X-Men: Days Of Future Past

X-Men: Days Of Future Past:

A Totally Different Take On An Old Favorite

Its never really been a secret that my writing came from my youth reading comic books, while others were reading pretentious crap like "The Great Gatsby" and "Weathering Heights" which honestly bored the utter hell out of me, I was reading Chris Clairmont's over 20 year run on The Uncanny X-Men, or Frank Miller's run on DareDevil, and ofcourse, Alan Moore's brilliant Watchmen miniseries. So you can imagine that when I heard the next movie in the rebooted X-Men movie series was going to be "Days Of Future Past", taking its name from one of the greatest stories Chris Clairmont ever wrote I was first excited, and then when I heard that Bryan Singer, killer of the first three X-Men films and arguably the worst thing to happen to comic book movies sense Joel Schumacher made Batman movies in the 1990s, was to direct this film, I became worried, very very worried, seriously, the idea of one of my favorite stories ever written being directed by Bryan Singer made me almost wanna throw up. But, as often is the case when it comes to me and my beliefs on comic related things, I was eventually talked into calming down and giving it a chance by the people who were sick of me ranting about how Singer was going to ruin the X-Men worse then any bat-credit card like mcguffin ever could. And I must admit, though it wasn't exactly what I was expecting the film to be, it was enjoyable, it wasn't as good as First Class, but it wasn't a waste of two and a half hours, like i was worried it was going to be, though my inner nerd ofcourse screamed and yelled and corrected certain things, and asked WTF on other things, I truly did enjoy the film, which was a pleasant surprise for me.

The film starts out in the year 2023, and the world is nothing more then a wasteland, you see giant robots roaming the streets freely as you discover that you're in whats left of Moscow, deep down in a bunker you find whats left of The X-Men, this group consists of Shadowcat, Colossus, Bishop, Sunspot, Iceman, Blink and Warpath. They are readying for an assault by the giant robots, called Sentinels, mutant hunting robots who's only job is to destroy or if they have a power they can use, capture a mutant and keep it alive only long enough to discover how to assimilate its power into their own. As the Sentinels break through their bunker doors, Shadowcat grabs Bishop and runs with him, phasing the two of them through solid objects to get away and eventually get them to the most secure room in the bunker, as the others one by one give their lives to stop the Sentinels from getting to them, as you see that the Sentinels eventually adapt and use their powers against them and each other, slowly the team is slaughtered as the giant robots make their way to where Shadowcat is using a secondary mutant power, the power to send your mind backwards in time, on Bishop, who's powers are to basically absorb energy like a battery, as the Sentinels breach the door, Shadowcat says "Too late assholes..." as she, Bishop, the robots, and the damage they had done all disappear as if they were never there.

Next you see a jet land deep in what looks to be inland China. And out of it come Prof. Charles Xavier,  Storm, Magneto, and everyone's favorite plot device, Wolverine, as they leave the jet you hear Shadowcat call out and ask what took them so long to get there. As they go inside the large old monastery looking building Shadowcat explains that she'd recently discovered she can send a person's mind back into their body in the past, she admits she's only done it afew days, and in one instance a month, but thats as far back as it goes she assumes. Magneto and Xavier both agree that she has to try and send someone back to 1973 before the Sentinel program began and stop it all from happening, and after a small debate over which one should do it, its decided that Wolverine will go, because with his healing factor and his already damaged mind, it won't cause him the pain and trouble that it would cause anyone else who tried to make the trip. Xavier and Magneto tell him that he has to go back and find both of them, and get them to help him stop Mystique, the blue shapeshifting mutant from all the other X-Men movies, from murdering a man named Bolivar Trask, the creator of The Sentinels, whom Mystique kills infront of the whole world and the panic caused by this greenlights the Sentinel program. 

Wolverine wakes in his body in 1973, where he wakes up in a waterbed next to a girl he doesn't at first remember, we soon discover that in 1973, Wolverine was working for a mobster in New York City, which you soon discover the girl in his bed is the daughter of, by way of the two thugs that show up to get the two of them for their boss. At this point we discover that Wolverine didn't have his metal claws in 1973, as he dispenses with the two thugs, and takes one of them's car to go find Xavier, who is wallowing in self pity in his now closed down school. Here Wolverine encounters Hank McCoy, or Beast, as he's known, who seems to be taking care of Xavier, who is able to walk for some reason, but does not have his powers, and is a massive drunk. Wolverine is able to eventually convince Xavier that he is from the future, and that he sent him back in time, and that he has to get Magneto and save the world from the birth of the Sentinels, the thing is, Magneto is in super secret never seeing the sun again jail, for apparently killing President Kennedy, though Wolverine knows a guy who can help them get him out, even though he's a young man and hasn't met any of the X-Men yet in 1973, this is where they enlist the help of a young Peter Maximorf, Quicksilver, who honestly, steals the whole first half of the film. From there, once they've gathered the main cast together, they go off to hunt Mystique, and you learn why Xavier doesn't have his powers, but can walk. 

The rest of the film from here is a joyride of action and fun and serious mind games ontop of mind games and secondary agendas ontop of secondary agendas, you find out what Mystique is liberating mutants who were forced into a special unit in the army that were going to be handed over to Trask for research, where the existence of mutants is revealed to the world in a way that can not be spun to make it seem like a fake incident like it was in First Class, we're talking full on screen on live tv using powers on each other, you also find out what happened to the cast thats missing from First Class, as Xavier and Magneto try and forgive each other for abandoning each other and those who they claimed to protect, all leading up to a showdown on live television in Washington DC where President Nixon is almost killed on the air, but instead the world sees that for every dangerous mutant, there is one that is good as well, i won't spoil the way the movie ends, but honestly, it left a smile on my face, which honestly, is hard for a movie to do.

I have to tell you all, honestly, this film was WAY better then what i was expecting it to be, and if i'm being honest with you, the movie could have been a steaming pile of dog shit, but the scene with Quicksilver set to possibly the most hilariously opposite song as they're getting Magneto out of super top secret jail, would have made the whole trip to the theater worth it, i couldn't stop laughing for the entire scene, and honestly i wished he'd been in the whole film, not just the first half, but over all, the film was pretty good, it made alot of in jokes, many a joke of Wolverine passing through a metal detector because he hasn't had the metal claws yet, Magneto even making the joke about them "imagine if those beauties were metal..", it all and all was a great little fun ride of a film, right to the stinger of an after the credits scene. Though I must admit, my inner nerd does scream out about afew things, I don't recall Shadowcat being able to send people's mind through time, i even checked the Marvel Wiki and Wikipedia itself, and there is no mention of that ability on her pages, so I'm glad i didn't just forget that, and the film, honestly borrows more from the plot of the critically acclaimed cartoon Wolverine And The X-Men, then it does with the actual story Days Of Future Past, but thats just fine, because both stories were excellent stories, and you don't really mind that sort of thing when the source stuff is awesome. I will also state that i am incredibly overjoyed that the future Sentinels, were not called "Nimrods" the name of the future Sentinels that think on their own and adapt and mimic powers, I've always hated that name and felt it never really worked.

But my few little quibbles aside, honestly this film was awesome, and I truly had a wonderful time, and if you choose to go see it, you will as well... Oh and as for the after credits scene, had the director not told us what movie was coming after this one in the series, well, En Sabah Nur would have been one hell of a OMG shocker, but, well, anyone thats been paying attention to the press knows who he grows to be...

But if i can't convince you, here is the trailer...

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BC