Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) by Chris O — 03 Apr 2018

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" is a much more grounded, well-balanced installment for Fox.

The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. The beloved characters from the original "X-Men" film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from the past, "X-Men: First Class," in order to change a major historical event and fight in an epic battle that could save our future.

Coming off "X-Men: First Class", this was certainly an entirely different shift. Having already watched it once and continually watching the brutal fight scenes over and over, I finally got to sit down and re-watch the whole thing again. And while it wasn't as good as I remember it being, it's still a really solid, fun, and dark superhero film that we don't get to see too often these days.

One thing that's fantastic about this film is just the sheer brutality and darkness of this movie. This, along with the future release of "Logan", are both examples of superhero films that are a lot more dark and brutal, but are still really fun. The fight scenes in this film looked beautiful but they were simultaneously so terrifying. The action was absolutely brutal and they didn't hold back on much. I thought that they really took advantage of the time-travel plot here, allowing them to push the limits of character fates and what they could do with them. I thought that was easily one of the best aspects of this film and it stands out from a lot of superhero films.

Another thing that was good but I'm still conflicted about was the story. I thought the story was really interesting and thought out here but it really throws a kink in the entire universe. What this film essentially does is it makes almost every other X-Men film non-canon. That's pretty crazy and a curious decision if I say so myself. I mean, some things stay relatively the same but for the most part, the story changes things forever. And that's the thing with time travel. Time travel is so interesting but it creates so many different holes and questions. However, for the most part, I actually thought that they did a pretty good with their execution here and the story was still really captivating.

I guess the thing I was mostly questionable on was making Magneto one of the prime villains. I understand based on his character and mindset that he would become a prime antagonist in this film, but it felt like more an annoyance than a benefit for us. When I say benefit, I guess I mean entertaining or sensible. Either way, I thought his portrayal of his character, along with everyone else's portrayal, were all really solid. Everyone, from James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, and everyone else, were all fantastic. It was cool to see two different periods of X-Men (Past and Present versions) on the screen at the same time. It was really fun and these are some of the best performances I've seen from some of these people in the entire franchise.

In the end, this was certainly a fun and dark film. It's one of the better X-Men films in the franchise, if not the second best entirely.