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| Directed by Brian Singer |
The X-Men movies have been going on for fifteen years now. The landscape of the film industry has changed significantly since then, especially for action. CG's gotten a lot better, studios have come to greatly rely on pre-existing brands - though that's probably been going on since Star Wars started the idea of the blockbuster - once thought impossible adaptations like Lord of The Rings and Watchmen got the expensive Hollywood treatment, you get the picture.
As far as the X-Men films go, general critical reception has gone something like this. The first two Bryan Singer films were excellent, the third main series film and the first Wolverine spin-off weren't as well received. Matthew Vaughn did an excellent job with the prequel First Class, there was another Wolverine solo job that I thought was pretty good, and now Bryan Singer has returned to tie all three branches of this franchise together in Days of Future Past. Named for and loosely based on a comic storyline from 1981.
In a not too distant dystopic future, giant T-1000 copies - I mean adaptable robots - named Sentinels that were built by the government to deal with the mutants have gone out of control and taken over the world. This isn't considered a good thing, so the remaining Singer X-Men have decided to send Marvel's most marketable mutant Wolverine back in time to 1973, where he will find the Vaughn mutants and convince them to stop the Sentinel program before it starts. They do this through another mutant by the name of Kitty Pride, who was in the third main series film and has never exhibited this ability before in any medium.
The film is a bit of a step down from First Class, but not a massive one. They manage to find a balance between the blue-grey aesthetic of the Singer films and the more vibrant, 60s Bond influenced aesthetic of First Class, and while it isn't a very original looking film, it still looks good. Speaking of balance, this film serves as a way for Fox to clean up the spotty continuity of these movies. Establishing that the events of Last Stand never happened - allowing them one more shot at the Phoenix Saga - and that any Vaughn mutants that weren't younger versions of Singer's mutants were found and killed by the company now making the Sentinels. That's unfortunate since First Class is probably the best one of these, but oh well.
The cast is doing a good job, Wolverine probably won't carry a great film any time soon, but Hugh Jackman is really good in this part. It's nice to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan returning to their roles, and James McAvoy and Micheal Fassbender do a wonderful job as the 1973 versions of Professor X and Magneto. Peter Dinklage shows up as the developer of the Sentinels, and he's good here, Jennifer Lawrence is alright as the younger Mystique, and Evan Peter's Quicksilver is surprisingly not terrible.
Actually, let's talk about that for a minute. We all had a good time making fun of Quicksilver's design when it came out. I mean good lord look at that thing, but he isn't in the movie that much. His one scene might just be "super bullet-time", but it's well shot, they picked a good song for it, and it did get a laugh out of me. I'm as surprised as anyone else, they actually made this character sort of work.
It's not been an amazing summer movie season so far. The new Spider-Man was mediocre, Godzilla had some problems with having engaging human characters, and most of the big movies - Star Wars Episode VII, Dawn of Justice*, Avengers 2, seem to have decided to wait for the next two years. For now, this is a well constructed action movie that gets all the things it has to right.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
*That's what DC's decided to call the Man of Steel sequel
As far as the X-Men films go, general critical reception has gone something like this. The first two Bryan Singer films were excellent, the third main series film and the first Wolverine spin-off weren't as well received. Matthew Vaughn did an excellent job with the prequel First Class, there was another Wolverine solo job that I thought was pretty good, and now Bryan Singer has returned to tie all three branches of this franchise together in Days of Future Past. Named for and loosely based on a comic storyline from 1981.
In a not too distant dystopic future, giant T-1000 copies - I mean adaptable robots - named Sentinels that were built by the government to deal with the mutants have gone out of control and taken over the world. This isn't considered a good thing, so the remaining Singer X-Men have decided to send Marvel's most marketable mutant Wolverine back in time to 1973, where he will find the Vaughn mutants and convince them to stop the Sentinel program before it starts. They do this through another mutant by the name of Kitty Pride, who was in the third main series film and has never exhibited this ability before in any medium.
The film is a bit of a step down from First Class, but not a massive one. They manage to find a balance between the blue-grey aesthetic of the Singer films and the more vibrant, 60s Bond influenced aesthetic of First Class, and while it isn't a very original looking film, it still looks good. Speaking of balance, this film serves as a way for Fox to clean up the spotty continuity of these movies. Establishing that the events of Last Stand never happened - allowing them one more shot at the Phoenix Saga - and that any Vaughn mutants that weren't younger versions of Singer's mutants were found and killed by the company now making the Sentinels. That's unfortunate since First Class is probably the best one of these, but oh well.
The cast is doing a good job, Wolverine probably won't carry a great film any time soon, but Hugh Jackman is really good in this part. It's nice to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan returning to their roles, and James McAvoy and Micheal Fassbender do a wonderful job as the 1973 versions of Professor X and Magneto. Peter Dinklage shows up as the developer of the Sentinels, and he's good here, Jennifer Lawrence is alright as the younger Mystique, and Evan Peter's Quicksilver is surprisingly not terrible.
It's not been an amazing summer movie season so far. The new Spider-Man was mediocre, Godzilla had some problems with having engaging human characters, and most of the big movies - Star Wars Episode VII, Dawn of Justice*, Avengers 2, seem to have decided to wait for the next two years. For now, this is a well constructed action movie that gets all the things it has to right.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
*That's what DC's decided to call the Man of Steel sequel
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