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Movie Review | X-Men: Days of Future Past

Bryan Singer gave us one of the best superhero movies (See The 4: Superhero Movies) ever with X2: X-Men United. Singer set in motion one the great stories in the X-Men saga with the Dark Phoenix and his visual spoiler of the familiar bird-like shape. Then Singer decided to leave the franchise to direct Superman Returns. We all know how that turned out. Singer bored us with his take on Superman, Brett Ratner ruined the Phoenix story and both Singer and the X-Men never really recovered. Now Singer is back with the franchise he started to take on the best and hardest story arc in X-Men lore. To save the future, our favorite mutants must go to the past to fight off extinction in Fox's X-Men: Days Of Future Past.

X-Men: Days of Future Past has Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) being sent to the past from the future by Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen) and the rest of the surviving gang from the original X-Men trilogy. The old gang's mission is to stop the Sentinels War from ever happening. The idea is for Wolverine to jump into his old body using the Hot Tub Time Machine theory and find the younger versions of Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from instigating the conflict that destroys the world. You still with me? Told you this story was a doozy, yet Singer keeps the story somewhat simple for someone who has no idea what adamantium is. Yes, there are major changes from the original comic, but not all stories translate to the big screen. The DNA from the comics are still present, it's just a watered down version that every ticket buyer can follow and not just comic book nerds like myself.

The time-jumping aspect from X-Men: Days Of Future Past is still very exciting with the creators having fun with history and introducing a new bunch of mutants. In the future we get an action packed opening scene with newcomers Blink, Warpath, Sunspot and Bishop fighting off the mutant killing robotic Sentinels. The star of the future quartet is definitely Blink (Bingbing Fan) with her portals that allow our heroes to jump from place to place, avoiding harm and gaining the advantage over their adversaries. The new team members don't get much character development, but they do get to show off their powers much to the audience's delight. The bleak future is a different and cool look at the X-Men universe, but the real fun in the film comes from the past in the form of one controversial character.

Quicksilver or Peter Maximoff as he is referred to, has been a source of great tension between Fox and Disney. A version of this character will also appear in next summer's Avengers: Age of Ultron and the mouse was none to pleased at Singer and Fox's decision to add this character to X-Men: Days Of Future Past. I can't imagine Disney's mood to improve because Even Peters steals the show as the fastest mutant on the planet. Peters is funny, cool and his actions scenes are the best parts of X-Men: Days Of Future Past. My only complaint towards the character was I wanted more of him, which is apparently what we will get in the next film X-Men: Apocalypse. Disney's version of Quicksilver now has a lot to live up to next summer.

Besides the lack of screen time for Evan Peters the other problem I would like to address is the story continuity in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. Yes, there are glaring plot holes in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. I thought the Professor jumped into another body? Why did the cure not work permanently on Magneto? Are we going to act like Wolverine: X-Men Origins never happened? I'm sure fanboys will complain about this, but shouldn't they be used to this by now with Fox toying with the sacred comic text or their film timelines. Get used to it X-Men fans and just treat this movie as its own X-Men story on film. Don't focus on what doesn't make sense from past films. Just sit back and enjoy a film where you get to see Hugh Jackman share scenes with both version of the Professor and Magneto. Enjoy Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique who is still trying to hold onto to her humanity before it slips away out of rage towards the people who fear her. Most importantly watch as we finally get to see Sentinel devastation on-screen.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past is a wild ride even with its broken timeline of characters. My advice would be don't focus on the parts of that back story from previous films that don't add up. Focus on a time traveling story where you get to see all your favorite X-Men battle it out for their lives and a future that may not be set. Bryan Singer is back home where he belongs at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and hopefully he can rebuild what Ratner destroyed. Also make sure to stay until the very end of X-Men: Days Of Future Past for a very nice Easter Egg.

Overall, I give X-Men: Days Of Future Past 3 out of 4 potatoes.

Follow me on Twitter @CW44CouchPotato and become a fan at facebook.com/CW44CouchPotato.

Read all my Movie Reviews here >>

 

 

 

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