Skip to content
X-Men Days of Future Past is the second in what will no doubt end up as a trilogy of ‘young X-Men’ films, where the younger roles of the two lead characters are played by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, and here they’re referred to as Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, rather than Professor X and Magneto, who the cast list reminds us are played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, and you may indeed need reminding of that because it feels like they’re only in it for five minutes when the trailer made it feel like they’d have much bigger roles.
Erik is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Despised by the government, like Erik, if you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the X-Team.
Yes, the current existence for the X-Men is in turmoil because a group of what looks like flying USB hard drives are heading to X-Men Towers to dispense baddies and wipe out all the good guys one by one. It turns out that it all stems back to a time in 1973 when Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) created a group of robot-like creatures called Sentinels who would tower over most buildings in any city and so come across like a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” response to improving upon policing the place, yet obviously their purpose is far bigger than that.
But how to stop them, then? Well, Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) is able to send anyone back in time, but only by a matter of days, rather than several decades. The man, or rather mutant, picked for the task is Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) who does go back in time – in spirit, yet he’s still there as a physical presence because he’s been transported back into his own body in 1973 and no-one notices because he doesn’t age (never mind the fact that his 1973 existence has to go somewhere in its place, but that’s the point where I stopped quite understanding how that was all meant to be working – to seek out Charles, get him to find a way to pull Erik out of chokey, and then instead of working against each other, he wants the two to work *with* each other to defeat evil and restore peace etc.
How does he convince them once he gets there? He tells them what we’ve already learned at the start – it was their idea!
There’s a consistent storyline to this latest movie in the X-Men franchise, as well as a reason for Wolverine to go back into the past, but there’s a lot of pontificating from time to time, while other entries in the series would be getting on with some action, so it’s let the side down a bit there.
Also, while this film is the first to be presented in 3D – and is also shot in 3D – I went with the 2D version for two reasons. (A) – I can get cheap tickets for the Odeon, but they’re 2D-only, so I would be laying out a sizeable sum for a 3D screening, and (B) – I’ll go and see a 3D film if I think I’m going to get the benefit from it, and in this case, the trailer didn’t appear to demand it. On watching the film, I can only think of one scene, lasting about 3 minutes and in the kitchen of the Penatagon, which would benefit from it. The rest just looked like you’d only get a basic effect of 3D, which is the sort you’d get from natural perspective anyway.
Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the film.
Some bad points about the film:
Firstly, as I mentioned, there’s very little screen time for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen and, even more annoyingly, the gorgeous Ellen Page, since they’re all stuck in the “present day” (which I put in quotes as they’re still about 10 years ahead of our time), as the majority of the film is set in the past.
The battles aren’t brilliant. We know things are going to kick-off big-time between the mutants and Trask’s Sentinel crew, but they’re not unveiled until late into the third act and the level of overall destruction is limited to either bizarre other worlds in the future where we have no point of reference, or a 1973 American Football stadium which the trailer shows is lifted up by Erik and dumped somewhere else.
The battles in the “present day” are just made confusing by the fact that one of the X-Men is equipped with something akin to a Portal gun, so you can effectively travel to another part of your current landscape, but where that works in the Portal game – as you set the first portal and then the second one, here they appear simultaneously so it comes off as a poorly-executed idea.
There’s also precious little screen time for Halle Berry as Storm, but since I don’t think she could act her way out of a paper bag, this isn’t a problem to me.
There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance by Anna Paquin as Rogue, even though she’s quite high up in the overall cast list, which is a bizarre situation. However, this post from ComicBook.com shows that her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. Bad luck, Rogue. Better luck when the Blu-ray comes out.
Finally, as I’ve said many a time, I’m one of those people who likes to stay for the end credits. Generally, I’m the only person there at this time. This time, however, 8 people stayed, including me. And we got, as I suspected, a short clip at the very end. Exactly what it leads to is unclear at this point, but no doubt we will have to wait until 2016 to find out because X-Men: Apocalypse is scheduled for a UK release on May 19th 2016.
And we finally find out the truth reason the JFK “magic bullet” theory…
Cert: 
Running time: 131 minutes
Year: 2014
Released: May 22nd 2014
Format: 2.35:1 (ARRIRAW (2.8K))
Rating: 7/10
Director: Bryan Singer
Producers: Simon Kinberg, Hutch Parker, Lauren Shuler Donner and Bryan Singer
Screenplay: Simon Kinberg (based on a story by Jane Goldman, Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn)
Music: John Ottman
Cast:
Logan / Wolverine: Hugh Jackman
Charles Xavier: James McAvoy
Erik Lehnsherr: Michael Fassbender
Raven / Mystique: Jennifer Lawrence
Storm: Halle Berry
Hank / Beast: Nicholas Hoult
Rogue: Anna Paquin
Kitty Pryde: Ellen Page
Dr. Bolivar Trask: Peter Dinklage
Bobby / Iceman: Shawn Ashmore
Bishop: Omar Sy
Peter / Quicksilver: Evan Peters
Maj. Bill Stryker: Josh Helman
Colossus: Daniel Cudmore
Blink: Bingbing Fan
Sunspot: Adan Canto
Warpath: Booboo Stewart
Professor X: Patrick Stewart
Magneto: Ian McKellen
Havok: Lucas Till
Toad: Evan Jonigkeit
President Nixon: Mark Camacho
Beast (older): Kelsey Grammer (uncredited)
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen (uncredited)
Scott Summers: James Marsden (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
| 1 | 2 |