Right OK I thought I would do a review of a new film as I went to see X-Men days of future past last night and so here is what I think of it, but rather than cover the whole I WON'T do that this time as its a new film so I will only reveal a bit of the plot. So strap on the X-men leather suit, sharpen those metal claws and give this one a look....
Soooo the film starts in the future where the world has been ravaged by a war that sees robot sentinels hunt down and exterminate the remaining mutants and oppressing the humans that harbour the mutant genes. However a small band of mutants lead by Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) manage to avoid the sentinels due to her ability to project a person's conciousness back in time to send out warnings. Kitty and her band soon rendevous with Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Storm (Halle Berry). They form a plan to send Wolverine's consciousness back in time to 1973 where the war originated as a result of the mutant Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) assassinating the designer of the sentinels, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) and Wolverine goes back to try and stop her. Wolverine wakes up in a younger body back in 1973 in New York where he travels to Xavier's mansion, where he meets with a younger Xavier (James McAvoy) and Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult). Xavier however is now a broken man as his school has closed down and most of the mutants were drafted into the Vietnam war, where most of them have been killed and he can now walk due to a serum that Hank has developed, but as a result it neutralises his mutant telepathic powers. Wolverine however manages to persuade the reluctant Xavier into helping them find Mystique to try and stop her from killing Trask and also finding the younger Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to help them as well. Magneto himself at this time is being held captive in a secure prison for his alleged assassination of president John F. Kennedy. To enable them to free Magneto they approach another mutant, Pietro Maximoff (Evan Peters) who has the power of superhuman speed to break into the prison and release Magneto. Once they have Magneto they start on their journey to try and put the future of the world to rights by finding Mystique and changing history.
X-Men days of the future past is undoubtedly one of the best films in the franchise and with Bryan Singer back at the direction helm it really sees the series get firmly back on track, although First Class was already a pretty good film, Days of Future past really builds on the foundations of that film. And with its full array of cast members from the new and older films, Singer really has brought a great balance to the series and the story of the flashback also adds a refreshing slate to the proceedings as well.
Performance wise the film is also very good starting with Hugh Jackman who effortlessly slots back into playing his career defining role as Wolverine and provides his usual mix of seriousness and sarcastic one-liners. Although it really has to be said that Hugh Jackman's muscly physique really is starting to get a bit out of hand as he is starting to appear abnormally musculuar and its almost like looking at Arnold Schwarzenegger! Regardless of that Jackman has some good moments in the film and good lines such as the scene where he meets up with Magneto again and as they fly away on Xavier's plane, he says to him "So, you were always an asshole". Jackman's moments with McAvoy are also good where Wolverine tries to persuade Xavier to help them and as Xavier has lost confidence in himself, Wolverine helps try and realise the man he once was. Jackman has a good scene where Wolverine temporarily loses his concentration during the consciousness as he spots a younger William Stryker (Josh Helman) and has painful flashbacks of his adamantium operation. Jackman also has a funny moment when back in 1973, Wolverine has his bone structured claws, prior to his adamantium operation, and he walks through a metal detector and it doesn't go off, and he smiles.
James McAvoy is also very good in his role as the younger Charles Xavier, now a wounded man who no longer wants his telepathic powers and uses a serum to help him walk again, which neutralises his telepathic abilities as a result, but he soon comes around to helping Wolverine with their mission. McAvoy has his good moments in the film as well, such as in his opening scene where he refers to his last (and first) meeting with Xavier who told him to "go fuck himself" in a bar, and he says "I say to you now, what you said to me back then.... fuck off!". He has some other good moments such as where he keeps trying to reach to Mystique while using his telepathic powers. And McAvoy even has some funny moments such as where prior to meeting Magneto again he says to Wolverine "I'm just not a big fan of violence" and he sees Magneto and out of rage punches him in the face!
Jennifer Lawrence also provides another fine performance as the saucy Raven/Mystique, the blue skinned mutant who can transform appearance into anything. Lawrence thankfully is given more to do in this film as after seeing her character as the passive Raven in First Class, here we see Mystique kick some ass, and Jen's figure definitely lends very well to the character! Lawrence also provide some fine moments such as the one where she disguises herself as a sexy blonde (herself really!) who takes one of the Vietnamese delegates back to a hotel room to seduce him and she then transforms into her blue self and says "What's the matter, baby? Don't you think I look prettier like this?". Jennifer also does a good job at showing Raven's conflicting emotions about the consequences of killing Trask and whether its the right thing to do as Xavier keeps trying to reach out to her to prevent her.
Michael Fassbender also does a fine job in reprising his role as the somewhat morally ambiguous and cold hearted Magneto, yet Magneto agrees to help them put a stop to the assassination in order to save the Mutant race. Fassbender also allows his character to a few brief moments of levity as well in the film rather than just have Magneto as a very serious character. This is displayed in his scene where he meets up with Xavier again, who punches him and he says "Nice to see you too!". Of course as the film progresses Magneto has other ideas of his own in preventing the future war although they might bring their own drastic repercussions.
As for the other supporting cast members, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan also reprise their roles well as the older Xavier and Magneto in the future, although their roles are pretty minimal next to the younger actors playing the parts. Ellen page is also pretty good again in her role as Kitty Pride, who users her powers of projection to send Wolverine's consciousness back in time, which proves vital to the possible success of the mission. Peter Dinklage, a dwarf actor, also provides a good performance as the arrogant Trask, founder of Trask industries, who would have alot to answer for in the future and blindly thinks he is doing what is necessary for the future. Nicholas Hoult also does not too bad in his role as Hank McCoy, the mutant also known as Beast, who turns blue when he's angry and jumps around like a crazed monkey. And lastly Evan Peter is does OK in his role as Pietro Maximoff, the super speedy mutant, although his performance is somewhat grating at times, but he does allow for one or two funny moments, especially when he breaks out Magneto.
Moving onto Bryan Singer, its great to see him return to the franchise and he is well at home directing the X-Men films and here is no exception as he provides a great mix of drama, action and humour. Singer also makes good use of the new and older cast and he manages to elicit fine performances all round and handles the action sequences with ease, which are also very entertaining and fast paced (although I have to say I'm still not that enamoured by the name of Singer's production company, Bad Hat Harry, which is a naff reference to a line from Jaws). John Ottman also returns to the series, who is Singer's regular music composer and he incorporates his familiar X-Men theme again into the film and overall provides a pretty decent score for the film.
So flaws???? X-Men Days of Future Past, does it have any worth moaning about??? Well not too many although I think what I would say is the film is a bit busy in terms of its characters, as there are so many that there is precious little screen time for them, such as Storm (played again by Halle Berry) and also the future Xavier and Magneto are also largely sidelined. I also thought that there was a lapse in contunity between X-Men Last Stand and this film, as you might remember that Xavier's body was obliterated by Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) yet somehow Xavier appears here in the film as Patrick Stewart! Perhaps again though that is due to an alternate future, yet during a scene where Wolverine let's the younger Xavier read his mind, we see the scene where he is forced to kill Jean, which suggests he comes from that same timeline. So on that basis I'm not sure how they can still account for the fact Xavier can still be in the same form as before. Hmmmm. But apart from that I don't really see to much worth complaining about as the film get's most things right.
And that's it for my look at X-Men days of future past, which is an excellent addition to the series and I heartedly recommend going to see while its still in the pics, as it has great action, a fine cast and frankly one of the best X-Men films yet.
So with that I shall leave yee there.
No comments:
Post a Comment