X-Men: Days of
Future Past (2014):
Written by Simon Kinberg, directed by Brian Singer. Starring:
Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry,
Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, and Patrick
Stewart. Running Time: 131 minutes.
Based on “Days of Future Past” by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
Rating: 3/4
Although I can understand why Brian
Singer’s original X-Men movies are
not considered truly great, even within the comics/superhero genre, I have had
a soft spot in my heart for them ever since I was a kid. Why this is, I can’t specifically say, but a
lot of it has to do with my fascination with the X-Men world itself, a huge,
open-air playground where the basic idea of mutation allows you to put nearly
any idea you can think of into practice.
I also like how, although we have had a slew of comics-inspired and
costumed hero movies that have inundated theaters over the past 10-15 years,
Singer’s X-Men series still has a
unique look and feel to it, even if has largely come in darker hues . Maybe they are not the best that the
superhero genre has to offer us, but neither are they checklist rip-offs of
other, better films.
Because of my longstanding affection
for this franchise, Days of Future Past
was, despite more than a few story hiccups, an excellent summer nostalgia
vehicle, successfully functioning as this franchise’s version of Star Trek: Generations. We start off with the survivors of the
original cast, along with a few added characters, fighting a losing battle
against the Sentinels, a massive army of AI robot warriors originally designed to
hunt down and eliminate mutants.
However, as the programming grew, the Sentinels developed the ability to
sense not only mutants, but also those with the genetic potential to either
become one OR to eventually have descendants with mutative ability, meaning
that their target list expanded to also include, well, most of humanity. It’s your standard, all-is-lost, nightmare,
dystopian future, but it’s made bearable by the presence of Ian McKellen as
Eric, or “Magneto,” and Patrick Stewart as Charles, aka “Professor Xavier,”
whose tragic bromance is still one of the best character bits in any comic book
movie yet made.
They eventually agree that the only
hope lies in sending back Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, still able to sell the role that
he will actually be too old to play one day, for reals) in order to convince
the younger Xavier and Eric (played by the newer First Class cast) to put aside their differences to stop the
younger Mystique from killing a Nixonian weapons designer, played by Peter
Dinklage. Said designer was the original
creator of the Sentinels, but it’s his assassination, and Mystique’s subsequent
capture, that really kicks the program into high gear and results in it taking
the form that allows the Sentinels to destroy the world. He is sent back via Kitty’s newfound ability
(and the movie’s worst liberty with the source material) to send people back in
time and hold their consciousness there, with instructions as to where he will
find Charles and Eric’s younger selves.
The real problem with this being the
hinge upon which the entire story turns is that the time-traveling trick is
something that Kitty has never had in any of the earlier films, and an
explanation as to how she suddenly has this ability is never forthcoming. From what I understand, she does have a power
related to time traveling (of a sort) in the comics, but even that sounds
significantly different from what we get here.
There are worse twists out there, but it is all the more noticeable for
being a glaring exception to Singer’s otherwise well-done effort to make this
movie fit seamlessly with the first 3 films of the X-Men franchise. Thankfully,
there are no other significant distractions in that department that broke up my
ability to enjoy the experience of watching the movie, although one of the
newer mutants brought in for a key jailbreak is criminally underused.
Like with First Class, and, well, every other movie in this series so far,
the dramatic weight is carried solely by Eric, Charles, and Logan, and is, once
again, both a strength and a weakness.
It’s a strength in that Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender,
James McAvoy, and Hugh Jackman can sell their roles like nobody’s business, and
they all play off each other expertly. A
brief encounter between past and future Charles (decide for yourself if it’s “real”)
is spine tingling, along with a number of other references to minor characters
and plot details that, in some spots, are actually very clever throwbacks to
the beginning of the now decade-and-a-half old franchise.
It is a weakness, however, in that
Singer’s continued fixation on those three characters, along with a few others like Rogue and Iceman, has
constrained and restricted the vibrant and varied world of the X-Men to a tiny
number of mostly male (and more often than not, white) cast members, something
that in many respects goes against the very idea underlying the entire
franchise, that of diversity and inclusivity.
As with most of the other films in the series, this lack of that
selfsame color and variance does not keep this film from being good, but like
with the others, it does keep it from being great. In many ways, my thoughts on X-Men mirror those I had in my review
last year of Star Trek: Into Darkness,
in that these are both franchises trying to make films out of concepts and
characters that have always and will always work best in a serial setting, be
it comics, TV shows, or a miniseries. With
this new entry, the X-Men world has
the same number of movies backing it that The
Avengers does, also a franchise only now starting to feature some real
diversity in its cast.
I don’t want that critique to
discourage people from seeing it, even fans of the comics- as with most of the
X-Men movies, there are some great actions bits and some creative use of the
character’s powers (although again, Hugh Jackman is much more underused here
than in the past). Nicholas Hoult still
makes a great Beast, making me wish this guy had had a bigger role in movies 1
and 2 and really hoping he sticks around for the next one. Jennifer Lawrence is…..present…..as Mystique-
not bad, but lacking the brutal villainous chutzpah of Rebecca Romijn, who I
know realize is one of my favorite casting choices out of all the films. I’m still hoping that we haven’t completely
overestimated Jennifer Lawrence’s acting abilities, but the girl really does
need to do herself a favor and find some roles that fit her style better than X-Men, Hunger Games, and anything David Russell’s crack visions can offer
her.
So, in the end, I suppose I would
recommend the movie for the simple experience of seeing it, especially if you
long for a good visual throwback to the originals. It’s not nearly as inventive as Edge of
Tomorrow, but on the other hand, it’s not the waste of money that seeing
Transformers would be.
-Noah
Franc
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