[four-star-rating]Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Parks[/four-star-rating]
Days of Future Past opens in an apocalyptic future, much like the one explored in the Terminator films (and countless others). Robots called Sentinels have hunted mutant humans almost to extinction. After that, the machines have gone after people who may someday give birth to mutants and anyone else sympathetic to the mutant cause. That basically means everyone in the world is in for some serious hurt.
Time to go back into the past to see if we can stop this from happening!
Fans have been waiting for this – a film that mashes the original X-Men with the successful prequel characters, giving us some of the world’s greatest actors playing superheroes and kicking butt. In order to merge both worlds, the flick requires some convoluted time travel, an overly intricate plot, and some bending of its own rules. (Really, all time travel movies do this.)
To avoid the giant Sentinels, a band of X-Men have found they’re able to send a thought back into the past a few days. This way they’re warned of attacks; mutants disappear before the robots can get them. The X-Men soon realize that this trick makes it possible to send a message back several decades and stop the creation of the Sentinel program altogether. The only problem is that the technique damages the brain of the traveler, so they need someone who instantly heals – meaning Wolverine (Jackman) is going back to the early ’70s!
Voilà! Both casts: one film!
It’s all a bit contrived, but then again, we’re talking about people who can control the weather and open portals. Scientific follow-through may be a little much to expect. It only makes sense if you know the X-Men world.
Director Bryan Singer is the right person to helm this flick. He’s always been able to take far-fetched concepts and turn them into films with gravitas, like he did in the very first two X-Men films.
To counter our really grim future, the flashback to the ’70s is pretty groovy. Fassbender, McAvoy, Lawrence, Dinklage, Hoult, and Jackman get to rock some cool styles. We also meet Quicksilver (Parks of American Horror Story), a loony hero whose scenes provide the only comedic moments in this otherwise very serious flick.
[rating-key]
The sets and action sequences are really awe-inspiring, and the performers give it all they’ve got. Make no mistake, though, even with all these Oscar-winning and nominated actors, it’s still a summer popcorn flick. Meaning: it’s not very deep. For all its seriousness and complexity, this film’s dramatic questions are pretty simple. Given the team involved in making it, I was hoping there’d be a tricky moral conundrum buried in all the elaborate machinations. (Maybe I should just quit holding out for another comic book film as intricate as The Dark Knight.)
The goofy, over-poetic title probably should’ve been an indicator not to expect anything more than just fun. From its dystopian future, to its ridiculous plot devices, to the glam-riddled past, this movie definitely delivers the entertainment.
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