(Originally posted December 25th, 2017)
Okay, since this is the Christmas review, I need to somehow tie it back to the holiday. Let's see... ooh, I know. Jesus Christ, this movie was awesome. You may know that X-Men: First Class is my favourite movie of the month, and this is its highly-acclaimed sequel, so did I think this was better? Well, to me, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) is just as good, except for one major element that I couldn't look past. It's still a phenomenal movie, and is certainly in my top 10 at least, but it didn't quite top its predecessor for me. Starring Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine, James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier/Professor X, Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Dr. Henry 'Hank' Henshaw/Beast, Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe/Storm, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake/Iceman and Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask.
 |
| X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) |
One of the most satisfying things about this movie is seeing the old cast and the new cast together. Of course, they're not on screen at the same time, but it's so great to see James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart in the same movie as the same character, mainly because the acting is so great, you can completely believe they are the same character. A lot of movies that do this wouldn't have the courage to put the younger and the older characters together, but this film does it wonderfully. The entire cast is at their best here, and it's so refreshing after Suicide Squad and Fantastic Four to see an ensemble movie that knows exactly how to use each of its main cast and how to use them to their full effect. Not one scene felt wasted, not one line out of place. There's not a weak link in this lineup, and for a movie with this many leads, that is very refreshing.
 |
| James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as Professor X |
This movie uses time-travel as its main gimmick, so it already gets big points from me there. I'm quite fond of using time-travel in fiction, in fact, the most successful short play I ever wrote was based on time-travel, and the meeting between younger and older versions of the same characters, so this movie felt very special to me. Not only does this movie use time-travel, but it also utilises alternate timelines. When you're writing something as incoherent as time-travel, it's very easy to get needlessly complicated, or worse, paradoxical. Thankfully, the film's explanation and execution of time-travel is such a unique one, and its explanation of the paradoxes so succinct that it never comes to that. It feels just like a prequel that's having an immediate effect on the present. This was also a great way to subvert the 'prequel rule' I've talked about before, where a movie set before other movies in the series often lose all tension because the outcome is obvious. By throwing in the alternate timeline, you felt like no one was safe, and that was a stroke of genius.
 |
| Ian McKellen as Magneto |
This movie also gives us our first real look at the human/mutant war, and it is everything I hoped it would be. The opening set-piece shoves you right into the middle of it, and you can immediately tell these are dark times. The Sentinels are incredibly foreboding threats, and their presence is always felt, even when they're not on screen or being directly talked about. There were like this shadow looming over all the characters, and watching them in action in the future was tough to watch. Not because the scenes were bad, but because of how brutal the scenes were. Whenever you felt the X-Men had gained an advantage, the Sentinels just took it away. You can really believe they would have caused the world to become like this, and one of the best things about this movie is how genuinely frightening they are whilst attacking. They are scary, and the film never pulls any punches. You see them kill an awful lot of mutants, some we didn't know, but some we knew, and it was the latter that hurt the most.
 |
| The Sentinels |
I mentioned earlier that the movie has one rather big flaw that prevented it from being god-tier in my eyes, and it has to do with the one character I felt could been utilised more: Quicksilver. Don't get me wrong, he was fantastic in the movie, and that famous scene of his certainly got me, but what I didn't appreciate was how sudden he left the movie without proper reason. Seriously, why couldn't he have gone with them to Paris? He could have just grabbed Trask when Mystique was about to kill him, rushed him out of there and said, "Hey, I just saved your life and I'm a mutant, so you know that anti-mutant thing you're building? Yeah, could you not?" It would have been so easy! Granted, it would have been too easy, which is why the movie doesn't take him to Paris, but I could have used at least one line explaining why he couldn't have gone with them, and I would have been completely at ease. As it is, there's no reason he couldn't have gone with them, and, since I found a plothole, however small, that's why this movie isn't perfect to me.
 |
| Evan Peters as Quicksilver |
Of course, that doesn't stop X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) from being right up there with some of the best films I've seen this month. Honestly, apart from that one criticism I have, I can't find many faults here. It's just another great addition to the X-Men anthology, and I'd happily watch it more and more in the future. 9.5/10.
Tomorrow: it's The Dark Knight.
No comments:
Post a Comment