Movie review: ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ is an uncanny redemption

In the years since director Bryan Singer (“The usual Suspects”, “Apt Pupil”) first unleashed Marvel’s merry mutants on the big screen with 2000’s “X-Men,” the franchise about a band of heroes hated and feared by the society they seek to protect has had its share of ups and downs. Quaint as that film may look now when compared to current releases, it was nevertheless instrumental in kicking off the modern cinematic superhero boom.

After a spectacular first sequel (“X-2: X-Men United”) that upped the stakes on characters and events established in the first film, “X-Men 3: The Last Stand” ran the series into the ground when Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”) took over directorial duties from Singer, who had dropped out at the last minute to helm “Superman Returns”. A disastrous spinoff starring Wolverine followed, but it wasn’t until Matthew Vaughn’s (“Kick-Ass”) prequel, “X-Men First Class”, that the mutants were able to regain some of their lost dignity. A generally competent sequel to Wolverine’s spinoff, set after the events of “The Last Stand”, was released last year, but it didn’t achieve anywhere near the box office figures reached by the series in its heyday.

Flash forward to 2014, and we have “Days of Future Past”, which combines characters (and casts) old and new to bring to life one of the most beloved stories in X-Men canon. Occupying the director’s chair for what has been touted as the biggest Marvel movie ever (that isn’t called “The Avengers”) is Bryan Singer, himself hungry for a hit after the tepidly-received “Jack the Giant Slayer”. Given all the inconsistencies, muddled timelines and outright contradictions that six films made by filmmakers of differing agendas brought to the table, it’s no exaggeration to say that Singer had his work cut out for him.

The film opens in the year 2023, when mutant-hunting robots called Sentinels have reduced the X-Men’s ranks to that of a few survivors, including best-friends-turned-adversaries-turned-allies Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) and Magneto (Ian McKellen, “The Lord of the Rings”), looking none the worse for wear after the former died and the latter lost his powers in “The Last Stand”. The pair embark on a desperate plan to send Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman, “Les Miserables”) consciousness back in time into his younger body in order to prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games”) from carrying out an assassination. The victim-to-be is Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”), a US military scientist developing the Sentinels. Apparently, Trask’s murder in 1973 set off a chain of events that lead to Richard Nixon (of course) fully supporting the Sentinel program that threatens to wipe out the mutants in the future. Aiding the time-displaced Wolverine are the 1973 incarnations of Xavier (James McAvoy, “Atonement”) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”).

Given the plethora of unique characters in play across the film’s multiple timelines, it is a credit to Singer that he manages to weave the different plot threads together in a way that, for the most part, rarely feels convoluted or cluttered. Also benefiting from Singer’s return are a number of innovative action beats, including a sequence that sees Fassbender’s Magneto dropping an entire sports stadium on the White House lawn, expertly punctuated by a number of character moments that surprised at how effective they were at conveying the stakes.  

Despite Wolverine occupying a majority of the screentime (as always), there is a distinct sense of nostalgia that comes with having secondary characters like Storm (Halle Berry, “Monster’s Ball”), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), and Colossus (Daniel Cudmore, “Twilight”), played by the same people who brought them to life all those years ago. Indeed, their inclusion goes quite a ways towards legitimizing the continuity between their adventures and those of (relative) newcomers McAvoy and Fassbender, who reprise their bang-up interpretations of Xavier and Magneto from “First Class,” without resorting to the indignity of impersonation or mimicry.

Of the new mutants, Evan Peters’ (“American Horror Story”) Quicksilver, a young man gifted with super speed, is a standout. While we’ll have to wait until next year’s “The Avengers 2” to see how Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s portrayal of the silver-haired speedster compares, the on-screen depiction of his powers here is beyond reproach, rivaling Nightcrawler’s introduction in “X-2.”

Admittedly, for as many sins that “Days of Future Past” goes a long ways towards correcting, it does pose questions that future films will (hopefully) address. At any rate, there is no denying that Fox has upped the ante on these films in a way that make Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” attempts at worldbuilding appear laughable in comparison.

Packed with assorted super-powered dust-ups and more mutants than you can shake a stick at, Bryan Singer has accomplished here a feat that, short of a full reboot, was once thought to be impossible: redeem the series he helped create. — VC, GMA News


'X-Men: Days of Future Past' is now showing in cinemas.