X-Men Days of Futures Past, Continuing thoughts on KingofNERD's Review

 

Now that Fox has started to make good movies again it doesn't look like Marvel Studios will be getting their property back just yet and this is the best movie so far this year imho.   This is because the best parts of this movie are not any of the mutants (and there were several fine portrayals here) but the story and the central theme and how the plot elements are handled.  No mass of CGI shit thrown on the screen for no reason here..  

 

First of all, this is the Best time travel movie in recent memory.  This type of plot device is just ripe for laziness and abuse of one's suspension of disbelief but here the premise is handled as credibly and consistently as possible and the way past and future events are interwoven is very well done with the last survivors holding out as best they can while the new past is created and unfolds.  One should start by knowing that the idea of time travel into the future is possible but into the past is basically impossible because of the way the physical universe works.  BUT, to transfer the MIND into the past which is not tied to matter and has no mass is a tantalizingly more likely possibility (fanfic-wise & otherwise.:P)   As a peripheral side note I also enjoyed the way they handled the whole JFK Assassination element and I'm happy with Singer's decision not to hang the whole thing on Magneto (as Matthew Vaughn supposedly wanted) but go with a continuing mystery of who the real forces behind it were (which might make for a good spinoff idea in itself..)

The only thing that the movie asks us to swallow is the idea that Logan, because of his regenerative powers, would make the best candidate to send into the past rather than someone like Charles Xavier who has the stronger mind.  However, the writers chose to focus on Wolverine as the story's point of view and to the credit of the writers this is The major contrivance.  Just buy into this one point and the rest of the story just flows along credibly with clever ideas thrown out here and there and I found myself totally invested in the characters, their world and the outcome of their choices as we follow him along right to the very end.  

 

Characters such as Charles, Erik and Raven behave with some complexity and depth and there is a shifting emphasis on who the main villain of the story is from Bolivar Trask to Mystique to Magneto and back to Trask again.  But then none of them are completely evil either, but they CAN be.  I really enjoyed the way they played Erik Lehnsherr as just this awesome force straight out of the comic books later in the film.  Nope, no pussy Magneto here.  In fact one thing we learn is his main failing is his utter ruthlessness to do whatever he considers right no matter the cost (or, in other words, Who he has to kill..)  Yet then he turns around and gives an impassioned plea for respect for his kind before he is about to initiate the series of events that will lead to our inevitable self destruction.    

 

Just from a cinematic standpoint I have to say that this has also go to be one of the very Best Franchise crossover movies (old generation to new generation, that is) I've ever seen as well which is a Really Big accomplishment.  The fact that they have actors such as James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender playing their versions of Charles and Erik along with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen and having it all succeed (and even Kick Ass!) is really great to see and it is really great how all the characters are given about the time they should have on screen to make their presences felt right through to the very end.   Though blood is used sparingly the brutality is still vivid.  Scenes of the sentinel rampages at the beginning and end of the movie or Mystique being dragged around by the bullet in her leg evoke genuine empathy for the characters.  The other really nice thing about this movie touched upon in KingofNERD's review is the Theme.  The centrality of hope.  Even when there seems to be no possibility for a future, having the hope that could provide enough of a possibility to create one.  The way the movie's plot follows through and concludes on this is handled really well and gives the movie a heart to go along with its brains.  Oh yeah, and my one complaint, what happened to the scene from the trailer between Logan and Raven where he goes, "The Mystique I know is a cold-hearted bitch"  and she goes, "Well don't hold back.."  I wanted to see that..  :(

    

So anyway..  Yeah, Fox, here's my $17.00. All I can say is I wish the first movie was this good.  Even if this were the only movie in the franchise it would deserve every bit the popularity that it has received thusfar and I look forward to see what the next installment may offer.