REVIEW - 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

'X-Men:  Days of Future Past' (PG-13) **
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.

'Days of Future Past' is at least better than 'Origins', but I feel that it' definitely one of the lesser movies in this series.  Out of all the ones Bryan Singer directed it's the worst, but then again I wasn't exactly a huge fan of his 'X-Men' movies in the first place.  I know I'm in the minority with that opinion, but that's how I've felt about those movies.  'First Class' still remains my favorite 'X-Men' movie, and the fact that 'Days of Future Past' was the follow-up is very disappointing.

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. 
  

REVIEW - 'The Amazing Spider-man 2'

'The Amazing Spider-man 2' (PG-13) **
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has a lot going on in his life.  He has graduated high school and is now is now working for The Daily Bugle taking pictures of Spider-man.  He is tormented by visions of Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary), who just before he died in the previous movie had made Peter promise to keep Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) safe by leaving her alone.  Gwen and Peter's relationship is on and off as a result of this promise.  All the while, Peter has three new villains to face:

1. Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a loner who works at Oscorp who becomes obsessed with Spider-man after he is saved by him.  An accident involving cables and genetically altered electric eels turns Max Dillon into Electro, who glows blue, can shoot lightning and suck all the energy out of anything electric, and can seemingly evaporate and appear out of nowhere and travel through circuits.
2. Harry Osbourne (Dane DeHaan), Peter's long lost best friend who is back in town to take charge of Oscorp while his father Norman (Chris Cooper) is on his deathbed.  He soon becomes the Green Goblin.
3. Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti), a Russian terrorist who is given a suit of armor by Oscorp and calls himself The Rhino. 

In addition to all of that Peter Parker is still searching for the reason why his parents left him with Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field) and were mysteriously killed.  A LOT of things going on in this movie.

First off, you can count me among the multitude of people who have felt (and still feel) that 'Spider-man' shouldn't have been rebooted.  Sure 'Spider-man 3' was a colossal disappointment but it wasn't so bad that a reboot was needed.  Heck 'Spider-man 4' almost happened but plans fell through and to keep the film rights from going back to Marvel Sony decided to just reboot and start all over again. I'll talk more about what I thought of the previous 'Amazing Spider-man' later on but this is just kinda trying to explain my mindset about this iteration of the 'Spider-man' film franchise.  But, I still was interested in this movie and I went into it with an open mind. 

There are plenty of things to like about this movie.  For the most part the special effects are really good.  The acting for the most part is really good, with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and even Sally Field all improving from the previous movie.  I was able to become invested in Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy's love story, even with all of it's complications you're still rooting for them.  Sure I still prefer Rosemary Harris' Aunt May from the original trilogy, but in this movie I could actually buy Sally Field as Aunt May.  Stan Lee's cameo is fun as always, and the movie is fun whenever Spider-man is swinging around New York and cracking jokes while in the middle of a chase or in the middle of a fight.  And the original 'Spider-man' theme pops up twice in the movie and it's kinda funny.   

But with all those pluses there were many things I didn't like, well, specifically three things:  the villains.  There are way too many of them, each felt rushed, two of them felt shoe horned in and worst of all is that they really aren't that interesting.  The Rhino is barely in the movie and that CGI Rhino suit looks horrible, looking painfully obvious that Paul Giamatti is surrounded by CGI and not in an actual suit.  And with Giamatti's extremely exaggerated Russian accent I could barely understand a single word he said.  The Rhino (who bookends the movie) felt tacked on only to help set up the inevitable 'Sinister Six' movie with several Spider-man villains teaming up.

Now I didn't mind Dane DeHaan as Harry Osbourne, but once he becomes the Green Goblin it all just looks really stupid and I kept thinking that it was done better in the very first 'Spider-man' movie.  Heck, Harry Osbourne as the Goblin was done much better in 'Spider-man 3'.  Dane DeHaan is a good actor and actually was menacing in the underrated found footage superhero movie 'Chronicle'.  His character in that movie actually has an arc his transformation into a villain in the movie is believable.  His transformation into being a villain in this movie is all very rushed and it seems that he's only a villain because the screenplay says so.  At least James Franco's Goblin in 'Spider-man 3' was developed over the two previous movies to set up his hatred for 'Spider-man'.  There was potential for an interesting villain here, but it's spoiled and rushed just to tack on another villain to set up 'Sinister Six'.

And now we finally get to the "main" villain, Electro.  Sure once he turns into Electro and starts to glow blue like Dr. Manhattan in 'Watchmen', those effects are really cool.  But it's just another case where I just felt that Max Dillon's transformation into a villain was very rushed.  According to this movie he's supposed to be a sympathetic villain:  As Max Dillon he's a loner, obsessed with Spider-man and he just wants people to notice him and need him.  When he becomes Electro all that anger I guess is suppose to be coming out.  Sure that's all fine and dandy but the movie rushes it all and quite frankly Electro just becomes uninteresting really fast.  I don't blame Jamie Foxx for this.  He's simply doing what he can.

The movie is also a little too long and probably should have ended 15 minutes before it actually did finally end.  Norman Osbourne is in the movie maybe 5 minutes total and you don't learn a whole lot about him other than that he's dying.  Maybe the movie's script just needed a quick polishing.  Still taking the multiple villain route, I'd have written out the Rhino entirely, added a bit more about Electro and Green Goblin, and possibly could have had a much better movie.  Or just sticking with the one villain approach that most superhero movies have, pick either Electro or Green Goblin and then go from there.  That would make a solid, two hour movie that wouldn't be so crowded and wouldn't have needed to rush things to cram it all within it's 143-minute running time.  But then again, what do I know?  I've never written a screenplay.  Although on a side note I will admit:  'The Amazing Spider-man 2' does handle multiple villains better than 'Spider-man 3', which crammed Venom, Green Goblin, and Sandman all together. 

While I know I've skimmed through a few 'Spider-man' comics and watched episodes of the 1990's 'Spider-man' TV show I can't quite remember enough to make a comparison of either to this movie.  But I have seen all of the other 'Spider-man' movies.  The original 'Spider-man' was really good and a lot of fun.  'Spider-man 2' is one of the better superhero movies out there.  'Spider-man 3' had the potential to be even better but it drastically ruined that trilogy.  'The Amazing Spider-man' I just thought was okay.  I still didn't like that it was being rebooted, and since it is a retelling of the origin story of Spider-man I just felt that I had already seen this movie.  So how does 'The Amazing Spider-man 2' stack up?  Well....it is better than 'Spider-man 3', but then again most movies are.  In many ways it's better than it's immediate predecessor but at the same time there are ways in which it's not.  At least Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard in that movie was the ONLY villain and his transformation to being a villain wasn't all that rushed. 

'The Amazing Spider-man 2' is a mixed bag.  At times it's a lot of fun with good performances and great special effects, but the rather rushed and uninteresting villains ruin the movie's good will. 



TRAILERS

• 'X-Men:  Days of Future Past' - I know the Internet is going ga-ga over this movie mainly because Bryan Singer (the director of the first two 'X-Men' movies) is back in the director's chair.  I wasn't all that thrilled over those 'X-Men' movies and the time traveling plot also makes me really skeptical, but who knows:  Maybe it'll be the best X-Men movie since 'X-Men:  First Class'.  Or it'll be the worst since 'X-Men Origins:  Wolverine'. 
   
• 'Maleficent' - Only a few more weeks until I can finally go see this movie and I won't have to watch the trailer again!
  
• 'Edge of Tomorrow' - A different trailer for this movie for once.  Still looks like 'Oblivion' combined with 'Groundhog Day'.  Might be a rental. 
  
• 'When The Game Stands Tall' - The longest winning streak in the history of sports is broken when a high school football team loses for the first time in 12 years.  The players and the town come to terms with this loss and what really matters in life.  This looks like it could have potential.