Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) by Ben B — 14 Jun 2016

Days of Future Past stars the biggest ensemble cast for an X-Men movie to date, including past and present versions of characters like Magneto (Fassbender and McKellen) and Professor X (McAvoy and Stewart).

In the present, sentient robots are killing every mutant, and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, duh) is sent back in time to control his past self in order to warn the others of the future. As complex as this may seem, Singer does a good job of establishing this plot without making it incomprehensible.

Despite the overall plot, I see this as a personal movie for Charles Xavier's character through the eyes of Wolverine. When Wolverine finds Charles, he is a shell of his former self, defeated by the loss of his friends to either war or betrayal.

The only friend he has left is Beast (Hoult). Watching Charles' arc is the highlight of this movie as he battles himself and his relationships with Magneto and Raven. While not as compelling a film as the first installment in this trilogy, I found Days of Future Past to be quite enjoyable.

The entire cast does solid work, and there are some very memorable moments I won't spoil here that stand out among superhero film scenes. However, the movie does fall short in a few ways. With Singer, bigger is better, so there is a lot of unnecessary destruction in the final act that could have easily been left out.

Also, the "present" timeline at times feels like a superhero snuff film as we watch the same characters get killed off multiple times (you'll understand how when you watch the movie). These things didn't destroy the movie, but they definitely held it back from reaching the level of excellence made by First Class.

If you like these characters and the series, definitely check this one out!