140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
As much as I would have preferred a straight sequel to First Class, this is a very solid & fun movie. Sigh of relief – wary of time travel.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past:
Another X-Men movie, another Wolverine love-fest. Oh well. If it wasn’t a deal-killer by now it never will be.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is based on another Claremont Classic (actually, Chris Claremont/John Byrne) from 1981. I find it interesting that Marvel has no compunction with mining their vast comic libraries for storylines when it comes time to make films – and why should they? It’s simply interesting that DC Comics takes an entirely different approach, scripting new stories for their films. Not saying one is better than the other, but it is almost certainly one of the reasons there are so many more Marvel movies.
I absolutely adored X-Men: First Class, and was digusted that they felt the need to go back to the well again with the original trilogy cast again after such a successful reboot. On top of that, time travel? Time travel is among the laziest of writer tools up there with cloning and mutation. Oh wait…
So I was beyond thrilled with how good Days of Future Past turned out. True, it swaps Kitty Pryde as a main character from the comic with Wolverine, and you all know by now how I feel about the Wolverine-obsession. (Side note: shouldn’t this insistence on putting the character in everything have a name by now, like Bronies? I’ve got it! Wolvere-runs? Wolveretread?) But it actually works best from a plot standpoint to have the dude with claws Wolvereturn to the past.
The idea is that in the future the mutants are getting wiped out by Sentinels, robots that can morph and adapt basically in any way that will best kill the mutants. So they can take on mutant powers. The fact that this is patently absurd and poor science doesn’t matter – because they are so cool! Great effects.
Unfortunately, for reasons that aren’t satisfactorily explained, the Sentinels are killing people too, and the world has been ravaged (for reasons that aren’t satisfactorily explained). So the remaining mutants, including the once-again BFFs Magneto & Professor X, hole up in a temple in China to make their last stand while Kitty projects Wolverine’s consciousness back in time where he will solicit the help of the younger versions of these characters (the cast from First Class) in order to stop the event that set history on this path.
Let me state now, lest I go too far and pick apart this movie that I loved it. It was exciting and funny and a really good time. I have a bunch of questions about it and there were a number of things that I thought were simply sloppy time-travel type stuff, but I really don’t want to get bogged down in it. Comic books are full to the brim of fuzzy logic and questionable plot elements, but it doesn’t stop them from being fun, and so I really just went with the flow on this one. There’s more than enough great stuff to make you overlook a few implausible ideas.
The acting is absolutely top shelf. I’m overjoyed that they spend most of their Days in the Past not the Future. It’s far more interesting, the actors are better and it’s simply fresher. Seeing Halle Berry et al saunter on screen was a drag at the beginning of the movie. There is nothing more to tell there. The past storylines are so much richer. Spending First Class in the 60’s and now Future Past in the 70’s, I’m spoiling nothing by assuming that the Apocalypse storyline of the next film will be set in the 1980’s. And that’s fantastic. The 70’s setting makes this film really interesting and provides a great playground for the writers.
The new characters are wonderful: Peter Dinklage is his usual amazing self as Bolivar Trask, inventor of the Sentinels. The movie is very nearly stolen – no, make that definitely stolen – by Evan Peters as Quicksilver. His scenes have to be the most enjoyable in the whole picture, although I retain a real fondness for Nicholas Hoult’s Beast. There are a bunch of new to film mutants shown in the future, but they’ll mean more to comic fans than newcomers and I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun, anyway.
As with First Class, though, the movie really belongs to James McAvoy & Michael Fassbender as Charles & Eric, respectively. The relationship between these two characters is even more intriguing in this film, and McAvoy in particular shines.
Days of Future Past is a well-written and better-executed film, a high-water mark for comic movies. You probably already know this, as this review is a touch on the late side, but if you haven’t gotten to it, make time. It looks great on the big screen, where it belongs.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
The Representation Test Score: C (5 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Patrick Stewart Professor X, Ian McKellen Magneto, Hugh Jackman Logan/Wolverine, James McAvoy Charles Xavier |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Release Date | Fri 23 May 2014 UTC |
| Director | Bryan Singer |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi |
| Plot | 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. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 131 |
| Tagline | His past. Our future. |
| Writers | Simon Kinberg (screenplay), Jane Goldman (story) … |
| Year | 2014 |
