Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) by Indiana J — 23 Dec 2015

This review is being written in the past. You may end up reading this in 20 years. Hopefully, not because X-Men Days of Future Past is considered a classic but because humor never dies. Where to begin to talk about this movie is the question. Have you seen X-Men before? It's all the same right. (dodges level 5 lightning bolts from hardcore nerd fans). What makes this film different or attempts to be different is the idea that time is just....You've seen Back to The Future right? Combine that with the X-Men universe and you get this film. Minus Doc Brown sadly.

The movie takes some contractually obligated actors from the prior franchise films and some newcomers that nobody has any interest in and throws them in the middle of this movie. For the first part of it you are trying to catch up. You will be sitting in the theater thinking things like, What happened in Xmen 3? Is that now not real. Who is this white blonde hair kid? Why can the lady throw purple portals? What's up with the gun with the red eyes? And a whole host of other things.

Even the on-screen presence of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Patrick Stewart as Prof. X and Ian McKellen seem to be confused as why they are there. The last two hardly make a motion outside of the initial room they are in at the start of the movie. What a dream for an actor. In what amounts to spending only a few pages of dialog with the best actors. Just feels bland. They even seem sad or maybe they are trying to be in character. It's just sad watching them. They've done their part for king and country let them go make art films or act in theater plays. Maybe Patrick Stewart can re-boot a worthy Star Trek series again. Something that will help humanity more than another slugfest of a comic book movie. Nobody wants to watch these anymore.

At this point one can't comment on how well or poorly the movie is done. It's simply a matter of comparing it to the prior films. It's certainly more enjoyable and tries to have some heart that many of the other recent films have not. It does not have that sled being pulled of having to be an origin story. But we've come so far as an audience past those origins that this is what we are left with. A tale so generic and predictable that no right minded comic book editor would give it a green light not to mention being made into a film. It's such a bad movie that series hoarder of credits, Stan Lee refused to make a cameo in it. That's a tag line that should be on the poster.

It's enjoyable for a while. There are parts where you might cheer and other parts where you duck you heard in embarrassment. The high amount of dialog means this pop-corn movie is not very well buttered, so easy off on eating while watching it or you might miss some of the dialog because the action will leave you with a salty feeling in your mouth wanting more. O, so much more.

Its movies like these that make theaters show the warnings not to text during the movie.