SCORE: A
Brian Singer’s back at the helm of the newest (and possibly best) X-Men film!
SPOILERS AHEAD....
EVERYONE is back in this film, from the original cast to the X-Men: First Class cast. Hell, even Kelsey Grammer makes a 5-second appearance as Beast and Anna Paquin makes a 1-second appearance as Rogue (she had a few scenes that were reportedly cut from the film).
I really thought that James McAvoy and Micheal Fassbender did stunning work in this film. When Fassbender gets angry aboard the plane... wow. And when McAvoy freaks out after using Cerebro, then mind-melds with Wolverine and has a heart-to-heart with his futre self... wow again.
Evan Peters as Quicksilver did a REALLY good job. I know everyone had a shit-fit over his appearance when they saw that cover of Empire magazine, but the actor did a really good job. He kept reminding me of a young Johnny Depp. Personally I don’t see what all the hype is over Peter Dinklage. He did an ok job. Nicholas Hoult’s Beast looked much better than in X-Men: First Class (where he looked RIDICULOUS!). The guy that plays Nixon sounds like Nixon and looks fairly like him, although I kept being reminded of Paul Giamatti. I liked the mention of JFK being a mutant, sort of like how Elvis Presley was said to be an alien in Men In Black. Funny.
I liked that the passing between the past and future was not a physical thing. No one physically went to the past or back to the future. It was all done with thoughts. A person’s thoughts could be sent back, but not their bodies. I really liked that distinction. And I liked that Kitty Pryde was the one who could do it. What I did not like was that it was never explained how a mutant who could pass through walls somehow had the ability to send people’s memories back in time. Oh well.
Finally seeing the Sentinels in this film was great! We got teased with them in X-Men: The Last Stand, but they’re here for real in this film. I loved both designs of the Sentinels (the ones from the 70s and the ones from the future). It was awesome seeing the Sentinels rip Colossus in half and decapitate Iceman. Well-done. Seeing Sunspot and Warpath was cool because I used to love the old X-Force comics.
I’ve heard a lot of people say mention that it’s good that X-Men: Days of Future Past disavows what happened in X-Men: The Last Stand. But what they forget, is that if DOFP disavows X-Men 3, then it also disavows X-Men, X-Men II, and The Wolverine. How do people miss that? From wikipedia: “Singer also talked about "changing history" in an interview with Empire magazine. He stated that he does not want people to panic about them erasing the movies, and he believes in multiverses, explaining the possibility of certain events as they would be part of the history of alternate universes.”
Anyway, I’ve never understood everyone’s hatred of X-Men: The Last Stand. I guess people complain because they killed both Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Prof. X in it. But I like X-Men 3 specifically because those three characters died. I like a story that holds no punches. Personally, I think Prof. X’s death is one of the best scenes in any movie. Jean Grey’s death was pretty good. (I cared little when Cyclops died because I’ve always found him to be an annoying character.)
Whatever you do, stick around after the credits for one of those annoying after-credits scenes that they do in all the Marvel movies now. But this one is really cool, involving the first mutant, who will be the main antagonist in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). If you saw it and had no idea what was going on, read this article: http://www.hypable.com/2014/05/23/x-men-days-of-future-past-after-credits-scene-apocalypse/