X-Men: Days of Future Past

Bryan Singer returns to the X-Men franchise in full throttle with X-Men: Days of Future Past. In 1973, the murder of an anti-mutant Senator Trask (Peter Dinklage) by the shape-shifter Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) sets in motion the anti-mutant idealism that brought the sentinels into existence, causing the apocalyptic war between humans and mutants. Modern-day Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) send the claw-wielding Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973 to find their younger counterparts (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) end the war before it ever begins.

Other than some major continuity errors, this movie was practically flawless as far as X-Men movies go. Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy had excellent chemistry, like a franchise veteran teaming up with the rookie. Michael Fassbender brings a Loki-like suaveness to Magneto, making the character even more interesting as a villain.

I was intrigued with the decision to center the story around Mystique, as she was a fairly bland character in the original trilogy. Her backstory shown in X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past, combined with the adequate performance by Jennifer Lawrence, gives the audience reason to care when she's on screen other than the fact that she's walking around naked all the time.

Time travel movies seem to have endless possibilities for plot holes, but this is pretty solid so long as you suspend some disbelief here and there. The only issues in the movie come from the other movies of the franchise. Here are the main four issues I noticed:

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1. How the fuck is Charles Xavier alive?

Apparently a post-credits scene in X3: The Last Stand revealed Xavier sitting in a hospital bed, not completely disintegrated by Jean Grey. Is this ever explained? Not at all. And this is the one question everyone hoped would be answered.

2. Wolverine shouldn't have Adamantium claws in the future.

At the end of last year's The Wolverine, Logan's Adamantium claws were removed by the silver samurai. He still had the metallic skeleton and his regular bone claws, but this just stuck out to me. It's not the biggest of deals, because we don't see a lot of the future in Days of Future Past. 

3. How does Kitty Pryde send people back in time?

I mean, she sends Wolverine's consciousness back because no one else's can take that kind of stretch of the mind, or something like that. As cohesive as this movie is, this aspect of Kitty's powers came out of nowhere.

4. Didn't the mission basically fail?

Raven didn't kill Trask, sure. But did Magneto planting a baseball stadium around the White House not terrifying enough to immediately approve the sentinel program, not to mention what happened in Paris. The public was exposed to what these mutants were capable of, which should have been enough to scare them into security.

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Some quick final thoughts: Peter Dinklage is awesome, William Stryker didn't really have to be in the movie (but it was cool to see). We didn't get to see much of the dystopian future, granted there wasn't much to see. The movie was able to be funny without distracting from the high-stakes plot. The original cast is kind of just there, and their importance relies on previous films. It's good to see some depth added to characters other than Wolverine.

This might be my favorite X-Men movie now. I didn't care for Singer's first two installments or X3, or Origins: Wolverine. It's a franchise I'm interested in watching grow bigger and better, but until First Class, it wasn't really up to snuff. Even if you're not an X-Men fan, I'd recommend you watch First Class and then Days of Future Past, and you might become one.

X-Men: A

Average: A-