2014 Movie ReviewsMovies

Movie Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Michael Fassbender in X-Men: Days of Future Past poster
X-Men: Days of Future Past © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Not for sale or duplication

The following review originally ran on Starpulse.com in 2014.

In Bryan Singer’s sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past, the emotional stakes are much higher than in his previous films X-Men and X-Men 2. That’s because mutants aren’t just ostracized for being different, they’re attacked as an entire species. Days of Future Past is more engaging due to the morally complex evolutionary battle that mankind wages against mutants in its attempt to defy Darwinism by any means necessary.

Humanity’s extreme measures involve deadly robots called sentinels designed to exterminate mutants. In the movie’s opening, we see a war torn future where the sentinels have killed millions of mutants. Only a few that we know are left: Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Kitty Pride (Ellen Page), and a couple of others. Because Kitty now has time travel powers, they decide to send Wolverine back to stop the war. She pushes him to the 1970s, where he must unite young Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) so that together, they can prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from causing the whole mess.

Although the mechanics of time travel make no sense, somehow Days of Future Past reconciles all of the previous X-Men film plots into a movie that does. It probably works because scribe Simon Kinberg wrote X-Men: The Last Stand and he’s assisted on this story by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn who penned X-Men: First Class. A consequence of trying to tie all these pictures though, is the need for numerous flashbacks and boring, heavy exposition in the dialogue. Kinberg and Singer tell everything instead of showing it, so it’s not required that viewers know the other X-Men to get this one, but if they do, the script comes off stupider, especially on top of all the ten-cent wisdom uttered by these characters.

Despite its two hour and ten minute length, Days of Future Past moves at a fast pace since time in the future keeps ticking while Wolverine is on his mission. His quest has greater urgency because he must succeed before his friends there are killed. Additionally, cinematographer Nigel Thomas Sigel keeps the momentum brisk with his swooping, sliding camerawork. The film’s editing tends to be equally fast in action scenes, but it gets just a touch too frenetic during some fights, making things difficult to follow.

The 3D in Days of Future Past is extremely well-done and doesn’t suffer from that common problem where you stop noticing it after a while. All of the characters’ powers also look fantastic. Their abilities are slick in the future, although they’re even cooler in the past when we get to see mutants like the super-fast Quicksilver (Evan Peters) create mischief and mayhem. Because these effects are so polished, all of the mutants feel unique and fully developed.

All of the franchise’s returning actors are entertaining, however the movie’s standout is Peter Dinklage, who plays the villain Bolivar Trask. Since he’s such a talented performer, Dinklage’s work pops on its own, but it’s nice too that no one ever mentions his small stature. The most fascinating thing about Trask, is the depth that Dinklage and the writers give him. Trask sees the struggle against mutants simultaneously as a needed way to unify humans and an unfortunate necessity to ensure their survival as a species.

X-Men: Days of Future Past may have stupid dialogue and plot holes with its time travel nonsense, however it’s still wicked entertaining, looks polished, and it moves. Plus there’s an interesting moral dilemma at its core. Not even this cynic who thought X-Men and X-Men 2 were lackluster could complain much.

✭✭✭✭

Evan Crean

Hello! My name is Evan Crean. By day I work for a marketing agency, but by night, I’m a film critic based in Boston, MA. Since 2009, I have written hundreds of movie reviews and celebrity interviews for Starpulse.com. I have also contributed pieces to NewEnglandFilm.com and to The Independent, as a writer and editor. I maintain an active Letterboxd account too. In addition to publishing short form work, I am a co-author of the book Your ’80s Movie Guide to Better Living, which is available on CreateSpace and Amazon. The book is the first in a series of lighthearted self-help books for film fans, which distills advice from ’80s movies on how to tackle many of life’s challenges. On top of writing, I co-host and edit the weekly film podcast Spoilerpiece Theatre with two other Boston film critics. I’m a founding member and the current treasurer for the Boston Online Film Critics Association as well. This site, Reel Recon.com, is a one-stop-shop where you can find links to all of my past and present work. Have any questions or comments after checking it out? Please feel free to email me (Evan Crean) at: ecrean AT reelrecon DOT COM .

4 thoughts on “Movie Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

  • How funny. I literally published my review seconds after you. (I get an email) Best episode in a series that has its fair share of middling films.

    • Wow. Creepy timing. I agree and I’m sure I’ll be checking out your review soon.

  • X-Men: Days of Future Past is a messy film that fails to provide answers for a lot of stupid decisions in the film, it was still enjoyable though.

    • Yeah, time travel is always risky business when it comes to create logical continuity. With this kind of movie it’s a little bit easier to overlook some of the nonsensical elements and turn your brain off while you’re watching. It’s not the kind of film you’re meant to think too hard about. Thanks for reading!

Comments are closed.