X-Men: Days of Future Past Movie Review

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These days, reboots have become de-rigueur in extending the longevity of a good movie franchise that has stalled or where the stars have gotten too old to play their roles.

However what if the there are desirable aspect of the previous episode that is worth retaining and yet you want a fresh perspective to drive the series forward in a new direction, that is not possible with the current storyline?

Enter time travel, the wonderful tool that allows one to reset the timeline, storyline and even resuscitate characters that have passed on or erase a story arc that the audience didn’t take too well.

So it begins somewhere in the future that the Mutants are in danger of being wiped out by a bunch of super robots called Sentinels, and you see Magneto and Prof X together, and the only way to prevent the extinction of the Mutants is to travel back and prevent the creation of these super Mutant destroyers. The only Mutant up for the task which is highly dangerous is of course our snarly Aussie, Hugh Jackman in the form of Wolverine.

So in the next two hours, you will see him travel back and meet the younger Magneto and Prof X, and also see some new faces, as well as get reacquainted with some old favorites.

The idea of putting many big stars, and superheroes together, whilst being able to give them time for character development is not easy. And don’t forget, this being a summer action blockbuster, that means you also need to sprinkle in plenty of booms and bangs in between the chit chat.

Sounds daunting? Well previous X Men efforts have not always gone well, and the second last outing was not the best, and even the two Wolverine standalone shows didn’t shine, although they also didn’t disappoint at the box office.

Joss Wheldon has shown with the Avengers that it is possible to have a big ensemble and still give time for character development and action. The key is a solid storyline, and focus, one at time, and if this goes well, the story won’t just be fillers between the action.

Bryan Singer has had a dip in form recently but he has come back on song and this movie certainly brings the shine back to the X Men franchise.

Wolverine plays a pivotal role, yet ironically, we don’t see a lot of Logan’s claws. Instead he does use more than his usual amount of acting chops and does a lot more than snarl and slash. Other standouts are James Mcavoy, as the younger Prof X, Jennifer Lawrence turning in yet another good outing as Raven and we also get some vignettes of exposure time for many others. Ellen Page doesn’t get enough show time to do much apart from sit down and electrify Wolverine’s head, and similarly Micheal Fassbender gets less air time than he deserves.

You get a good yarn, enough action to keep action fans happy, although it was not end to end stuff, and humor too, which kept the pace tight, and light whilst allowing for a few angst filled moments to slow the tempo down a little.

Chick factor was ok, and Fan Bing Bing will keep fans in China happy, and she worked hard to avoid just showing up to ensure that the show goes through in China.

BTW, one of the Mutants looked like a character from Tron, the chap with the black makeup around his eyes.

This will be a solid demo Blu Ray, as the surrounds were working well and there was copious chest thumping and ground shaking bass.  

The movie is recommended and I look forward to the disc too.

Story 4/5
Action 4/5

Watch it and buy it.
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I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.

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