Xmen: Days of Future Past - The Review

Bryan Singer somewhat started the golden age of Super Heroes movies with his grounded take on the X-men back in 2000. Since then, movies from the genre, have followed this grounded format and those that don't, for example, Amazing Spiderman 2 gets panned by movie goers and critics alike.

Xmen: Days of Future Past was a potential banana peel due to its complex plot and crowded cast. It required the dexterity of a director of Singer's calibre to pull it off. 
And does he do so in flying colors.

Singer was able to combine the large number  of characters without alienating anyone and lets it all play like a sympony on screen. Complex time travel  storyline ? No problem. 

The interchanging of the Future and Past fighting scenes, was clearly and coherently done. 

Even those in the audience that are unfamiliar with property, will not feel lost.

The movie  ensembles a cast of Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Nicholas Hoult, Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. The story is written by Simon Kinberg, Matthew Vaughn, and Jane Goldman, with Kinberg writing the screenplay (Wikipedia). 

The acting was superb with notable performances from Fassbender and James McAvoy. Hugh Jackman put in a good shift as the Wolverine. It was refreshing to see a more articulate Wolverine than the usual angry Wolverine which we have grown accustomed to watching. Peter Dinklage was clearly unused as a villain and it was obvious, he was merely a plot device. Which is surprising that he left the Games of Thrones to play such a minor character. Jennifer Lawrence once again struggles to put up an inspiring performance as Mystique as least one that could equal what audiences have come to expect from Rebecca Romijn. 

(Spoiler Alert)

The movie starts in the distant future,with the Sentinel assault on the X-men refuge. 

After annihilating almost all of them. The X-men had found a way to go a few days back in time to warn themselves of an impending Sentinel invasion. Since they could go a few days back why not decades back before the sentinels were ever made. Mystique's murder of Trask- the creator the Sentinel and her subsequent capture is the anchor in the timeline which Wolverine would be berth to. He will wake in his younger body and find Prof X. and Magneto who is imprisoned beneath the Pentagon. QuickSilver's speed comes in handy in Magneto's rescue mission which easily is  the high point of the movie. The dialogue between Fassender and McAvoy were intense and gripping. And when juxtaposed with the future interactions of McKellen's Magneto and Stewart's Xavier unravels the complexities of their relationship.

The continuity problems that were pervasive throughout the movie was all corrected at the end in one swoop as a new timeline was drawn  for newer Xmen movies.

The few negatives are the seemingly lack of originality in some of the scenes. For example, the climatic end scene where Magneto points guns at the president and his entourage is similar to  one in  the First Xmen movie. The Maximoff a.k.a QuickSliver's scene felt like a ripoff of The Matrix and there are other Plot holes which you can find here.

This movie is a very solid entry into the summer blockbuster calander and has everything you want to see in a summer movie. Be sure to stick around for the post-credit scene, for a glimpse of Apocalypse.

Rating : 9/10