Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – X-Men: Days of Future Past (Movie Review)

By Freda Cooper 22.05.2014 2

Image for Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – X-Men: Days of Future Past (Movie Review)

X-Men: Days of Future Past (UK Rating: 12A)

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that X-Men fans will love their favourite mutants' latest outing. X-Men: Days of Future Past brings together the characters from the X-Men trilogy and their younger versions from X-Me: First Class for the first time on the big screen. It's the ultimate mutant gathering - so far, anyway. With a few new faces bringing even more powers to the party, a real spectacle looks to be on the cards. As X-Men: Days of Future Past is released around the UK today, Freda Cooper shouts Lights, Camera Action! for another hot off the presses review.

The older, present day mutants are under attack by a new breed of robots called Sentinels. They were developed after an event in the 70s, so the only way to avoid extinction is to go back in time and change history. Wolverine gets the job and, together with the younger Professor X and Magneto, sets about ensuring the survival of the mutant race.

Image for Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – X-Men: Days of Future Past (Movie Review)

So far, so good - but strip away all the super powers, robots and 3D, and what's left is surprisingly reminiscent of Back to the Future, except without the DeLorean. X-Men: Back to the Future, in effect. The disappointment comes from it not being as entertaining, though.

On the plus side, the first five minutes of the film are a fast-paced, noisy look at the size of the threat posed by the Sentinels. They are enormous, streamlined, surprisingly graceful given their size and, as far as the mutants are concerned, downright lethal. The climax of the film is genuinely spectacular, with the younger Magneto (Michael Fassbender in a very fetching helmet) transplanting an entire baseball stadium to encircle the White House, while simultaneously taking over the prototype fleet of Sentinels and turning them on their original masters.


 
It's the bit in the middle - in other words, the rest of the film - that fails to impress. Despite the arrival of new characters, it's all rather routine stuff. There's nothing especially new, original or particularly exciting. Even the new mutants, Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and Blink (Fan Bingbing), are just one trick ponies. Blink appears in the action sequences at the start and end of the film and her ability to create different portals to different places and timelines is impressive. It certainly helps with escaping the Sentinels but its continued use eventually becomes tiresome. Add to that the fact that if she's already in the future but can move to different locations and times, she would have made a very useful companion for Wolverine, except nobody seems to have thought of that.

Once he's arrived in the 70s and finds he has to release Magneto from prison, Wolverine has a crucial job for Quicksilver. Magneto's cell is buried deep in the bowels of the Pentagon - it was he that assassinated JFK - and Quicksilver is just the man to get him out. However, once he's done that, he's served his purpose and is gone. Apparently, in the comics it turns out that:


Image for Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – X-Men: Days of Future Past (Movie Review)

Additionally, if the newcomers have their limitations, most of the established characters are woefully underused. The film focuses on just six characters: the older and younger Magneto (Ian MacKellen and Fassbender), the Professor X equivalents (Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Mystique (a bright blue Jennifer Lawrence). It makes a refreshing change for one of the female mutants to have a crucial role in proceedings, but outside of those six, the rest of them have little or nothing to do. Halle Berry as Storm fights a few Sentinels and that's her lot. In the run up to the film's release, there was a lot of debate about Rogue - played by Anna Paquin - ending up on the cutting room floor. She didn't, but it's a case of blink and miss her, and Ellen Page as Kitty Pride spends the film with her hands on either side of Wolverine's head so that he can travel back in time. It's such a frustrating waste!

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

Money and talent have been poured into X-Men: Days of Future Past, yet the result is no more than average. Big names, more mutants than ever before and the main characters from the series brought together on the screen for the first time should have resulted in plenty of impact and excitement. They are all one trick wonders, though, and many of them are woefully underused. In this instance, more is less...

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I'm still really looking forward to this...but I've still not had chance to check out Captain America TWS or Amazing Spidey 2! The last film I saw at the cinema was Noah, which I really enjoyed.

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

You all are turning me into Siscle and Ebert LOL. Wow Wow Wow what can I say on of the  best movies of the summer X MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.......The story wonderful, the action top notch , special effect for Xmen the best Iver ever seen really a great great movie. As always had mainly 3 issues first i was rally looking forward to the full cast of the original xmen and the new class not just key players. Also the story centered around Wolverine which is my favorite character but i wanted to see more of the team. Lastly In the story line the had a  character in the originaol story line named Forge that helped them go through time.Him and a nother carater named Cable are characters i really wanted to see .But even with thoughts small issues i will still give the movie a 9/10. one of the best ive seen in a long time BRYAN SINGER and his team has done it again ! .........................Caint wait for The APOCALYPS in 2016. Which will be the next X Men movie ! 

( Edited 29.07.2014 22:15 by curtiscdragon )

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