Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) by Derek R — 17 Jul 2015

In the future, robots known as Sentinels are exterminating mutants and their human allies. A band of mutants evades the Sentinels with the help of Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), who has the ability to send a person's consciousness into the past. Pryde's group convenes with Logan (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), and Erik Lehnsherr (Ian McKellen) at a monastery in China. Pryde sends Logan's consciousness 50 years back in time to 1973 to prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), creator of the Sentinels. Following the assassination, Mystique was captured, and her DNA was used by Trask's company to improve the Sentinels, whose ability to adapt to any mutant power makes them almost invincible. Xavier and Lehnsherr advise Logan to find both of their younger selves for help. At the X-Mansion in 1973, Logan encounters Xavier (James McAvoy) and Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult). Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters has closed after most of the teachers and students were drafted to the Vietnam War. Xavier, a broken man, has been overusing a serum that allows him to walk but suppresses his telepathy. Logan explains his mission and persuades Xavier to help free Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) from a prison cell beneath the Pentagon, where he is being held for allegedly assassinating President John F. Kennedy. They rescue Lehnsherr with the help of Peter Maximoff, a mutant with super speed. In Washington D.C., Trask unsuccessfully tries to sway Congress to gain support for his Sentinel program. Meanwhile, in Saigon, Mystique prevents William Stryker from appropriating a group of mutant G.I.s for Trask's research. Mystique investigates Trask's office and discovers he has been capturing mutants to use for his experiments. Xavier, Lehnsherr, McCoy, and Logan fly to Paris to intercept Mystique, who is impersonating a North Vietnamese general to infiltrate the Paris Peace Accords. There, Trask attempts to sell his Sentinel technology to Communist nations. Xavier's group arrives as Mystique is about to kill Trask. Lehnsherr tries to kill Mystique to ensure her DNA cannot be used for the Sentinels, but she jumps from a window. The fight spills onto the street in view of the public, allowing Erik and Mystique to escape. Trask is saved, but the world is horrified by the existence of mutants. President Richard Nixon approves Trask's Sentinel program and arranges an unveiling ceremony. Trask's scientists recover Mystique's blood from the street. Meanwhile, Lehnsherr-who has recovered his telepathy-blocking helmet-intercepts the prototype Sentinels in transit and laces their polymer-based frames with steel, allowing him to control them. At the mansion, Xavier stops taking his serum and slowly regains his mental powers, while losing the ability to walk. Through Logan, Xavier speaks to his future self and is inspired to work for peace between humans and mutants once again. He uses Cerebro to track Mystique, who is heading to Washington D.C...

When Matthew Vaughn was going to direct, he was going to make the film a direct sequel to X-Men: First Class (2011) and have it set in the 1970s. Early ideas included an opening with the Kennedy assassination being caused by Magneto, and mutant encounters set in the Civil rights movement/the Vietnam War. When Singer took over, he integrated these concepts into a viral marketing campaign to set up the action of the film. In this alternate history, Magneto is arrested and imprisoned for the assassination of Kennedy, but maintains his innocence. The "Bent Bullet" Theory (a reference to the real life "Magic Bullet" Theory criticized by conspiracy theorists) holds that the Warren Commission determined that Magneto manipulated Lee Harvey Oswald's bullets to kill the President in retribution for the murder of the mutants Azazel and Tempest (from X-Men: First Class (2011), though in the film Tempest was codenamed Angel) by the CIA. Conspiracy theorists, based on Magneto's testimony, insist however that Magneto had tried to prevent the murder of Kennedy, and that the true shooter was not Oswald, but Mystique in disguise who, with the help of Emma Frost (also from "First Class") framed Magneto, and manipulated Jack Ruby into later murdering Oswald. The theory also posits that Mystique offered to double as Kennedy in an attempt to grab power, all of which backfired horribly, leading to anti-mutant hostilities. However, Matthew Vaughn decided to decline to direct do "X-Men - Days of Future Past" and direct "Kingsman: The Secret Service" instead. Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films and a producer, was hired to direct. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph rated the film two stars out of five and called the plot "a curate's egg, thoroughly scrambled". He concluded, "The film squanders both of its casts, reeling from one fumbled set-piece to the next. It seems to have been constructed in a stupor, and you watch in a daze of future past." I personally loved "X-Men: First Class" and thought that the fresh "reboot" of the X-Men series was truly intriguing and in good hands with Matthew Vaughn after Singer had handed over the torch. And great casting in Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. Exit Vaughn and enter Singer again and in my book a way poorer result within the series. The foundation of the storyline of "X-Men - Days of Future Past" is good, but there´s too much deadtime and less exciting X-men scenes. Singer bombs away with action, but fumbles with the story and simply don´t manage to excite me at least. I don´t think Jennifer Lawrence is that convincing as Mystique and that bogs down the movie as she has a lot of screen time here. There´s two great scenes in the film and that is the Lehnsherr escape scene with Quicksilver and the end scene when Lehnsherr has cut off the White House with a football stadium. The rest is just add ons and I don´t like all the wishy washy scenes in the future with all sorts of new X-Men characters that simply aren´t of my liking. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are still great as Professor X and Magneto, but they can´t carry all the weight of the film on their shoulders. "X-Men - Days of Future Past" is not what I hoped for and I felt disappointed. Singer will continue with another one for 2016 and I don´t have high hopes.