X-Men: Days of Future Past was by no means in the “great” category of films or even comic book films for me, but it was certainly a decent time at the movies. Director Bryan Singer has certainly redeemed himself from the absolutely rancid Superman Returns film from 2006, but is that really saying much?
All that being said, let me point out what I didn’t like about it before I jump into the good. It just didn’t flow as well as its predecessor, X-Men: First Class (2011) With a plot as complicated as Days of Future Past is (time travel contrivances, etc), I found it to gain momentum, and then lose momentum in many parts. Bryan Singer has a real knack for making a lot of “talky” films, with dialogue that seems to be in excess for some reason. A couple of scenes with Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier character highlight my point. I found myself wanting to say “OK, we got it, move on!” in the theater because of this issue. For whatever reason I also found the previous film to be more fun, along with the focus being solely on the younger actors playing the youthful versions of their X-Men characters, along with that whole “60s” spy vibe director Matthew Vaughn peppered throughout the entire film. So, by the time I walked out of X-Men: First Class, I was legitimately stoked to see what came next for the reboot of the X-Men franchise, and yet with Days of Future Past, I simply did not feel the same level of excitement. Instead, I felt like all the energy that was gained from rebooting the franchise was obliterated by film’s end. Judging by current reviews, I’m in the minority with this opinion.
What also doesn’t help my opinion of this film is I was never very taken aback by the early 2000 X-Men films, to which Bryan Singer directed two out of three. I found those editions to feel overall devoid of personality (except for Hugh Jackman of course), and in turn, seeing a lot of this current film dip back into that realm actually disappointed me. When Days of Future Past was actually firing on all cylinders it was with the younger crop of actors in James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and co. More specifically, once Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine character goes back in time to try and reset history to save humanity, and the mutants from the Sentinels in the future, that’s where the film gets on a little bit of a roll. Add to it, the inclusion of Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, who helps jailbreak Magneto out of prison inside the Pentagon, and I was thoroughly enjoying the film by that mid-way point.
Now, without spoiling massive plot points, I’ll say the core story of this film, i.e. a future that’s riddled with machines taking over the planet, and making slaves of humanity (and mutants) is a bit of a snooze fest in my eyes. How many films in the last 20 years have used that kind of doomsday plot device? Yeah, too many. And I get it, this particular X-Men film was based on a well revered comic book story by the same name, but even still, why not choose another story? Why another time-travel bit where one iconic character (Wolverine) has to go back in time to save the timeline in some manner? Didn’t Hollywood just deliver that with the 2009 reboot of Star Trek? So above all else, the story did nothing for me, and it wasn’t until I saw reminders of what I enjoyed so much of X-Men: First Class, that I enjoyed this film, if even just a little bit. Where’s Kevin Bacon when you need him, eh? Ha!
In the end, the special effects were a strong suit to this film where I found very little to enjoy, and there’s certainly enough action scenes from beginning to end to satisfy the average viewer. However, that doesn’t make up for the fact something felt empty and disjointed about this entry into the X-Men franchise. Feel free to take my review with a grain of salt as I also thoroughly enjoyed last years The Wolverine, a film I didn’t hear too many people laud. Then again, beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder. Nuff said.
2 1/2 out of 4 stars
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