X-Men: Days of Future Past Reviews

I don't want to give much away, but of all of the X-Men ever made, this is one of my favorites!

The additional cast was concerning, but overall actually added to this film.

Of course the rest of the usual cast were on point as usual, but what made this movie different than the others, was not the battle of good vs evil, but the timeline differences and the new cast's involvement.

A great addition to the X-Men franchise, and a 9/10 from me!

Como pueden decir que es de las mejores de X men? tiene errores fatales y incluso la pelicula de origenes de logan es muchisimo mejor

GOTTA SEE THE ROGUE CUT! It;s better than the theatrical release. Either way such a powerful movie. Very well done!

This is a first-rate superhero movie. Top notch effects, crew, cast, everything.
The problem here is I really don't care that much about these mutants and what has happened to them, what is happening to them and what will happen to them.

I feel like I've gotten more than my fill of X-Men and find it unlikely I will watch the next one, as I'm assuming there will be another one... and another one.

Days of Future Past was so middle-of-the-road mediocre that I have little to say beyond, "cool effects, dude." The action scene with Peter/Quicksilver (?) was the high point of this film for me. Great choice of music, great pacing, lovely compositions there.

Though totally entertaining, it's unaffecting and forgettable. Its thematic resonance was weak in comparison to its predecessor, First Class.

But, uh, Bishop?

X-Men has a long history for my family. I am named after Wolverine (my name being Logan and all). I loved Bryan Singer's X-Men movies. Last Stand sucked (the one he didn't direct), but X-Men: First Class (also from another director) brought back the greatness of the series. This one has the better actors/characters of both casts meshed together. It was cool to see some new characters as well as different variations of old characters. I thought the sentinels looked pretty cool. The fight scenes are intense and some are more brutal than I was expecting. I think whenever they fought the sentinels it was just downright awesome. There was a little humor spread around, but the storyline made it one of the more serious entries of the series. I wish that some of the mutants had more screen time. I literally got chills from how amazing the ending was. There were some pretty cool cameos although I sure wish Stan Lee actually showed up like usual. Of course you must make sure to stay after the credits. It was a great movie for sure.

Following The Avengers in 2012, Marvel Comics are currently going through a phase of expanding their universe within their cinematic adaptations by introducing further characters than the typical individual hero and villain. The X-Men series alone have their variety of characters which has usually featured an ensemble cast and began back in 2000 with its first instalment. In 2011, we saw the impressive prequel X-Men: First Class that filled in a few untold gaps of the supposed original trilogy, particularly the broken friendship between Eric and Charles. Now, in 2014 we have Days Of Future Past, possibly the most unique X-Men adaptation so far due to its narrative complexity. Serving as a sequel to both The Last Stand and First Class, Days Of Future Past bridges between two eras of the series with the result being arguably the greatest in the franchise.


The most extraordinary aspect of X-Men: Days Of Future Past was its narrative structure. When you think of science-fiction and time travel, you immediately think of Back To The Future, but Days Of Future Past implements a story that totally alters how we have perceived the first ‘original’ trilogy. In fact, only the X-Men series in comic book adaptations could have pulled off a film set in different narrative times because it is a wide universe on its own, and its variety of heroes and villains each coincide with different background stories that make them connect. This is particularly due to Logan being the same age or perhaps older than Xavier and Lehnsherr. Furthermore, how the different time settings were structured within its mise-en-scéne was impressive. Like in X-Men: First Class, the earlier decades of the 20th century depicted in Days Of Future Past felt like it was set during those stages. It didn’t feel as colourful or tonally rich compared to the previous three films which has excelled impressively from a historical viewpoint. However, the only issue with the narrative style was the futuristic and dystopian future with older Xavier and Lehnsherr with the other X-Men. It appeared too unrealistic for Earth and felt somewhat distorted within the narrative by raising question as to which point was this set inbetween predecessors. Was it inbetween X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand or, considering it’s a sequel, after the latter? Despite this, the narrative style and visual effects were impressive and particularly the editing between past and present time was convincing and done creatively.


The X-Men series have always been successful on part of their ensemble cast members. Hugh Jackman who has been part of the series since day one reprises his role as Logan/Wolverine for a fifth time and shines once again. You would think that after five performances that there would be a slight break in character but Jackman constantly succeeds. He may now be fourteen years older compared to his first performance and both his masculinity, both physically and in personality, as an actor contributes a lot to his role of Logan and continues to deliver some of the best performances in comic book adaptations. Jackman as Logan has been the centre of the X-Men series and though he had a humourous cameo in First Class, he now has more screen time in Days Of Future Past with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Although we see younger versions of both Xavier and Lehnsherr and that Logan has appeared alongside Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, McAvoy and Fassbender manage to hold the same chemistry. McAvoy’s performance in particular was superior as it focused a lot on his powers, primarily reflecting them as a danger of what’s inside his own mind as opposed to a gift of reading other people’s minds as previously depicted. Fassbender is equally as masculine in the role of Eric Lehnsherr/Magneto as Sir Ian McKellen who also makes a solid re-appearance.


Although Logan is the centre of the past and present tense in Days Of Future Past, there is no main protagonist in this film. It carries a lot of background detail and important plot points of supporting characters who progressively become leading, particularly Mystique/Raven. Now practically a young superstar in Hollywood, Jennifer Lawrence delivers another superb performance as Mystique who goes beyond Rebecca Romijn’s previous portrayal of the character. She’s good in action sequences, genuinely heartfelt and sexy which is Mystique/Raven in a nutshell. In fact, Days Of Future Past could secretly be Lawrence’s film when every film that she’s in, even supporting roles, seems to be these days. Furthermore, we see Nicholas Hoult return as Beast/Hank McCoy who is portrayed identically to the Hulk in The Avengers. It examined a lot about McCoy and how the Beast affects him both physically and emotionally. It is difficult to compare Hoult’s role to Kelsey Grammar’s in The Last Stand as the latter came into the series quite late and wasn’t developed enough like Hoult’s, but together, they’ve been convincing as the Beast and perhaps challenge the current portrayal of fellow Marvel man-monster - the Hulk. Finally, we see solid cameo returning performances from Ellen Page, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore.


With comic book adaptations these days either becoming bloated with too many characters and subplots or corny, X-Men: Days Of Future Past luckily avoids both and becomes a film that has totally altered how we perceive the series. It bridges between the series’ two eras and excellently makes reference to past instalments with characters whilst simultaneously creating something different with the complex plot. With the exception of a strange dystopian future, the plot becomes mind-blowing, the action is intense, visual effects are stunning and the performances are sublime. Therefore, X-Men: Days Of Future Past has now become the greatest film in the X-Men franchise and among the best Marvel adaptations of all time.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The title of this movie is a bit misleading: this isn't a strict adaptation of the classic story from the comics. Yes, it involves time travel to prevent an assassination, but it's still within the continuity of the other X-Men movies. And, in a word, wow! :)
The movie is impressive in almost every respect, but I'm especially amazed at how well written it is. The story is everything that a comic book movie should be: very well written, and exciting thanks to being witty with both its clever ideas and its endearing characters.
One personal highlight for me was that they actually addressed a continuity hiccup between First Class and X-Men 2 involving Beast. It's revealed that Hank has developed a serum that controls his mutation – which leads to a character arc with Xavier using it to allow himself to walk, at the cost of his psychic powers.
All the performances are top-notch, but Michael Fassbender stands out in particular: he had me convinced by about five minutes in that he was Magneto! :)
But the main thing the movie did for me was the last half-hour. The tension in the climax is nothing short of exhilarating. Mild spoilers here, but what's especially poignant about it is Xavier's attempts to convince Mystique not to kill Trask.
In conclusion, I have no doubt that this will be proclaimed one of the best X-Men movies, but I personally don't even have to think twice: it is the best. :)

My rating: 85%

While the Spider-Man franchise is getting more and more disappointing after each installment, here we have a super-hero franchise which has been incredibly rejuvenated and it’s getting better each time around. Indeed, I thought that ‘X-Men: First Class’ was pretty good, better than the original trilogy but I still thought it was rather overrated. This time, they gave us a stronger story, the best story so far involving those mutants and I was above all fascinated by how conflicted their relationships were . Of course, the actions scenes were pretty impressive, especially those sentinels (I mean, the ones from the future) looked really awesome. Still, somehow, I wasn't entirely convinced. I mean, it was really close to be really amazing but they were not there yet, in my opinion. The first thing that bothered me was the fact that I didn’t see any reason with Kitty Pride had to keep control of Logan. I mean, at some point, they all got the message in the past, they have to change history otherwise most of them will die so why does the future Logan has to stick around? They could just leave them fix the whole thing and move somewhere else before the sentinels come. Furthermore, even though the whole time travel concept was interesting, it was still just a gimmick to have Hugh Jackman, the most bankable X-Men actor, to be with the younger cast of ‘X-Men: First Class’ in order to boost the box-office revenue. Furthermore, they pulled the same trick as in ‘Star Trek’ with this time travel storyline which basically obliterates everything that happened in the first trilogy. Honestly, as a viewer, the result is that I felt tricked since all the emotions I invested in the previous movies became rather meaningless. Still, even though it was not a home run yet, like I said before, these guys are improving the formula each time around (thank God, Bryan Singer finally got a hit after all his flops) and it is definitely worth a look.