X-Men: Days of Future Past

[Lara Mills]

I went to see X-Men: Days of Future Past last night and I have to say, I was actually really impressed. I think it is one of my favourite X-Men films to date, with nice little touches everywhere and the entire story wasn't given away in the trailer (unlike other films). I was pleasantly surprised by some of the characters, but did feel a bit let down by others. So, here's my review of the film.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead - Don't read unless you're okay with bits being spoiled

The story starts by showing us the future, with sentinels running rife around the world and a handful of X-Men and mutants left alive to battle them. There is hardly anyone left alive. This future pretty much all stems from Mystique going after Trask, who invented the sentinels, and killing him. This spurred the humans to take action against the mutants, and so they captured Mystique and used her DNA to create better sentinels - ones that can adapt to the mutant they are battling.

Luckily, Kitty Pryde is able to send the consciousness of some people back to their previous self, so they have their older mind in their younger body. Xavier wants to go back, but it might kill him because it is a long way back (50 years) that they are trying to send someone - so Wolverine is the logical choice.

He goes back to the 70's (cue the flares and hip trends). This bit is nice because Hugh Jackman ends up standing naked in front of a mirror - a nice surprise for me! Anyway, he has to convince young Xavier that he needs to find young Erik and then they have to convince young Mystique that she doesn't want to kill Trask. You think they'd just say to her "look, if you do this then it's going to make life really difficult for us in the future, so stop" and then everyone would listen.

But that would make a really boring movie, and in the end you aren't really sure who the villain is. Is it Trask? Is it Mystique? Is it Magneto? Mutants? Humans? I haven't figured out if I like the uncertainty or if it was just too lazy...

There were some actors that did disappoint me a bit. Trask (played by Peter Dinklage) didn't give his all. He's a great actor, but it seemed like just another day for him and his performance wasn't as strong as I feel it could have been. It felt more like he was there simply to tick a box, rather than to fill a vital role in the film.

One of the stand-out characters for me has to be Quicksilver, surprisingly. I saw the actor, I judged. I thought "this is going to be terrible" and then there was that scene after (big-ish spoiler here, highlight to read) breaking Erik out of the Pentagon prison, when they are trying to escape via the kitchen. The guards shoot, Erik begins to use his powers to save them, Wolverine starts to get his bone claws out, and then Quicksilver simply puts on his goggles, puts headphones in, and runs around the room, messing with the guards and moving the bullets. It's a really fun scene and I found it very enjoyable.

There are other scenes in the film which add little touches which are fantastic. Towards the end of the film, young Wolverine walks through a metal detector and stops, shocked that it hasn't gone off. This is before the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine so it's great to see that he is aware of metal detectors and their usual response to him.

However, there are some major parts left unanswered for me:

1) If this takes place after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, how is (spoilers for X-Men: The Last Stand, but if you haven't seen it yet then there's something wrong here) Xavier alive and in his own body? They don't even bother to explain that, which really bugs me. It's like they forgot to put that bit in and realised it would be too much effort to explain.

2) This takes place after the events of The Wolverine, so how (spoilers for The Wolverine. Highlight to view) does Logan still have his adamantium claws? It doesn't make sense to me. Can someone explain?

There are two parts of the film that I think we need to be aware of. They hint (for a brief moment) about (spoiler) The Scarlet Witch. She was hinted at in the end-credit scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier but she also appears in this film. There is a scene where Quicksilver is watching on TV the events at the White House and there is a young girl sitting on his lap. Is this her?. There is also the end-credit scene of this film, which shows you (spoiler) Apocalypse. Since the next film is called X-Men: Apocalypse, it is pretty much guaranteed that this will be our villain.

What did you think of the film?

[Davidontour]

I saw this last Thursday night with my daughter but due to a mix-up in the booking, we missed the first 15 minutes.

Nevertheless it was an absolutely superb film, particularly given that it's so far into the franchise when you might expect things to flag a little. It's a long time since I've been so impressed by a movie or left a cinema on such a high.

I found the battle with the invincible sentinels at the end quite disturbing, perhaps as an apocryphal affirmation of death itself. Definitely agree with you on the Quicksilver scene, which was worth the price of admission alone.

The 1973 culture references were well done (not that I could possibly remember any of them ahem) and Wolverine's bum -- well it was like looking in a mirror....

Absolutely no doubt there were anomalies and I do agree with the points you made Lara. I just decided to suspend disbelief and enjoy what was the best movie I've seen in a long time.

[Cassandra]

Word is retcon I think.
Just caught it yesterday, really surprised. My only gripe would be that there's a time and a place for super HD cameras and [insert film ie rant]
I was also pleasantly surprised by Quicksilver. He was great

The way I see it X1- X3 plus the two Wolverine movies now only exist for logan. As far as the rest are concerned his time travelling trip was a huge reset button for the entire Xverse :/

[beaner21]

the little girl you are referring to Lara is not Scarlet Witch. She would be the same age as Quicksilver as they are twins. the little girl is probably quicksilver's half-sister. cant remember her name but she is a mutant. oh and i think magneto might have had something to do with wolverine's claws, although thats just guesswork