Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) by Agarcia732 — 29 May 2014

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As with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men Days of Future Past is a turning point for the franchise. Make it or break it, go big or go home. Fox is heavily investing in this film to launch a number of spin-offs and sequels. This film is certainly ambitious: it's trying to fix all the continuity errors off the previous films, trying to bring back fans, and trying to make a bigger box office than the previous movies. Does it suceed?

Online, some have commented that the rights to the X-Men should go back to Marvel. After X-Men 3: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, many have lost faith in the franchise and the box office hasn't really improved, unfortunately. However, this movie redeems everyone and everything involved.

The director, Bryan Singer, manages to balance pretty well two large super-powered casts of mutants from two different time periods. Most of the characters get their moments and their share of screen time. Sure, characters like Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Bishop, Colossus, Quicksilver, Blink, Sunspot, Storm, Warpath, Havok, Toad and Ink (those last two names and their characters are funny) don't get more than a few lines, have only a few minutes of screen time, and often have to share the spotlight. However, they each have a purpose, however minimal it may be. Quicksilver is a great, funny, and entertaining character. His one action sequence was awesome, and I can't wait to see him return in X-Men Apocalypse. (Looks like DC's Flash and Disney's MCU Quicksilver have some competition!).

Some of these--admittedly underused--characters have scenes that reportedly will be on the DVD version, others have signed multiple-picture deals or will appear in later movies. So this won't be the last we'll see of them.

Some say Wolverine is in the X-Men movies too much. But the thing is he is the most recognizable, familiar, well-known, and arguably liked mutant of all the X-Men. In this movie, he isn't really the protagonist. Sure, he's the one that goes back in time. But here he gives the reins to a younger Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique. In DOFP, Wolverine is more wiser, a mentor to his own mentor from the past. James McAvoy does a great job of making Professor X more relatable as a person. In the original trilogy, he was a bit unreachable. He was always the one with the answers and the steady hands. Here, he has lost almost everything and is at a low point in his life. That makes him a more relatable character. Magneto is as menacing and misguided as always, and Michael Fassbender does a great job. J.Law as Mystique--I honestly feel she needed a bit more emotion. No offense Jennifer Lawrence. (Maybe playing Katniss Everdeen too much has affected her? Mostly though she did fine.).

Bolivar Trask is a morally grey character. He isn't a cardboard cutout villain, he's doing what he believes is necessary. He's a nice antagonist, and Peter Dinklage proves that height and size don't really matter when playing a role. Acting does. The Sentinels--I have mixed feelings about them. I guess the design could've been better. They weren't horrible in my opinion, but they weren't really good either. They were OK.

The plot is a complex one. Not really confusing, just complex. It's a story of misunderstandings, hatred, and vengeance. But it's also one of forgiveness, team-work, and hope against seemingly insurmountable odds. It isn't your average superhero movie story.

In my honest opinion, this is as good a team-up as The Avengers, if not better. The entire cast is great. The story is compelling and engaging. The CGI and special effects were great, even better than those displayed in the initial trailers and TV spots.