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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox |
The
story kicks off in a dystopian future where nearly-invincible robots called
sentinels have killed most mutants and their human allies. So far, the only way
a core group of mutants – including Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian
McKellen), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Kitty Pride (Ellen
Page) and others – have been able to stay alive is through Kitty’s ability to
transport a person’s consciousness a few hours back in time to his younger self.
In doing so, he can warn the others of impending attacks.
Professor
X devises a plan to send someone back to the 1970s, when the sentinels became a
reality thanks to the murder of their inventor, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage),
at the hands of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). That cemented the mutants’
reputations as threats to humanity, so nobody had problems with them being
killed off.
Since
Wolverine is the only mutant capable of surviving a transfer of consciousness
so vast, he’s sent back to heal the severed relationship between the younger
Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender). It goes about as
well as you’d expect, but Wolverine is going to have to convince them to step
up if they’re going to stop the future war that renders mutants all but
extinct.
While
the trailers suggest an entire film that takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, Days of Future Past is actually a direct sequel to X-Men: First Class (possibly
my favorite entry in the franchise). It’s a shrewd move, since it allows Singer
and screenwriter Simon Kinberg, working from a story he conceived with Jane
Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, to combine the most popular characters from the old
films (most of them in cameos) and the recent semi-reboot.
After
a brief look at the horrific future, the flick settles into the 1970s and
allows Wolverine to spend a lot of time with Professor X, Magneto, Beast
(Nicholas Hoult) and new mutant named Quicksilver (Evan Peters). It’s a good
idea since the group’s chemistry is off the charts.
Jackman
is a charismatic guy whatever movie he’s starring in, but he always seems to
have a twinkle in his eye playing the character that put him on the map. That’s
even clearer when he’s convincing a young Professor X not to give up on his
mission or realizing that he has more in common with Magneto than he’d care to
admit.
Singer
makes up for his long absence with some of the most exciting action sequences
in the series, especially when Quicksilver demonstrates his abilities while
breaking Magneto out of his maximum-security prison in the Pentagon. It’s a
terrific look at how these powers can be a gift, rather than a curse, and the applause
in my screening was deafening.
Sadly,
the weakest performances come from the performers that most intrigued me going
into the film. Dinklage, who has developed a huge following thanks to his work
on Game of Thrones, doesn’t really work as the film’s big villain, primarily
because he’s never supplied with any real motivation. We never find out why he’s
so intent on wiping on the mutants, so he never rises above the caliber of generic
bad guy.
Lawrence,
one of the biggest movie stars in the world, seems to be running on autopilot
here. Mystique is at the heart of the narrative’s central conflict, but the
actress looks like she’d rather be anywhere else but in an X-Men movie. I’ve
heard reports that she was less than thrilled about having to fulfill her contractual
obligation to a sequel. If that’s the case, she doesn’t exactly hide her displeasure.
Despite
these complaints, Days of Future Past is a welcome return to the glory days
of the X-Men saga; one that cleans up a lot of old messes – in terms of both
poor filmmaking and iffy continuity that has popped up over the course of five
films and two spinoffs. Now that Singer has given the franchise a clean slate,
I can’t wait to see where he (or another director, if his current legal
troubles are any indication) takes the story from here.
X-Men:
Days of Future Past is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi violence
and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language.
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