In the not too distant desolate future, an army of robotic Sentinels created by Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) have been hunting down mutants and humans alike. Out of desperation, the remaining X-Men send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to the past to change history stop the central event that would lead to the Sentinels being unleashed upon the world. In addition to returning cast members from 'First Class' (James MacAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult), some of the cast from the original trilogy are also back (including Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore).
When it was announced that this would be a sequel to 'First Class', I was really excited. 'First Class' was not only my favorite of the 'X-Men' films, it was also one of my favorite movies from 2011. It was not only a breath of fresh air for the 'X-Men' franchise, but for once I was actually able to get invested in the story. The acting in that was also really great. So when I read that it was also going to be called 'Days of Future Past' (based on the comics storyline of the same name) and include the cast from the original 'X-Men' trilogy, I was skeptical. This was gonna involve time travel? Keep in mind I have never read any of the 'X-Men' comics, so the thought of time travel kinda threw me off. The internet was going gaga over Bryan Singer returning as director (after having directed the first two 'X-Men' movies, and while I'll have more on my thoughts about the other 'X-Men' movies later, I wasn't exactly excited about him returning. The first trailers for this came out...and I said it could go either way of being really good or really dumb. More trailers came out...was kinda looking forward to it, but still really mixed about it because of the whole time travel plot. The reviews came out...and they were overwhelmingly positive with many calling it the best 'X-Men' movie since 'X2'. Heck, some called it the best 'X-Men' movie ever. So naturally my expectations were raised a bit, but I still kinda had a mixed feeling about it. But despite my mixed feelings, I was still able to go into the theater with an open mind and let the movie speak for itself as I do with any movie that I watch.
Well....good things. Well, the scene where Wolverine, Professor X, Beast, and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) have to break Magneto out of the Pentagon was a lot of fun, mainly because of the antics of super speed antics of Quicksilver. It's a fun introduction to that character and it'll be interesting to see how Quicksilver is handled in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', with Aaron Taylor-Johnson playing him. But enough about the Marvel Cinematic Universe for now. Still gotta focus on Fox's Marvel Universe, or rather 'X-Men' Universe. Anyway, it is nice seeing the casts from both the original 'X-Men' movies and 'First Class' in a movie again. A few other fight scenes are also kinda cool, and the end of the movie has a few unexpected cameos from other original 'X-Men' trilogy cast members that are also fun. Other than that....sadly there wasn't much else I liked.
Now, a problem I had with Bryan Singer's 'X-Men' and 'X2' was that I couldn't get invested into what was going on. That's mainly why I wasn't all that excited about his return to the director's chair. And that's one of my problems with at least the future scenes in the movie: I just couldn't really get invested in what was going on. Right at the beginning of the movie we dive straight into this desolate future with a narration from Professor X trying to explain things, and then introduced to new mutants that even after watching the entirety of this movie I couldn't tell you who any of them were. A bit hard to get invested with characters that I don't really know. The performances aren't bad per say, but they could've been so much better with perhaps a better story.
I still didn't like the time travel plot and I just thought it was kinda ridiculous and stupid. And with the time travel plot came a lot of other problems that I had with the movie, but since those involve some spoilers I'll probably leave those in a future 'Nitpicks' post. Let's just say continuity is thrown out out the window, and with that out the window this movie didn't make a lick of sense and was kinda stupid. Those problems made it even harder to get involved in the story. Sure, 'The Dark Knight Rises' has a lot of problems, but it was still entertaining despite those. This had some entertainment value, but the problems I had with it made it hard to fully enjoy.
In comparison to ALL of the other 'X-Men' movies, where does this installment line up? Well let's take a quick look at the others:
- 'X-Men' - Special effects don't really hold up well, but it's an all right movie. As I mentioned earlier I just couldn't get invested in it.
- 'X2' - My feelings toward this movie echo my feelings for the first movie.
- 'X-Men: The Last Stand' - I know the fan base doesn't really like this movie, but I thought it was fun.
- 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' - I know the fan base REALLY hates this movie. I'll admit that it's dumb, but it's watchable.
- 'X-Men: First Class" - Still not only a great comic book movie, but a great movie period. As I said earlier, it was a breath of fresh air for the 'X-Men' franchise.
- 'The Wolverine' - overall I liked it, but that final fight between Wolverine and the Silver Samurai was beyond stupid.
Now I opted to see this in 2D instead of 3D. Why? Well, I saw all of the other 'X-Men' movies in 2D. And I hadn't really heard much about how the 3D was in any of the reviews I read or skimmed through. Having seen it in 2D, there were a few sequences that would have been kinda cool to see in 3D, but I'm perfectly fine with having seen it in 2D.
'X-Men: Days of Future Past' has some entertaining moments, and while it is nice to see certain cast members return to the franchise, it has far too many problems along with a ridiculous time travel plot that left me with a very disappointing follow-up to three much better movies: the excellent 'First Class', the fun 'Last Stand', and the overall good 'Wolverine'.
Hopefully the next 'X-Men' movie, 2016's 'X-Men: Apocalypse' (teased at the end of the credits for this movie), is far better than 'Days of Future Past'.
TRAILERS
- 'Edge of Tomorrow' - Honestly I'm getting sick of this trailer. I might rent this at some point. Or I can just watch 'Groundhog Day' and 'Oblivion' back to back.
- 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' - A bit of a different trailer that makes this movie not only look a bit darker in tone, but also kinda looks like a rehash of 'Dark of the Moon'. Well, as long as it's more 'Dark of the Moon' than 'Revenge of the Fallen' then I'm fine with it.
- 'Earth To Echo' - It looks okay. I mean I'd rather just stay at home and watch 'E.T.' or 'Super 8' and pretend that those were found footage movies.
- 'Lucy' - Basically 'Limitless' if it were more of an action movie and instead of Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro we have Scarlet Johansson and Morgan Freeman. I am okay with this. It doesn't look half bad.
- 'Let's Be Cops' - I did laugh a few times during this trailer, but I still couldn't get out of my head that the main premise of this movie is HIGHLY ILLEGAL. I nitpick this R-rated comedy about it's illegal premise but I'm fine with the illegal antics in 'Wolf of Wall Street'. Hmmm....
- 'The Boxtrolls' - Could be good. The trailer didn't really have a whole lot to say in regards to it's plot, but at least the stop motion animation looks great.
- 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' - a spy thriller from the director of 'X-Men: First Class' and the first 'Kick-Ass'? Looks like it could be fun.
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