Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) by Frederic C. B — 27 Apr 2015

The Good:

Amazing performances by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, especially in several slow and thoughtful moments. Hugh Jackman is relegated into a supporting cast, but still shines. The future sequence is a standout, due to various mutant abilities in display bringing impressive action sequences here and there.

The Not-so-Good:

The movie could never escape the glaring continuity issues happening throughout the X-men franchise. It's meant to be apocalyptic, yet feels claustrophobic and small instead. Confusing plot, and various flaws in logic occurs in various parts of the movie, making it hard to digest nor easy to understand. Too much deus ex machina stints happening here and there, the whole time-paradox isn't quite clear either. The over-importance of Mystique to the creation of future Sentinels is highly questionable, considering the nature of her abilities who can never copy another mutant's powerset and just pure cosmetic (unlike Rogue, who unfortunately gets cut off from the movie). The past sequence feels unbalanced compared to the future one, because the story focuses on a cast with smaller size. On the other hand, the future cast are severely underdeveloped and seems to exist for visual eyecatch only. Wonky and unconvincing CG special effects at several sequences, sort of ruins the momentum and never really brings the flow to its supposed climax. Uneven pacing, and the back and forth between era in the final arc doesn't gel together neatly. Audience with zero experience to the X-men franchise will definitely have trouble following who's who and what they can do, especially due to having different actors portraying same characters in different era. This will surely work better for devoted fans of the franchise.