right) Beast, Professor X, Wolverine

The other central roles in Days of Future Past are Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), with some being more successful than others. Fassbender does an excellent job of channelling a younger version of Ian McKellen, especially in the way that he speaks as well as in the way he portrays the character. This is an improvement on his performance in First Class in which Magneto didn’t seem all that much more than a really angry guy. As usual, Hugh Jackman plays a great Wolverine. It really seems at this point that there isn’t anyone else who can play the character as Jackman has been doing a consistently good job for the last fourteen years. As the only character that interacts with both casts in the film, it’s nice to see that he reacts as Wolverine would in both situations.

Jennifer Lawrence also plays an important role in the film as Mystique. I liked the direction the writers went with her character in the film, but I didn’t feel that Lawrence really fit in with that direction nor did she seem comfortable during action sequences (perhaps Mystique’s lack of clothing was responsible for this). Peter Dinklage plays Bolivar Trask, creator of the mutant hunting robots – the sentinels. As expected Dinklage played Trask very well, however, he wasn’t given enough screen time to be a particularly memorable villain, which I felt was rather a waste of his talent as an actor. Evan Peters’ Quicksilver had a similar problem. His scenes were among the most enjoyable in the film; the issue was that there were only three of them. I’m glad they included these scenes as I often found myself laughing aloud when Quicksilver was on screen. Perhaps they could have exchanged some of Beast’s screen time for more Quicksilver as I felt that Nicholas Hoult’s Beast was a little unnecessary and only served the purpose of keeping Xavier company and inventing convenient bits of tech to advance the plot.

The scenes in the future contained most of the film’s action sequences (though the 1973 bits had their fare share) all of which were incredibly satisfying and did a good job of showcasing the powers of the mutants. Whilst none of these characters had much of a presence within the story - aside from Stewart’s Xavier, McKellen’s Magneto and Kitty Pride (Ellen Page) – they were a welcome addition and provided nostalgia and some enjoyable scenes.

Old and new young guys

Singer took this opportunity to repair the broken continuity of Fox’s X-Men­ cinematic universe as well as set up for future films. The ending of the film left things at a point where the series can go quite a few different ways which on one hand I like because it means that the plot of future films and their subsequent twists will be a surprise. However it leaves the series in a position where new films will either have to be super complicated / long in order to accommodate multiple story lines, or they’ll just release a lot more films which seems more likely.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a successful launch pad for Fox’s new cinematic universe whilst still managing to be a very enjoyable film in its own right. Despite its few minor problems Days of Future Past is well worth watching and leaves me very excited for X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016.

8.8/10