Of all the superhero worlds to create, 20th Century Fox has it the easiest. X-Men and mutants have so many interesting parallels with the real world that creating compelling cinema would seem a slam dunk. The franchise’s first decade roller coastered, peaking with X2 and falling rapidly with X3. X-Men: First Class hit the reset button on the franchise with great effect, and X-Men: Days of Future Past completes the reset. Director Bryan Singer (of X2) is brought back in, fittingly to snap all the pieces into place with a fun merging of past and present X-Men; makes sense, since Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are so cute together.
Things aren’t going well for mankind in the future; Sentinels created to destroy mutants have actually killed most of the planet and are hunting out the rest. Magneto (Ian McKellen), Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Storm (Halle Berry), and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) find Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) who has been using time travel to keep herself alive. Since Wolverine can heal immediately, only he can survive time travel further back in time to prevent the creation of the Sentinels, who were created due to Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) murdering Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). Wolverine enlists the help of younger Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and a powerless Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) to help him in his search for Mystique to prevent the Sentinels from taking over Earth.
Comic book movies have started to take themselves extremely seriously, mostly for our benefit. X-Men: Days of Future Past swings back the other way: this movie is fun. The dimensional jumping creates some fun sequences for one-upping the Sentinels. Time travel, despite its holey explanation, does some fun stuff with Wolverine and his past, using Wolverine’s “I’m too old for this sh*t.” to great effect. Baseball fields make great barriers. Quicksilver (Evan Peters) vision is hilarious to behold. Presidential history makes sense, and Richard Nixon plays a key role in the third act. X-Men: Days of Future Past combines serious and bonkers tonal shifts in a very satisfying way that most lesser films struggle with.
The movie also works well as a passing of the torch since Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen aren’t getting any younger. X-Men: Days of Future Past heavily references all of the previous X-Men films, including some of the Wolverine solo ventures. There are Easter eggs aplenty for anyone who was a fan of those earlier films (and at the end of the credits, fyi). Wisely, the majority of the movie’s screen time is in the past, where the 3 big names (McAvoy, Lawrence, Fassbender) have to flesh out their relationships with one another. The movie wisely pits Mystique between Xavier and Magneto, further complicating her already messy identity crisis and creating a third equal onscreen as well as the choice du jour: a love triangle. With Wolverine as the bridge, X-Men can now successfully move forward in finishing its future by going back to its past.
In terms of acting, the big job is Hugh Jackman’s, who has to work in both worlds. Jackman always did good work as Wolverine, and here he gets to use the smarts he has developed instead of just fighting first and asking questions later. James McAvoy walks the charismatic and troubled line very well, and pulls off how wise and lost Professor X is at the time. Michael Fassbender is great at looking scary, but also showing the human underneath. Hatred and revenge fuel Magneto, and Fassbender easily makes that clear. Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique was clearly given more screen time because of the actress. There still isn’t much here, but at least she isn’t the love interest: she makes her own choices. Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart lend their support ably. Evan Peters steals the show as Quicksilver, easily nailing the character right away. Other people have small parts and aren’t really asked to do anything.
X-Men: Days of Future Past reinvents the wheel. For some an “I’m sorry,” for others a “Check this out,” the movie makes the world of mutants again a deep well of fascination and allegory I’m excited to see built up. Especially more Quicksilver cam; always more Quicksilver cam.