X-Men: Days of Future Past Review

Ever since The Avengers made all of the money two summers ago, every other studio with rights to a superhero property has been trying desperately to catch up, whether it’s rushing reboots into production to keep the rights from falling into Marvel’s hands or figuring any movie that does well can be the foundation for an Avengers sized franchise.  The results have been iffy: The Amazing Spider-Man was unnecessary and forgettable (and apparently the sequel wasn’t much better) and the more I hear about Batman V Superman, the more I’m convinced it’ll be the film that’ll burst the superhero movie bubble.  However, Fox is the only one doing it right with their treatment of X-Men.  X-Men made some pretty lousy movies (Last Stand & Origins: Wolverine) to keep the rights, but ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe started gaining traction, the X-Men series has stepped up their game.  X-Men: First Class was the type of relaunch any franchise owner dreams of: while the prequel format could’ve easily just been a reboot, they decided there was enough good from the previous films (namely the first two) that they could build upon it.  While I would still love to see some type of collaboration with Marvel Studios and Fox, I am OK with them keeping the rights, so long as they continue to make films like First Class and its latest, Days of Future Past.

Days of Future Past, arguably the most famous X-Men story, is the perfect story to mine for inspiration.  It ties the original trilogy cast, stuck in a dystopian future where they are being hunted down, to the new series, as Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, the constant between the two casts) is sent back in time to stop this darkest timeline from ever beginning.  Specifically, he has to stop the assassination of an anti-mutant scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the inventor of robotic mutant hunters the Sentinels, by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), who has gone rogue after Magneto (Michael Fassbender) was detained.  Needless to say, Magneto isn’t detained for long and both sides race against time to change the future, albeit directed by their different philosophies.  On top of that, Wolverine is working on a deadline: he has to avert this dark timeline before the sentinels (in 2024) arrive and take out the surviving X-Men.

As you can imagine, DOFP is ambitious because it is so risky: they have two large ensembles, a complicated timeline & the rules of time travel and they have to update us on what the First Class crew have been doing in the decade since their first movie.  Luckily the source story is so short.  It could’ve easily failed under the tremendous weight, but manages to be breezy fun, in part of knowing what to emphasize.  While the original cast serves as a framework, it is more a film continuation of First Class.  Unfortunately they run into the problem of trying to cram so many characters into a movie, like Mystique’s arc is a little underserved (perhaps a result of how far Lawrence’s star power has risen since the first film) and I would’ve loved to see more between Xavier and Magneto, whose relationship has always been the X-Men series’ most compelling story.  However, it never becomes a significant problem.  Not to mention having Jackman as the top billed and ostensibly the main character helps: 14 years on and he is still fun to watch.

As much as this film is about averting a disastrous future, it is also about a broken man finding his purpose again.  When Wolverine finds Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) in the 70s he is a broken man: a man who saw his ambitious dreams crumble.  He’s getting loaded on a drug that allows him to walk, but at the expense of his telepathy.  Unlike the usual hero’s journey many comic book films employ, prequels give us a chance of seeing the modern day elder statesman as one plagued by many of the same doubts his future students will grapple with.  However, unlike Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels, we see Xavier on journey bouncing back from his disappointment.  While I wanted to see a little more between Xavier and Magneto, as their long, complicated history is the richest element of this world, seeing Xavier get his mojo back was satisfying.

After the disappointment of Godzilla and skipping Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past feels like the real beginning of the summer movie season.  Although it isn’t as good as First Class, it pulled off a difficult arc and shows the prequel’s quality wasn’t an accident and like everyone else, they are setting up plans for the next one in this film.  Certainly I would love to see Wolverine pop up in an Avengers movie (like just about anyone), but if Marvel can’t have the rights, I’m OK with Fox keeping it.  There’s no need for them to catch up: they’re already there.  All they have to do now is maintain it.

Grade: B+

Miscellaneous (SPOILER ALERT!)

-I don’t want to get into the scandal director Bryan Singer is involved in (the whole art from the artist is a can of worms), but I wonder how it will affect the series going forward.

-As for the question who is the better Quicksilver (the character is the only one so far in both non-Marvel and Marvel films not counting the possible Scarlet Witch cameo in this film), Fox is off to a promising start with Evan Peters.  The “Time In a Bottle” sequence was a high point.  Like many people I had issues with Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Godzilla, but maybe with Joss Whedon’s touch he could be a formidable version.

-I guess one of the selling points Fox has with their properties is they go a little further content wise.  Marvel’s movies are generally mild PG-13, knowing full well a good chunk of the audience is under 13.  DOFP has more swearing (including the one PG-13 f-word PG-13 movies can use), the violence is a little more graphic and I think this is the first PG-13 comic book movie with nudity in it.

-It was kind of nice to have all those excessive characters from the first one bumped off in between movies.  I guess Emma Frost had to go because her planet needed her (and she subsequently died on her voyage back).

-So Anna Paquin is on screen for like 10 seconds, has no lines, and gets billed above Ellen Page.

-Magneto and Xavier must be in their 90s in the darkest timeline portion.

-The timeline for this, needless to say, is pretty confusing.  Besides whatever they retconned from The Last Stand and Origins (before Wolverine seemingly retconned the whole thing), I’m not sure where The Wolverine, and it’s mid credits scene, stand in the chronology.  I’m sure someone is creating a fun video detailing the timeline.

-I don’t think the post-credit scene, which features a young Apocalypse single handedly building a pyramid and being worshiped as a god, is going to resonate much with casual filmgoers.  Certainly he is powerful, but we also saw Magneto lift an entire football stadium and drop it over The White House.

-To be honest, I bumped up the grade because it more or less means The Last Stand & Origins: Wolverine are no longer canon.  Even if this is the swan song of the original cast, I’m OK with it.  It’s hard not to read this film as an apology for those two other films.