X-Men: Days of Future Past: SPOILER Post

WARNING!!!

The following post contains spoilers for the film ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. If you have not seen the film yet, please refer to my spoiler-free review of the film (link provided below) because I will be addressing key moments within the film. Continue at your own risk!

Spoiler-Free Review: (http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2014/05/x-men-days-of-future-past-2014-review.html)

Like with pretty much every superhero film that comes out nowadays, there is quite a lot to talk about in regards to ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ that I just couldn’t talk about in a non-spoiler review… and I really mean it. Before I started writing this, I made a list of all of the points that I wanted to talk about in this post and there were at least 8 different elements of the film that I had listed that I wanted to talk about. So in that case, let’s not waste any time. Let’s delve further into what is no doubt the most anticipated film of the year for many people and why wouldn’t it be being that it’s an adaptation of an iconic ‘X-Men’ storyline, directed by the man who helmed the first two X-Men films (again like my previous review, I’m ignoring the allegations made against him because they don’t matter here), and stars a big ensemble cast of actors/actresses from both the original X-Men trilogy and the film ‘X-Men: First Class’ plus a few new additions as well. And at the end of the day, this film really delivers. Yes, ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ is not only one of the best X-Men films to date, possibly even the best, but easily one of the best films of this year so far.

So of course, this film features a big ensemble cast but at the end of the day, it mainly focuses on four characters; Wolverine, being that he’s the one who goes back in time to try and set things right, and the ‘First Class’ iterations of Professor X, Magneto, and Mystique. But the good thing here is that Wolverine doesn’t overshadow the other three which I’m aware is what some people were worried about and I can see why because Wolverine has basically been the main character of the film franchise since the beginning (he’s literally been in every film). Now, that’s not entirely a bad thing as Hugh Jackman has been fantastic in the role but in the original trilogy of films, he did overshadow some other members of the cast, most notably James Marsden as Cyclops. Here, his role in the film is handled very well while still serving as one of the main characters; Jackman of course is excellent again but he’s not the ‘main’ character in this film. Instead, he lets James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence lead the film. Plus, I have to say it is sort of funny how in a case like this where the X-Men of the future send someone back in time so that they can convince their younger selves to stop the dark future from happening, they end up sending the one member of the group who’s probably the least diplomatic out of all of them. Still, it fits well into the story considering that Wolverine, being the one who can heal himself, is the only one who could possibly survive going back many decades in time.

But of this cast, the biggest standout of the entire group would have to be James McAvoy as Xavier. In ‘X-Men: First Class’ the standout was easily Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Not only did he really channel Ian McKellen’s performance in the original X-Men trilogy through his own performance in that film, but it can be argued that ‘First Class’ was pretty much Magneto’s film as a lot of the story did revolve around him. Days of Future Past, on the other hand, is easily Xavier’s film. What I really love about both this film and ‘First Class’ is that this younger Xavier isn’t the Xavier from the original trilogy just yet. In ‘First Class’, he was a bit of a playboy before he ended up getting paralyzed and in ‘Days of Future Past’ it’s clear that everything that happened during the climax of the previous film has really hit him hard because he’s lost so much in the years since the whole Cuban Missile Crisis incident. He’s lost his best friend (Magneto), his foster sister (Mystique), and the use of his legs after a bullet deflected by Magneto ended up hitting him in his spine. However, in this film, we learn that because of a serum developed by Hank McCoy (Beast), he’s now able to walk again but he no longer has his telepathic powers. This, along with the closure of his school for gifted youngsters (partially due to the Vietnam War) has led to him giving up on his dream of humans and mutants living in harmony.

The writing for Xavier in this film is just fantastic as is McAvoy’s performance in the role. This Xavier has become a broken man after all that had happened to him in the previous film, meaning that he needs some guidance in order to get his life back on track and McAvoy perfectly captures the bitterness and frustration that the young Xavier is experiencing throughout this film. This film really shows the growth of Xavier as he slowly becomes the Xavier that we remembered from the previous trilogy. Speaking of which, let’s talk about that great scene between the Xavier of the past and the Xavier of the present/future (the latter of course being played by Patrick Stewart). This was just an excellent moment, mostly because the filmmakers weren’t trying to revel in the fact that they were able to get both Xaviers on screen together. It’s an effective character moment for the young Xavier as his future self inspires him to ‘hope again’ and this scene uses both the young and future Xaviers to great effect. Of course, as I said in my original review, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are sort of just making cameos in this film, but regardless it was still great to see to these legends back in these roles once again. After all, this might actually be ‘the’ last time we’ll be seeing these two in these movies. We don’t know if that’s true yet, but if that ends up being the case, then I believe that they both went out on a very good note.

So while this movie is more focused on Xavier than Magneto this time, Michael Fassbender is of course excellent once again in the role. Heck, Magneto has his own qualms against Xavier for not being there to help him protect their fellow mutants. It’s revealed through some dialogue and some documents that Mystique comes across in Bolivar Trask’s office that pretty much every other mutant from ‘First Class’ aside from Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Beast, and Havok (who makes a brief appearance in the scene where Mystique infiltrates a military camp in Vietnam) was killed, some of them through ‘Project Wideawake’, a military operation led by Trask, so this of course is keeping in line with Magneto’s views that humans are the enemy and this does help give a lot of contrast to his relationship with Xavier as he accuses him of failing their fellow mutants. Also excellent here is Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique; in fact, even better than in ‘First Class’. Here, we see her starting to become more like the Mystique from the original trilogy (as portrayed by Rebecca Romjin) in terms of her ‘cold-blooded killer’ nature. But at the same time, while her new outlook has certainly been influenced by her joining Magneto at the end of ‘First Class’, she’s still torn between the bitter views on humanity of Magneto and the compassionate/optimistic outlook on the future that Xavier has.

So seeing how this film mainly focuses on Wolverine, Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique, that means that most of the other members of the cast don’t get much to do by comparison. Probably the one who gets the most to do out of all of them is Nicholas Hoult as Beast (on that note, the makeup for him as Beast is much better here than it was in ‘First Class’) but even then he’s mainly just there to assist Xavier and Wolverine. As I said in the review, there’s also not really a definitive villain; Bolivar Trask is mostly just a side character. Still, that shouldn’t be held against this movie as Trask is in the film enough and of course Peter Dinklage is excellent as he usually is. Despite all of this, this is not that much of a problem because A.) The film does focus on the right characters, B.) Every member of the cast serves their purpose to the story well and C.) There actually isn’t any weak link in the cast. This is probably the first X-Men film where everyone in the cast is terrific. Unfortunately, some of the other X-Men movies, despite having really good casts, have each had their own ‘weak link’ in its cast, like January Jones in ‘X-Men: First Class’ or Svetlana Khodchenkova in ‘The Wolverine’. Here though, every member of the cast does a good job, even if some of them are only on screen for like a few minutes or so.

But an even greater aspect about this film in regards to its ensemble cast, which really help the action sequences in this movie stand out even more, is how it handles what can very much be referred to as the crucial dynamic of the ‘X-Men’ franchise; teamwork. Now most of the action sequences in this movie occur in the future and it is there where you really get to see the X-Men working together as a team. This whole team dynamic is done better here than in any of the other X-Men films that came before this one. And on that note, the action sequences in this film are terrific, especially the one at the end, which is easily the best climax out of any X-Men film as we cut back and forth between the past and the future as Wolverine, Xavier, and Beast look to stop Mystique and Magneto in 1973 while the X-Men of the future try to prevent the Sentinels from finding Kitty Pryde and Wolverine so that Kitty can keep Wolverine’s mind in the past long enough for him to complete his mission; otherwise, the future will stay the same and nothing will have been changed because of it. As noted before Wolverine goes back in time, this is pretty much the last chance they have in ending this war before it ever began so as a result, the final action sequence here is just fantastic in pretty much every aspect (pacing, cinematography, music, etc…).

Though easily one of the best moments in the entire film is the sequence with Quicksilver (Evan Peters) when he helps Wolverine, Xavier, and Beast break Magneto out of prison. You really have to feel bad for Peters considering all of the flak he got before this film came out. First, a lot of people were complaining about his character’s costume once it was first revealed and then he appeared in a Carl’s Jr ad which probably got even more negative attention, though I’ll admit that I’m not too certain as to why this ad in particular was ‘that bad’ (now the one with Mystique… that one I get but Quicksilver’s? Not really…). Of course, all of those complaints ultimately became pointless because the character was well-executed in the film. Peters really captures the character’s fun-loving but also occasionally pain in the ass personality and the scene where he’s running through the Pentagon preventing the guards from firing at Xavier, Magneto, and Wolverine is both fun and funny at the same time (he gives one guard a wedgie, he has another guard punch himself in the face, and this is all while he has headphones on and listening to Jim Croce’s ‘Time in a Bottle’… and that’s not even listing everything that happens during this scene). Heck, he even alludes to who his father may be when he mentions to Magneto that his mother ‘knew someone who could move metal (hint hint). It’s like the Hulk in ‘The Avengers’… Quicksilver’s not in the film that much but his scenes are so great that we’re left begging for more.

Now of course, one of the big things about this film is how it alters the timeline so much that certain events from ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ and ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ never occurred. In other words, the filmmakers were looking to fix the many problems that plagued both films in terms of the series’ timeline and in short, they do succeed here. In regards to erasing the events of ‘X3’, that occurs at the end of the film. After Wolverine returns to the future after his mission is over, he awakens back in Xavier’s school and finds that all of the other X-Men (including Storm, Beast, and Xavier) are all alive, and that also includes Jean Grey and Cyclops (both Famke Janssen and James Marsden reprise their roles here), who had both died in ‘The Last Stand’. As for ignoring ‘Origins’, that occurs at the very end of the film before the credits start rolling. Back in 1973, during the climax sequence in Washington, Magneto had impaled Wolverine with metal and thrown him into the Potomac River. He’s then recovered from the river by William Stryker (Josh Helman; on that note, the first scene between the two is very well-done as Wolverine initially starts to suffer some emotional turmoil when he (more specifically his future conscious) remembers what will happen between him and Stryker years later) who is then revealed to be Mystique in disguise. How this will affect Wolverine in the future is unclear but this can definitely be seen as an effort to negate the events of that film, just like the filmmakers had did just a few moments earlier in regards to ‘X3’.

Finally, let’s talk about the post-credits scene that is intended to set up the main villain for the next film; Apocalypse. Now, this scene is sort of similar to the post-credits scene with Thanos in ‘The Avengers’ in that you might have to read up on who this character is otherwise you might not realize who he is at first, though of course unlike ‘The Avengers’ it’s already been confirmed beforehand that the next film is going to be ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ (set for a 2016 release) but one of my friends pointed out that the person featured in this post-credits scene doesn’t really look like Apocalypse from the comics (to quote him directly, he said that he looked like ‘some blue skinned 20 something in a robe’). Now, writer/producer Simon Kinberg has confirmed that an older actor will portray the character in the next film so we’ll just have to wait and see who will get cast in that role. Plus, comic book fans will no doubt note two things about this scene; that Apocalypse’s followers are calling him by his birth name (‘En Sabah Nur’) and that his servants, the Four Horsemen, are seen watching him from afar. And on that note, considering that Gambit is going to appear in the next film, maybe he’s one of them. Again, we’ll see how that turns out.