X-men: Days of Future Past

Everybody loves Marvel Movies, and by that I mean Marvel Studios movies. Iron Man, Avengers, Captain America, they are huge movies and almost like a event when a new one comes out. Fox studios however doesn't quite have the best track record. The x-men films in general don't have a great record either. The Wolverine solo films, X-3, even First Class was rather poorly received. So for X fans, Days of Future Past was a big deal. It was a chance for them to win some of the fans back, and try to compete with Marvel Studios offerings. However the franchise has been left in shambles before this movie came out. Most of the X-roster was killed in X-3. Seeing as this movie takes place both before and after that, it became a huge issue. Was the movie able to overcome those issues, and give the fans the film they have been waiting years for? Well sadly, I find that a hard question to answer. Fans of the comics will be split, but those who never read it might be as well. This is not a action movie, and while it does work off of a strong story, it might be slower then most people expect. Fox sets a very different tone then the fun fast paced movies Marvel is putting out. I worry people will go into it expecting it to be something it is not. Early on they said this movie would accept the early 3 x-men films as cannon. However it did seem to pick and choose which parts of those movies it wanted to use and which parts it didn't. Go into this just assuming X-X3 never happened, or you may just be confused by certain things.

It was neat seeing how much better of a movie they could make, when they actually decided to draw influence from a great established story instead of simply making up their own. Days of Future Past is a story line published in 81, that has been revisited multiple times since then. I don't think it would be considered a iconic x-men story, but it is a very well known one. And one that seems to pop up in every form of entertainment the x-men take. The most recent x-men cartoon pretty much devoted its its final few episodes to it. So for the movie to tackle it is a big deal. In the comic, Kitty Pride is sent back in time. The Sentinels are hunting mutants down and placing them in camps. They have recently taken over America, and are now turning their attention worldwide. With fear of a nuclear holocaust, the x-men project Kitty's mind 30+ years into the past. Her mind takes over her younger self in the early 80's, and she is given a chance to stop a major event thought to cause that future. In the movies however, Kitty Pride is not really a established character. So they decided to do what they always do, and give the reigns to Wolverine instead. The future is roughly the same, camps and oppression. Wolverine is sent back instead, and returns to the 70's to try and unite a young Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr. (Prof X and Magneto) The actual story that takes place in the 70's is very different from the books, but it stands on its own. Mystique is going to kill Bolivar Trask who is trying to get the Sentinel project established and off the ground. Originally the US turns down his proposal, but when she kills him and is then captured, they decide to go ahead with it after all. Her DNA is used to create hybrid Sentinels with her shape shifting ability, which then can adapt to fight any mutant ability.

Magneto is a very unique character, and one that the movie does very well. He is a horrible person at this point in time, and the movie does not shy away from that. Logan (Wolverine) has to try and appeal to his love of mutant kind to get him on their side. While the movie does alter many characters greatly, Magneto stays true to his comic book self. It is why he is one of the stronger roles, they don't mess with a working formula. Charles however is the exact opposite. He has a drug problem, and he is lost. While I found it believable given his circumstances, it was in no way similar to the Charles from the books. In the movie he has given up his mutant powers for a drug that makes it so he can walk again. He does not seem to care about the mutants, and even when he joins Logan's cause, it is not to help his race. He has even shut down the school, and is no longer offering to help young mutants. While I did enjoy seeing this new Xavier, fans of his may not. Given the context of the story, I feel the changes worked well however. I also enjoyed the change from Mystique's target being from Robert Kelly to Bolivar Trask. Trask is played by Peter Dinklage, and while he never gets in stand out moments, he did a solid job none the less. Really everybody did a good job with their roles. I can't think of anybody I just didn't like or care for. Even the Quicksilver character that everybody seemed so down on before the movie came out. He was easily one of the more entertaining parts of the film.

The movie takes place in the 70's, and then 50 years later....so after some math....2020's? Each time has a different roster of active mutants, and different casts of characters. There is one scene where young Charles and old Charles have a conversation with each other. It was a really cool moment that was slightly ruined by the fact that they look nothing like each other. Unless James McAvoy gets some serious work done, he won't grow up to be Patrick Stewart. However seeing them balance the two teams was pretty neat. And the future team is filled with some new and old faces. Colossus, Kitty, Iceman, Storm, Magneto, Wolverine, Professor X from the original 3 X-men movies. While adding in fan favorites Blink, Bishop, Warpath, and Sunfire. By not really having to establish those characters, or even explain anything about them, they were able to just toss them into the mix. You are not told what they can do, but instead shown their powers in a opening sequence that really set the tone for the entire movie. The future sequences were some of my favorite parts of the film, mostly because of Blink. Her powers were very well handled, and the way then incorporated her Portals into the battles was very well thought out. Her powers actually had some of the better special effects in the movie.

Sadly special effects were both a strong point, and a weak one in this film. Certain mutant powers looked great. Blink and her portals were fantastic, but Colossus and his metal skin looked awful. It just looked like some sort of silver liquid was covering his body. Bishop absorbing energy and seeing it course through him looked very neat. Watching Mystique transform not so much. You get some great moments with Magneto lifting and throwing large objects like it is nothing. The future Sentinels look very cool and seeing them adapt and switch up powers was a visual treat. But then they follow it up with Iceman or Beast who just looks ridiculous when transformed. They did put Kelsey Grammer Beast in for a quick Cameo at one point, he looked so much better then the younger version. It was just odd how they could use CGI so poorly and so well in a single film. There was no consistency. One of the best scenes in the movie involved Quicksilver, a mutant who can run very fast. The entire scene was CGI and involved him basically freezing time and running around the walls while manipulating everything around him. It was incredible, and just made all the other CGI blunders look even worse in comparison.

The movie to me was more of a drama then action film. There were a few good action sequences, however most of the fighting took place in the future. With the majority of the film taking place in the past, most of it was more focused on telling a story. I think that worked well, and I found I really enjoyed the over all experience. The slower pace helped them focus on the different characters, and we are able to see some of them develop as time goes by. X-men: Days of future past is a very different film then other super hero movies out there right now. It may not be as good as Captain America 2, but it also feels like a very different type of film. It is however better then the more recent X-men films, and really that was all I wanted. While I do hope the next one focuses on something other then Wolverine, seeing as he does have his own franchise, he didn't deter from my enjoyment. Days of Future Past is a solid film, and with them announcing Apocalypse as the villain of the next movie, it does a great job of making you feel like maybe they can actually pull that off.