X-Men: Days of Future Past ****
If you can’t get enough of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, you won’t be disappointed with the latest instalment from X-Men director Bryan Singer who places the clawed mutant in cerebral confinement for the sake of peace with humanity. It’s an intriguing and wildly energetic attempt at marrying two X-Men ‘generations’ while going full-tilt down the sci-fi route with a bit of time travel and cyborg terror and a memorable splash of The Matrix slow-mo moves. And all works, enough to blanket over some gapping wormholes in plot, more thanks to the magnetic cast who do a splendid job once again.
The Days Of Future Past begins with what’s left of bleak, battle-scarred, apocalyptic Planet Earth in 2023 (just think Terminator rip-off), where man and his cyborg machines are pitched against the last remaining mutants. Charles Xavier’s worse fears of a war between mutants and non-mutants are realised. But there is hope: on the joint decision of Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) who are united in 2023, Logan/Wolverine (Jackman) will return in mind to his body in 1973, around the time of the Paris peace talks that ended the Vietnam War.
Logan must find and stop Raven/Mystique’s (Jennifer Lawrence) deadly mission to kill the scientist, Dr Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), responsible for creating the prototype cyborgs crushing the mutants’ resistance in 2023. However, Wolverine has to convince the younger Prof X, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto, then Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) to bury the hatchet and unite in saving all mankind and mutant in the future.
The plot sounds a little convoluted, in terms of where we are along on the timeline – plus there is a head-scratching moment when you try to figure out why certain mutants are still alive when they quite obviously were dead in the future – there are many time parallels. That said the end goal is the same: save planet Earth for all, so Singer and team had a convincing common goal to work towards. To be fair, the initial time-travelling element is more amusing than mind-bending (for us), and there is a certain degree of good-natured campness to the 1970s era. Jackman aids this and is simply stellar once more as Logan/Wolverine, our stoic guide and witness.
McAvoy as Xavier and Fassbender as Lehnsherr give the sheer intensity fans are waiting for as they clash while ‘coming of mutant’ to deal with their own evolving powers and the implications of them. It’s a thrilling watch, as 2023 Wolverine tries dealing with them while also dealing with his own fragile mental state. Lawrence provides the nubile blue catalyst in scenes but has less screen-time than fans might have hoped for.
Still, as budding mutants go, it’s confident Peter, aka Quicksilver (Evan Peters) who gives the most exhilarating and memorable action performance in Matrix-esque style – great on an IMAX screen. Again, logically, if Quicksilver’s that speedy at prevention, surely he could have put stop to the whole future demise, without the tricky enlisting of arch enemies Xavier and Lehnsherr? But where’s the fun – or film – in that?
As baddies go, Dinklage’s anti-mutant scientist/arms dealer Trask may be diminutive in stature but packs an almighty punch in presence, without resorting to any pantomime. He is merely the pragmatic businessman offering a solution, while the real troublemakers are the mutants themselves, infighting. This is perhaps why the franchise works so well and this film hits the right note: the internal battle of being ‘special’ that can be a gift but also a curse: The mutants are ‘flawed’ like us and desperate to fit in. Nevertheless, Magneto’s stadium-raising moment does smack of outright showmanship that seems to go against this compelling theory – and Singer and co have the means to inject a little action indulgence and you can’t blame them for doing so.
There is still a question mark as to why such deep-seated mutant anger within the films’ storylines that feels a given but is never fully explored. If the filmmakers weren’t too busy tying us up in time-travelling knots, then Days Of Future Past could have been the perfect opportunity to do this as the mutants are trying to save the day. However, this film has more than enough going on to fully satisfy viewers, plus it’s a real buzz seeing the characters/actors together again on screen, however distracting the surroundings.
4/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
