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:

SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH

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.

SPOILERS END HERE

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-

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Peter Jackson continues in the quest to make as much money as possible off of The Lord of the Rings in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf the Gray (Ian McKellan), and Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) all continue their quest to retrieve the Arkenstone from the Lonely Mountain and reclaim Erebor for the dwarves from the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Now there's plenty to say about this movie. I read the book about five years ago, and I cannot remember any details for the life of me. So I'm judging this based on what little knowledge I have on the source material, and my knowledge of movies in general.

To start off, Smaug is probably one of the best CGI movie villains ever created. Benedict Cumberbatch was a perfect choice to voice the menacing dragon. Smaug is also one of the most realistic looking dragons ever put on to the silver screen. You just know shit is about to go down as thousands of gold coins began sliding down the mountain of treasure inside the Lonely Mountain, and the golden eye of Smaug opens. While he doesn't arrive until maybe the last 30-40 minutes of the movie, he leaves a lasting impression on the audience.

Martin Freeman gives a strong performance as Bilbo. The issue with this being the film doesn't focus on him as much as the first installment did. We begin to see Bilbo sink into the madness that the ring brings him. But at the same time, we see him let go of a lot of his fear, with some motivation from the ring. 

The dwarves as a company were very entertaining in this movie. The river barrel sequence was just so badass. The elves were slaying orcs like it was nobody's business and the dwarves showed excellent teamwork, just making it more amazing. It was scenes like these that make you think anything is possible. They shot it so well, you never thought "that's physically impossible" or "that wouldn't have happened." 

As expected, Peter Jackson implemented some content that was not of the source material, but it still wasn't an issue. If anything, it allows The Hobbit  to connect to The Lord of the Rings in a few new ways. Orlando Bloom reprises his role as Legolas, and it's just so awesome. He doesn't play an enormous role in the plot, but it's just so great to see him killing orcs again. I was never a huge LotR fan, but I always enjoyed Legolas kicking ass. 

Gandalf goes off on his own mini-quest about 30 minutes in, but not to worry, there is still plenty of wizard magic to keep you going until the final installment. Ian McKellan seems to be so used to the role, that no one even questions his acting at this point. Is that even Ian McKellan? Or is Gandalf just some being that appears whenever Peter Jackson is filming a movie?

Luke Evans portrays Bard, the hero of the every-man in the town of Esgaroth. Personally, I thought his character would have a lot less screentime. I was just thinking "Ok, just do this for them, and we can move on to Smaug." But no, he stayed pretty involved for the rest of the film. I know he's involved, but the film could have been significantly shorter if they had just clipped his plotline down.

One of the dwarves, Kili (Aidan Turner), has his own little romance with Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). Given that neither of these characters have really any development, the romance feels a little forced. It feels unnecessary for most of the movie except for when it's convenient. 

In a way, this second installment of the trilogy feels like The Empire Strikes Back. It is clearly the darkest, as the villain toys with the protagonist, and the cliffhanger just leaves the audience to think about what could happen in the finale. You know that Smaug could just fry Bilbo at anytime, but he waits to intimidate him. In the spider attack scene, you really begin to see Bilbo's skill as a burglar, the entire reason he's there. Much like Luke Skywalker in the swamps of Dagobah, you see Bilbo come into his own in the forests of Mirkwood. 

The film is visually stunning with some of the most impressive CGI to date. The spiders, the orcs, the gold, the dragon, the facelift on Orlando Bloom all look fantastic. Every actor does their job well. Any Tolkien fan will enjoy this as much as the next, while the average moviegoer will see it as an overlong epic. Overall, this was a fantastic addition to a franchise that can't go much further (if any) with a cliffhanger that will both piss an audience off, and get them excited for the final installment.

Rating: A-