Review: TheBlackNerd REVIEWS X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Hello there fellow Comic Book Movie family, many of you all may know that I've been raving about this summer's highly anticipated "X-Men: Days of Future Past" from director Bryan Singer and within this review of the film and my personal experience watching it I'd like to touch on things that I both liked and disliked (yeah you heard me right) about the film. Now, I don't want anyone thinking I'm going to give this film an automatic "5/5 stars" because I still have yet to see the perfect comic book movie. So with that being said, let's get going. BEWARE spoilers do follow... The Future 

Pros

The opening future scene was a pretty great introductory scene that introduced us to not only a visually catastrophic New York but the catastrophic stance of where the mutants stand in this war of Mutants vs. Machines. The endless bodies of deceased mutant corpses lets us fans and audience members know that this is an actual challenge for not just the X-Men but mutant kind as well. I have to be honest here and say that I wish I didn't watch that MTV special featuring a few of the future X-Men using their powers against the futuristic sentinels because it was truly a great introductory scene for those characters we already know and will come to know throughout the film. Although some of us fans may have had a difficult time getting past the looks of the futuristic sentinels I can't deny that they didn't hold off from doing what they were meant to do (if you know what I mean). There's quite a few Easter eggs in regards to specific mutants the futuristic sentinels have absorbed powers from that helps them take on the X-Men in this film as well. Even though the "costumes" weren't all spandex and colorful as few people were hoping they still wouldn't have aided the X-Men in battle, if anything the armored pads and etc served as being a more militant style. Yes Professor X is paralyzed below the waist but it would still make sense for him to have his legs covered in armor due to the fact that there ARE chances he could've possibly been severely wounded which would cause him to bleed to death. The futuristic scenes left you wanting to see more of just how many other mutants were out there taking refuge against the sentinels but sadly due to the time limit of the film we know that wouldn't be possible. However there is pretty beautiful/brutal death scenes that will make some "hardcore fans" happy and other fans of the franchise saddened from their losses. Although I won't say who I think it's best to keep in mind that this film won't hold back from showing you that these futuristic sentinels are no force to be reckoned with.

Cons

Just as I mentioned within the end of my Pros category was that the timing that we got to see the futuristic cast was so limited. (No, not like 30 seconds - 1 minute guys lol) but it was at least a good 3-5 minutes per scene. However I can say that we the little time they had for the majority of the future scenes they were pretty hard hitting for sure. -The next point I'd like to address was how we were sadly not able to discover just what "Storm's secret" (As Halle Berry mentioned earlier in the production of the film) was within the film. Perhaps this was her giving nods to hear pregnancy in real life without exactly being straight up about it or perhaps her pregnancy limited her from enduring this secret regarding her character. -Following Storm I would like to add that I was really hoping to see Wolverine get some one-on-one sentinel action in the future and most of all a quick explanation regarding the regaining of his Adamantium from Magneto. (Which Bryan Singer actually confirmed) a quick scene of Magneto attaching the Adamantium back to Wolverine's skeleton would've been a nice touch for any questionable fans who may have seen The Wolverine.

-I read in the Empire Magazine special or another Magazine article that have me more information about Bishop's character in Days of Future Past and within that article it was stated that Bishop was actually from the future outside of the current 2023 future that took place within the film. How he may have possibly gotten there remains a mystery (Forge perhaps?) but for right now I won't go too much further into that article until I've read it once again to give me proof of who may have written that statement regarding his character. -As for Rogue I remembered that she had a scene that had to be cut from the film due to the limited time they were given. I feel that when watching these futuristic scenes we must keep in mind that there are going to be some scenes that will make it to the director’s cut for this film.

-Details in regards to Patrick Stewarts return was said to be addressed but so far we’ve been left with the You’re not the only one with gifts. line from 2013’s (The Wolverine). The Past

I think that Singer did a great job capturing the essence of the 70's. For a kid that grew up in the 90's I always enjoy seeing different takes on years before my era. From Television sets featuring vintage filtering, Twinkie boxes in Pietro Maximoff's basement, Mercedes Benz, Water Beds, Lava-lamps and even the wardrobe of the mass crowds of citizens just outside of the streets of Paris we can tell that the 70's are indeed one of Singer's favorite memorable experiences growing up as a kid. As an offspring of two Washingtonians I really enjoyed seeing the 70's RFK stadium being masterfully lifted up by Magneto as well. I also enjoyed the giant nob mechanism Hank Mccoy used during the Magneto pentagon breakout scene as well. I don't think it would be respectful for me to list cons of the 70s era seeing that (of course) I'm not a product from that era so if there's anything else anyone didn't find amusing about how that era was portrayed within the film feel free to comment your concerns below.

"The Future Cast: Old Faces" Pros

Now when Singer mentioned at SDCC last year that this would be the largest cast of mutants ever featured within an X-Men film he wasn't lying. Some people may be disappointed with the portrayal of some of the futuristic mutants but because of the fact that the film takes place in the midst of the futuristic War of the Sentinels and mutants it's a bit hard to ask for that much depth from the newer mutants background stories and history before they came to be where they are when we meet them for the first time in the film.

-As usual you are always guaranteed to get a satisfying portrayal of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart portraying the older versions of Professor X and Magneto. We can tell that within this film they have honestly placed their differences aside for a better cause. They carry that same maturity from the previous X-Men films here but in a more morally connected sense of fashion and you can tell from the first scene when the X-Jet lands that they are still close as they are scenes entering the scene.together.

-Kitty Pryde is most certainly seen as being more mature than the last time we encountered her character in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. She knows the duty that she's been given in regards to sending those back in time to consistently rewrite the chances of their fate against the army of sentinels.

-You can tell that there has been a lot of character growth from Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine from 2000's X-Men to the current state we find him in now within Days of Future Past. I found it a bit funny how he still nonchalantly smokes his trademark cigars even within circumstances such as these. His new costume really looks great just as everyone else's and it's amuck better sight to look at from the tiresome leather outfits from the previous trilogy.

-Halle Berry's Storm does have a stronger presence within this film as we do get a chance to see her take command of the newer futuristic mutants by telling them to hold their stance as they prepare to take on an army of futuristic sentinels.

-Daniel Cudmore's Colossus is still the brawler we slightly had the chance of seeing within X3. He really does have some pretty great face offs with specific sentinels throughout the limited duration of futuristic scenes.

-As for Shawn Ashmore's Iceman it is also great to finally see him less involved in the teen romantic drama and become more involved in action and dominant stances over his duty to protect Kitty, Professor X, Magneto and Wolverine. Cons

-Colossus brought in the action but just as Warpath and Sunspot his dialogue was severely brief. If we ever get to see an introduction or the return of the character in any future installments I hope to hear more from the guy. Especially seeing that he’s Russian it would be beautiful to hear that solid accent for once. However most of the mutants within these films have been Americanized which isn’t really a big problem but it does take away the essence of the team being diverse in culture aside from race/ethnicity.

"The Future Cast: New Faces" Pros

Moving on, I'd like to address Bishop and his gang of mutant refuges. We can see that they all have a very unique way of acting as a team rather than clumsy "one by one" stand offs against the sentinel armies. Bishop does indeed bring in the colorful action as he uses his energy absorbing powers to power his handy futuristic rifle weapon. It's possible that because of Omar Sy's accent that they didn't have that many lines for him in the film but when it comes to him going against the sentinels he doesn't hold back one bit.

-Fan Bingbing's Blink is a new and familiar character for fans who are mostly familiar from her presence in the Age of Apocalypse story arc. Her powers are very similar to those of hers in the comic as we do get to see her use her handy portals that play a huge role in regards to the different battle strategies used to take out the sentinels one by one. You can tell that even within this timeline these mutants have become pretty familiar with how specific strategies work to take out the menacing sentinels.

-Adam Canto’s role as sunspot was more action packed than verbal. Watching Canto using his flames to take out sentinels was pretty cool. It was also pretty cool to see him actually get some air action by flying to take on majority of the sentinels as well. Rarely in any of the X-Men do we get the chance to see any mutants do any severe flying so it was a pleasure to see something’s finally taking off -literally. -Booboo Stewart’s Warpath character does come off as being a strong hearted individual as we do get that cool close up shot of him heavily breathing/yelling as he takes on a sentinel with his two daggers. Cons

-Warpath could’ve used more action sequences especially seeing that he can fly. He also would’ve benefitted from more dialogue as well. -Sunspot brought in all the action but his dialogue like Warpath was like a needle in a haystack. We needed to hear more from these mutants even if it was a simple “On your left!” (pun intended)

“Past Cast: Old Faces” Pros

Professor X: James McAvoy’s performance as Young Xavier was truly the standout performance for me within this film. Kinberg and Singer expressed ideas how this was more of Xavier’s story and boy were they right. We find a young Xavier crippled and severely addicted to a serum Beast has created to help reconstruct his DNA which in effect allows him to walk. McAvoy’s offensive verbal usage and body language just gives off the feeling that this man is NOT the same individual we once met in 2011’s “X-Men: First Class”. He joked about how he and Stewart resembled each other due to their toucan noses but in all honesty they do resemble each other from their physical features to their accents within the film and for those reasons alone make his performance as a young Xavier totally believable. Even in the ending when we find Wolverine in a fixed future we can draw comparisons from McAvoy’s sly humor of Xavier to Stewart’s when Wolverine converses with him in his office.

-Michael Fassbender’s return as Magneto truly shows us all just how masterful this mutant is when it comes to Magnetism. I can see that Fassbender has worked on his heavy German accent we heard in X-Men: First Class (though I for one loved it) It seems as if he’s aiming towards capturing the dialect of Ian Mckellen’s Magneto as well. The “Freezing Airplane” scene involving his first conversation with Xavier in years was truly emotional and showed just how dominant his characteristics are.

The “Hunt for Mystique in Paris” and “RFK Stadium Showdown” scenes not only showed how fascinating and dark Eric’s powers were but they also showed us how brutal his mind works seeing just how far he’ll go to stop incidents for a greater cause even if it does draw forth drastic consequences. I’m really hoping to see more character growth for Fassbender within 2016’s upcoming X-Men Apocalypse, for he is an astonishing actor for the portrayal of Magneto but physically and mentally.

-Jennifer Lawrence’s role as Mystique didn’t hold back not one bit from how motivated her character was within the comics to complete her assassination. It seems that she has not only changed from her mental mindset (teased at the end of First Class) but she has also become a superior fighter and challenging opponent as well. Although Mystique’s role in this film may have felt a little sinister there’s no denying that the essence of her compassion for mutant kind didn’t help play out as being the gateway for her actions. The military mutant breakout scene at Stryker’s military base was a very great scene that showcased how destined she was to keep her fellow mutants out of Stryker’s hands and back home where they belonged. We can tell that her motives have strongly changed for the better however her actions are darker and brutal than ever. You get the sense that she was/is indeed destined to aim close to Rebecca Romijn’s portrayal of Mystique from the previous X-Men trilogy. It’s going to be interesting seeing how far she’ll come in Apocalypse when her son Nightcrawler finally makes his debut in the past timeline.

-Evan Peters performance for many fans has been the highlight moment of the entire film. His outfit becomes the last thought in your mind after the hilarious and entertaining kitchen scene at the pentagon that showcases just what it would be like to be in the shoes of this fast mutant. Although the dialogue between him and Magneto is cut short it serves as being very significant and obvious acknowledgment to the questions surrounding Quicksilver being an offspring of Magneto within the film. As Kinberg has mentioned, we’ve practically explored the love life of Charles Xavier in X-Men First Class but it’s also fun to explore the love life of Magneto as well. Seeing how intrigued Peter was during Magneto’s speech from the Whitehouse we can most likely assure ourselves that Peters will indeed be under Magneto’s command within the sequel.

-Nicolaus Hoult’s return as Xavier’s only remaining partner “Hank McCoy/Beast” showcases how different he balances the role of being Hank and Beast. While he’s Hank you can’t help but to get the feeling of how harmless and compassionate the guy is. But when he Beasts out in the film you actually feel proud of the fact that he’s not holding it back. There have been numerous comparisons towards Singer’s Beast to the Incredible Hulk himself but you still get the sense that although he’s this brutal menacing creature he does use logic and rage as one to complete the majority of his tasks. He’s not a mindless giant roaming around destroying things/people in his path. There’s a balance that lets you know Hank is still there. Although he doesn’t share a relationship as powerful with Xavier as Xavier does with characters like Magneto and Mystique you can easily tell that he’s one of the only remaining individuals that have helped Xavier remain sane in a sense.

-Although Hugh Jackman’s past Wolverine is the exact same as the future version of his character (due to the conscious time traveling) it’s very exciting to see his first action sequence as soon as he awakens within the past. Many fans feared that Wolverine would become a central piece within DoFP however as Kinberg has mentioned, he plays more of a coach rather than the main player. The scene between him and Charles just within Cerebro showcases just how less ruthless and impatient his character has become over all these years. Hugh brings in the physicality just as much as the mentality of Wolverine in this latest inbetewequel and does it at his best for sure. -Lucas Till return as Havok sees that he has been one of the many mutants that sadly had to be enlisted into the Vietnam War. Although the total amount of screen time he has is equivalent to up to two minutes we are left with the thought of him returning home. This still leaves many questions surrounding his character. Could we possibly see his character return in X-Men: Apocalypse under control of Sinister or Apocalypse himself? I guess in due time we’ll see.

-Josh Helman’s take on the young William Stryker was pretty amusing. Although he was originally cast as a young Juggernaut for the Magneto breakout scene it seems as though he still managed to do the role justice in portraying the very mysterious militant figure. I loved the scene when he quickly glimpses at Wolverine’s claws before running away in Paris. It leaves a bit of mystery surrounding the chances of him luring Wolverine into the Weapon X program once again.

-Lastly and most certainly not least Peter Dinkladge seems to bring the intelligent sly sense of Bolivar Trask to life. Although I may have heard many chuckles surrounding his size in the film I can assure you that by time the suspense built up surrounding his mutant tracker they knew he wasn’t a force to be reckoned with. In the beginning when you get to know the dark history surrounding his character you wouldn’t mind him being assassinated seeing that he was responsible for the deaths surrounding many mutants (Banshee, Azazel, Emma Frost and Angel) however after learning about the horrific future his assassination could cause you begin to have feelings that perhaps it’s best that his character would be saved for the greater good of mutant kind. Cons

I honestly don’t have any problems with the way that the future cast was handled within this film. However I was really anticipating on seeing Xavier go bald after Cerebro malfunctioned when Charles used it the first time in years. It would’ve been a great introductory towards seeing his character finally donning that traditional look.

Sentinels Past

I feel that the Past Sentinels looked great and functioned very well when it came down to them doing what they were made to do. I was yearning to hear the sentinels say their classic phare “HAULT MUTANT!” however seeing that they were the first models it’s possible that an upgrade such as those wouldn’t be present until the later years. I also honestly wished that we could’ve seen more of the past sentinels in action but after thinking about it, the main goal was to prevent the sentinel program from ever being established. Although the mutants in the past were successfully able to stop the assassination thus stopping the sentinel program from ever taking place it’s very possible that we can see humanity have second thoughts about them once Apocalypse (the first mutant of mutant kind) makes his appearance and causes major chaos. Is it possible that we can see Sentinels and Mutants working alongside one another just as they did within the Age of Apocalypse comic book story arc?

Future

The future Sentinels were most certainly successful towards being menacing and succeeding in their tasks to eliminate and destroy each one of their targeted mutants. You actually felt like as if there was a real threat amongst the mutant race besides another mutant. However I must say that I was deeply disappointed to see that these sentinels didn’t do some of the main features I read about them doing prior to the film’s release. I did not see these sentinels “shrink” in small condensed areas. Nor did I see them increase their height when taking on bigger threats or just simply proving to be more dominant over the mutants. I also did not see any of them combine with one another to form even bigger sentinels. After seeing that none of the sentinels did this in duos I figured that perhaps maybe they all would’ve combined to form a version of Master Mold which would have been very promising to fans everywhere. It was also disappointing to see that none of the Sentinels were programmed to speak even after all those 50 years of upgrades. But aside from those slight letdowns and issues I still think that they helped showcase the giant threat that the mutants were facing and why it severely needed to be stopped. SUM

X-Men: Days of Future Past will indeed go down in the franchise’s history as being a major game changer for not only its visual sequences, character portrayals and conflicts revolving around the story but the sake of its own continuity and beloved characters that many fans have long awaited to see appear again on the big screen. With absolutely strong performances given by both the future and past cast members within the film they help delude us from some of the minor plot issues and details we may have missed within our first viewings. With a few missing plot point and details that may possibly be released as bonus scenes within the upcoming Blu-Ray /DVD release it’s a bit hard to judge Bryan Singer’s latest X-Men flick crucially seeing that there are obvious key scenes that were left out due to the same issue our fellow mutants suffered from within this film…time. You’re highly guaranteed to have a fun time if you’re deciding on seeing Bryan Singer’s latest X-Men flick. With great action scenes, powerful performances and an overall moral and theme you’ll leave out of the theater feeling as if you have in every way a strong hold over your future for the better.

Rating

8/10