X-Men: Days Of Future Past is getting great reviews by fans and is making a massive amount of cash at the Box Office. But I don't care about all that if I didn't like the movie. For example, I think Iron Man 3 was Green Lantern/Catwoman level of bad, but it went on to be the fifth highest grossing movie ever with great reviews. Fortunately for Bryan Singer's newest X-flick, this movie blew me away.
Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg along with the rest of the cast and crew managed to combine the massive cast into a movie that balences out each aspect perfectly. Unlike one other movie released earlier this year (it starts with "A" and ends with "mazing Spider-Man 2") they were able to take all of our favorite characters, and some newer ones, and make them all feel relevent. Even characters like Warpath and Blink that get the shorter end of the stick were used with enough screen-time to be recognized. I don't care that we didn't see them a lot, it's actually a good idea to have a lot of future characters because it makes the threat of the Sentinels seem much more serious, and it makes a bigger impact.
Speaking of the future characters, they had some great moments and was absolutely a huge highlight for me. A tear rolled down my cheek as I saw the cast of characters from the original series together again. It was just so emotional because these are the characters that I cared so much about because of Bryan Singer's first two X-flicks, especially X2. I finally felt that I could care about movie characters again, which is something I haven't realy felt very much lately. The X-Men finally returned to their roots with a truly emotional and tear-driven film.
As for the characters from the 70's, Singer's take on the characters that Vaughn introduced to us in 2011's X-Men: First Class was the key to this film's success. The characters felt so real that I could feel everything. For the first time ever, the relationship between Erik and Charles actually became really intriguing. I loved watching the way they made contact with each other, both in the future and past. Being Singer's third X-flick, I think he finally understands these characters well enough to make them truly enjoyable. It also really helps that McAvoy and Fassbender, and Stewart and McKellen in the future, are so close to each other that they can make these characters relatable. The casting in this movie is just phenomenal. They really connect off set, and that help this movie greatly. It doesn't feel scripted, it feels just so natural. Everything comes out with a sort passion with each actor that we don't see in very many movies anymore.
The action scenes in the movie are great, especially the ones in the future. The fight scenes both in the future and past can be compared only to some of the highest in comic book movie history. They are truly spectacular both visually, and are choerographed exceptionally. The time travel aspect of the movie is great, and it was clearly handled with respect to comic fans. Instead of rushing the time travel and making everything forced, they were able to make things work with a well paced story. The absence of all the missing cast members is adressed, and that only makes the movie run much smoother. Bolivar Trask in the movie is also a good villain, although he should have been used a little bit more to use Peter Dinklage's talent prominently. Also, having a lot of focus on Mystique has been a good idea. She has always been an interesting character with tons of backstory to cover, and First Class made her really relatable. She has been made much more interesting with this movie, and the talented Jennifer Lawrence delivers one of the best performances in the movie.
And that Quicksilver scene... oh my. I can't put in words how sorry I am to have hated him. I thought people were overreacting at how good he was in the movie, but that is not true. I thought the Nightcrawler attack on the white house was the best single mutant fight scene, but man was I wrong. The fact that he is returning for Apocalypse makes me so proud. Hopefully Fox gives him a bigger role than they did here. I was disapointed when he left. I hope Whedon can do it better, and if he manages, I'll have to give him a lot of credit. It will be so tough to beat.
But how does it stand in comparison to the other X-Men films? I thought it beat out First Class and The Wolverine, but I had to really think about if it's better than X2. I thought that X2 was better, but after thinking about it more, Days Of Future Past is probably the superior film. X2 is one of my favorite films of all time, so for it to be beaten by Bryan Singer's latest X-flick is an incredible compliment. I think that with the amazing First Class setting up the past part of the movie and the spectacular Wolverine setting up the future part, the X-Men franchise has reached its all time high with the new universe they are begining to set up.
Bryan Singer has managed to give us a near perfect X-flick with Days Of Future Past. Having worked on X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003) was great because it has given him the experience to fully understand the characters. The latest film in the X-Men franchise will leave you wanting more, much more, and will make you count down the days until X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016.
Following the complicated process of Abary's epic scale of movie grading, I give this movie:
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