X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Movie Review
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| Go see - NOW!!! |
While the plot itself it cliched - character is sent back in time to avert dystopian future - it's simply a framework for the story to come off of, and at the end of the day it's quite possibly the most character-driven film I've seen since Gravity. The enormous cast is there to not only appeal to fans but show the sheer scale of this epic blockbuster. This film is really about the characters - Charles Xavier, Erik Lensherr, Raven and Logan - and how they react and interact in this world and how they change from the people they were before into the people they are in X-Men back in 2000.
It's clear how much Logan has developed, looking back at X-Men and comparing him to this film. Hugh Jackman has always owned the role and has made the character as great as he is. Wolverine is hating to have to do anything in this film. His fellow mutants are being slaughtered, he has to go back and try to get a rather annoyed Xavier to save Mutant-kind and he's fed up with life as it is. The stakes are the highest they have ever been, and this shows exactly how Logan has grown from the man who laughed at the idea of X-Men and saving humans from Magneto in the first film. This is brilliant character development.
Charles Xavier has also developed. He's lost everything and has no hope whatsoever, and not even Hank McCoy (Beast) can help him. He hated his powers and his disability so much that he removed both of them and withdrew into hiding. He just couldn't open the school ever again. James McAvoy is stunning in the role and I don't think I've ever seen such a 'human' character in a comic book movie before. Michael Fassbender doesn't have a huge role but once again returns as Magneto and Jennifer Lawrence returns as Raven. These two characters are essentially plot devices, but they are characters as well. If it wasn't for them, Charles would be a very different person. They broke him, and his hatred for Magneto makes sense and is powerfully emotive. The characters seem like real, three-dimensional people and that's what makes this film work: it's characters.
While Storm fans will be disappointed (and Rogue fans will probably scream), the lack of development in all the hundreds of other mutants makes sense, but they still feel necessary to the plot. Quicksilver appears and goes again within about ten to twenty minutes, but he is actually used well. Comic fans will be disappointed with the changes made, but these are for the greater good of the film. It's not afraid to take these characters in new, interesting and unexpected directions. It's not afraid to even kill your favourites. Each character is relevant to the film, and that's why they work.
The music is also brilliant. John Ottman re-uses riffs and themes from X2 and this works brilliantly. As soon as those opening credits start rolling, you know you're watching an X-Men film. It's fan-service, but when it looks and sounds so awesome you just don't care and get absorbed. The Visual FX are flawless, and I don't a comic book movie has ever looked much better than this.
The screenplay is stunning, the action/direction is fantastic, the cinematography is great in 3D, the cast are devoted and on top-form...there is nothing I can really fault the film before. It may not explain how Xavier survived or why Wolverine has his adamantium claws in the 2023 segments but these would just be tacked-on otherwise. This is easily the best film of the X-Men franchise and of 2014 so far, and I think this will be hard to beat with Apocalypse in 2016. A well-deserved: 10/10
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