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!
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.
