X-Men: Days of Future Past (Part 1 of 2)

X-Men: Days of Future Past (Part 1 of 2)

Somehow, Singer gives us a streamline storyline that takes everything into account. Every X-Men movie does play into the storyline, but the story is just so damn good too. There are enough nods to the continuity to keep smiling. The movie not only has a good story, but a some great performances from both the old and new cast members. I always say that character and story develop should take importance over style. All this sums up to a great X-Men movie that feels like a true sequel to X2 and all around a great summer movie.

In the future, the mutants are rounded up and killed. Humans that side with them are also captured. The ones doing the capturing are the powerful Sentinels . Professor X and what is left of the X-Men send Wolverine back to the 70s to stop a branching point in history.

Since hearing that Bryan Singer would be taking over the directing duties, I was really looking forward to seeing Singer take on his franchise again, but this time with help from Matthew Vaughn . Clearly most of the background stuff in the 70s is all Vaughn while the rest of the writers handled the X-Men lore. And, the movie takes in the comic book and movie franchise lore. Singer does a subpeb job with editing the past and future elements together.

It truly feels like a shared universe of the various X-Men movies, which were done by different teams. Singer tries his best not to step on the toes of what came before. I'll get into the story elements in my second part of the review. I wanted to dive more into characters here.

Jennifer Lawrence has an extended role as Mystique.  Her character is the one that literally pulls the trigger on the terrible events that lead to the bad future.  Besides having an amazing body under that makeup, Lawrence is an great actor.  She is again conflicted on which side to trust, Professor X or Magneto.  Lawrence really shines. She conveys a lot of emotions in this movie, and she plays the central role.

The other role worth noting is James McAvoy’s version of Professor X.  This guy is defeated, yet is given a chance to walk again.  He is upset that Magneto and Mystique left him.  Heck, he even closes down his school due to Vietnam War. McAvoy plays well with Jackman and even brings back the funny cameo from First Class.

The breakout character that everyone will love is Quicksilver.  Evan Peters’ Quicksilver will make you smile.  He really loves his super speed and causing mayhem.  When we are introduced to him, we see that he steals all kinds of stuff due to his super power.  Peters take pleasure in teasing people with his power.  This is how you convey Quicksilver.  Let’s just say there is an impressive sequence involving his super powers that is just stunning and clever. We'll have to see Marvel's take on Quicksilver in the Avengers 2.

Ellen Page:  Looking much older, has an important role to play in the time travel.  I always thought she was a good choice from X-Men 3.  Juno is all grown up.

Omar Sy:  He plays Bishop.  He gives them the idea for time travel, but he’s not in the story much.  He will probably play a much bigger role in the next movie. 

Shawn Ashmore:  He returns as Iceman.  His effects are very cool.  They seemed to have aged him up a bit too like Page and that’s a nice touch. 

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart reprise their roles and they do a great job together.

Peter Dinklage : He's great as the villain (of sorts) of the piece and the branching point for the timeline.

The other thing that is worth noting is John Ottman composed the score. Ottman did a wonderful job with X2's score, so it is really nice to see him back on board for Singer's return movie. Because of Ottman's return to the franchise, we get the main theme from X2 making a powerful return. However, Ottman also added a brand new theme to the franchise called (Hope/Xavier). This theme is all over the score and it is nice somber piece. They even mix it into the end credits. I can hear the Zimmer influences in his newer themes, but it is still great to hear the old stuff mixed in with the new stuff.