‘X-Men: Days of Future
Past’ is the seventh instalment to the ‘X-Men’
franchise, which follows the X-Men send Wolverine back to the past in a
desperate attempt to alter history and prevent a dark future in which
mutantkind, and humanity with it, are doomed. Bryan Singer, director of ‘X-Men’ and ‘X-Men 2’, returns to the franchise, joined by Hugh Jackman as
Wolverine, Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy as Professor X, Ian McKellan and
Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Ellen Page as
Kitty Pryde, among a slew of other familiar and new mutants appearing
throughout the film.
The X-Men franchise thus far has been rather hit and miss,
and one worry someone might have before entering Days of Future Past is whether
it would be among the likes of X-Men 2 and X-Men: First Class, which rank in my
opinion among the best comic-book films to date, or whether it would fall among
the weaker instalments like The Last Stand or Origins: Wolverine. I’m ecstatic
to say that Days of Future Past is definitely among the best of the franchise thanks
to a brilliantly crafted story, riveting tension throughout the film as the
stakes are at the highest we’ve seen in the franchise before, and a certain
sense of scale as fan favourite mutants from the original trilogy and the
younger cast from First Class come together. There’s a huge amount of
characters in this, and while the majority of them aren’t major players, none
of them feel like they have been crammed in for simple fan service. And among
these characters, none of the familiar actors fail to fall right back into
their old roles, and the new characters never seem out of place in the
universe.
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| McAvoy steals the show as a young Xavier. |
Despite the plethora of mutants, the film truly belongs to
James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier, who not unlike how Patrick Stewart’s Xavier
mentors Logan in the original X-Men film, now relies on Logan to guide him
through a particular low point of his life. McAvoy truly manages to portray
just how far Xavier has fallen since First Class, and how far he needs to go
before he becomes the wise mentor from X-Men, with the highlights of his
performance being interactions with Fassbender’s Magneto and Jackman’s
Wolverine. Speaking of Wolverine, while obviously a major player in the film
with him being the link between 1973 and 2023, it was refreshing that he took
somewhat of a less central role from the original trilogy, allowing the younger
iterations of Professor X, Magneto, Mystique and Beast to share the spotlight.
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| Magneto (Fassbender) is a particular highlight. |
Naturally being a summer blockbuster, the film wasn’t solely
relying on the admittedly brilliant plot and performances to succeed, as it has
its fair share of action and special effects throughout as well. The scenes set
in the dystopian 2023 looked magnificent as a torn apart, ragtag X-Men team
were forced to fight for their lives. The powers of the remaining X-Men were
showcased in these scenes in such a brilliant way, while also adding extra
tension to the film as their efforts amounted to little. Meanwhile, in 1973,
Logan and the gang have enough action to keep the film going, but the middle of
the film was rather light on action as it entered rather dramatic portions of
the story. In particular, an action scene set inside a prison was an early
highlight, but it was a bit of a shame to not see some more action sprinkled in
the second act as the X-Men, both past and future, prepared for a final
showdown. Speaking of the final showdown the climactic battle set in 1973 felt
like it was missing something to make it something special, rather than a solid
set piece, as well as certain parts of it feeling too convenient and weakly
scripted compared to the rest of the film.
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| Fan favourite Wolverine unites the two timelines. |
In other sections of the film, it was wonderful to hear John
Ottman return to score the film, and with him the return of the classic theme
he introduced in X-Men 2 that was criminally never used again until now, though
I will admit to missing Henry Jackman’s Magneto suite from First Class. Fans of
the X-Men franchise in general will be pleased to know the film honours the
majority of the existing instalments and tries to avoid messing up the
continuity even more throughout the story. The future costumes for the X-Men
looked brilliant, a definite improvement on the somewhat awkward suits from the
original trilogy. While not many people wore costumes in the 70’s unlike the
yellow suits from First Class, I’d argue Magneto’s costume looks the best here
that he has done in the franchise.
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| Jennifer Lawrence returns as Mystique. |
X-Men: Days of Future Past is an epic return to form for the
franchise, and will be a real joy for fans to see their favourite original
trilogy characters return while also expanding on the ‘First Class’ story. It
manages to resolve a lot of problems people had with the franchise so far,
while also opening the doors for exciting new possibilities in the future. Most
importantly though, Days of Future Past stands on its own as a great story that
I’d absolutely recommend anyone with even a passing interest in the franchise
or genre checks out.
4 out of 5
