X-Men: Days of Future Past

In a dystopian future, the Sentinels – giant adaptive robots – hunt and exterminate mutants and oppress their human allies. A group of mutant survivors led by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Erik “Magneto” Lensherr (Ian McKellen) devise a plan to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973 to prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Sentinel creator Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) and making him an anti-mutant martyr. Upon arrival in the past, Wolverine must also recruit and reunite reluctant younger Xavier (James McAvoy) and a dangerous younger Magneto (Michael Fassbender), who have had an ugly falling out.

When Superman reversed time by flying rapidly around the Earth in 1978, he helped codify the superhero movie as escapist idealism, a genre where anything could happen with the thinnest of explanations. Later films would challenge that, of course: Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy achieved an unprecedented level of gritty realism while this year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier was both cynical and topical. This latest entry into the X-Men film series feels like a marriage of those two competing visions, bringing together the fantastic and the fathomable, the big ideas and the personal struggles. In a less abstract sense, Days of Future Past also welds the storylines of the original X-Men trilogy and the First Class reboot. That a film can make any conceivable sense of all of these disparate influences is commendable; that it does so this well is remarkable.

It helps that nearly every aspect of Day of Future Past’s production is blessed with proven talent. Bryan Singer (who helmed the first two films in the aforementioned trilogy) is back as director, bringing with him X2 editor/composer John Ottman and much (look for Halle Berry’s Storm, Shawn Ashmore’s Iceman and several cameos) of that film’s cast. They join First Class’s Matthew Vaughn and Simon Kirnberg (writers/producers) and returning cast, minus a few inter-film casualties. The source material is a modified version of X-Men writer Chris Claremont’s well-received miniseries of the same name, and the newcomers include a Golden Globe winner (Dinklage) and a current TV star (American Horror Story’s Evan Peters). If you are going to cram too many characters and creative visions into a film, this is the way to do it.

But there is more to this movie’s appeal than a preponderance of big names. It delivers a healthy dose of introspection and character growth without sacrificing entertainment. In its lighter moments, it revels in Wolverine one-liners, gaudy 70s fashions, and carefully crafted allusions and in-jokes. Peters, in his brief role as Quicksilver, is hilariously flippant, using his character’s super speed to slow down time and cause foes to punch themselves in the face. On the other hand, this is no light-hearted romp. McAvoy’s Xavier is a broken, jaded alcoholic who must rediscover hope and empathy while Mystique must grapple with what evil she feels is necessary for the greater good. And then there is Fassbender’s young Magneto, the Holocaust survivor who completes his transformation into an utterly ruthless mutant supremacist without, astonishingly, sacrificing audience sympathy. Issues of identity and a prominent existentialist current run through this movie, lending substance to the comic book canard of using power responsibly.

Despite all it has going for it, Days of Future Past also harbors some significant flaws. The premise, which isn’t even time travel (Wolverine’s “consciousness” is sent back 50 years to his 1973 body) is ridiculously convoluted, even by comic book standards. Several prominent characters are shunted aside, including Ellen Page’s Kitty Pryde, protagonist of the comic book miniseries. And despite the chaos his creations unleash, Dinklage’s Trask isn’t a particularly threatening villain. Though unethical, he lacks the menace of X2’s fanatical William Stryker (ironically, a young Stryker is Trask’s subordinate here) or various incarnations of Magneto.

Purists will likely hate the changes to the storyline and non-fans may find the character count confusing, but for the vast viewership that lies in between, Days of Future Past stands several notches above standard superhero fare, even in this age of elevated expectations. Stylish, well-acted, thoughtful, and kinetic, it has the added bonus of erasing its much-loathed predecessors (The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine) from continuity and establishing the next film (Apocalypse) in the still-vibrant series. Not bad for a patchwork composite.

8.5/10