X-Men: Days of Future Past

At the risk of bringing nostalgia into this conversation, X-Men: Days of Future Past is the movie I dreamed about when I was five years old. It’s not necessarily this particular storyline, but it’s a comic book movie chock full of popular characters with cameos from additional familiar names, allusions to other moments in the expanded universe and, believe it or not, it’s a really strong movie too. DOFP has the team from the original X-Men films living in a future where mutant hunting sentinels have almost completely wiped them out. So to try and change this reality, they use Kitty Pride’s (Ellen Page) powers to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to try and stop an important assassination that set the world on this path. It sounds a bit confusing, but the script makes it easy to understand.

Not only is the cast list filled with the best of the previous films, these actors are an acclaimed, award winning bunch. Hugh Jackman leads the charge by appearing in both future and past timelines, but he doesn’t actually come across as the film’s main character. Maybe it’s because he’s had his own spin off Wolverine films, but this is essentially a Professor X story. This works since Sir Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy do such a great job adding depth to a character that could very easily come across as a priest-like moral stalwart. With current superstar Jennifer Lawrence, Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender also featuring prominently, the principle cast, which contains a ton more familiar names, is quite incredible. And to avoid spoilers, I won’t even get into the cameos!

The story for Days of Future past is strong. It’s clear this film was made with the intention of molding a super-franchise like The Avengers and also repairing some of the continuity hiccups created throughout seven films that had a number of different directors. Plus since the film is directed by X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer, let’s just say the elements erased from the timeline aren’t the ones from his projects. The X-Men are a fun group that diversifies the plot among characters better than any other comic book film. Would my thrilled yet hypothetical five year old self understand the time travelling paradoxical results of this movie? No, but I’d definitely think it was a lot of fun.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.