Correcting Mystiques - X-Men: DOFP Reviewed

In an alternative future, the world is ruled by the robotic Sentinels and their allies. Originally created in the 1970s by Bolivar Trask (Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage), the creations have grown, evolved and far exceeded their remit of uncovering and containing mutants to killing them outright and imprisoning any who would stand against their programming. From Washington to Moscow to China… the world stands in ruins, full of broken cities, internment camps and only a ragtag band of free mutants using their powers to stay one step ahead of their pursuers.

Charles Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart) and Erik Lehnsherr (Sir Ian McKellen) and Logan (Hugh Jackman) track down one such band – including Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Bobby Drake (Shawn Ashmore), Peter Rasputin (Daniel Cudmore) and some lesser known faces Blink (Fan Bingbing), Bishop (Omar Sy), Sunspot (Adan Canto) and warpath (Booboo Stewart). It seems the renegades have found a way to combine their powers and phase time – managing to unwind limited events to stay ahead of the enemy and any permanent fatalities.  Xavier wants to see if that tactic could be used to rewind time more dramatically… to go back all the way to 1973 when a young Mystique killed Trask and set in motion the events that led to this dystopian future.

The only person who might possibly survive being ripped apart by their mind being displaced back through the years is Logan/Wolverine and so begins the plan to send his psyche back to save them all by warning the young Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique about what will happen. The 'journey' is successful if somewhat confusing for Wolverine. However the dangers in the past AND future will still play a part and so the battle continues on two-fronts. But time itself is so fragile that the repercussions of this intervention may have drastic repercussions beyond which anyone suspected…

With director Bryan Singer back at the helm, Days of Future Past's remit was not only to provide a solid summer hit but also to blend the existing and sometimes conflicting mythology of the film series to date. While the result isn't perfect, it really does feel like the best of both worlds and a thoroughly decent doff of the hat and a love-letter to one of the X-Men comics' most beloved stories and comic fans everywhere.

The beginning needs some exposition to bring the uninitiated up-to-speed and while it feels somewhat portentous, there's no-one better than the Shakespearian-cadenced voice of Sir Patrick Stewart for setting a scene. Equally anyone who has seen the first Terminator film will long since have learned to accept such explanatory quirks or continuity suspensions-of-disbelief. (Charitably, well say that a newly-‘arrived’ 1970s bare-buttocked Wolverine must surely be a deliberate nod to that franchise and not just  opportunism  for fans of the Jackman bodywork).

Non-comic fans will have their grumbles over complexities and  exposition, but - frankly - they aren't the target audience. This is unapologetically a film for the party-faithful, Bryan Singer essentially looking back at what worked in the first two acclaimed films of the franchise and the most recent 'First Class' and then at what went so catastrophically astray in 2006's The Last Stand, which Brett Ratner stepped in to direct). Sometimes deftly and stylishly, sometimes merely with a pragmatic degree of fanwank handwavery, Singer checks off the list of things he wants to rectify and address, to reference or adjust. Time-travel and paradoxes are guaranteed to give the audience a headache and ultimately prove a bone of contention, but here they do give Singer and his ensemble some narrative leeway and flexibility in the ways of logic, cause and effect.  

There's an argument to be made that, like The Last Stand, there are too many characters here and it's true that new and fun characters like Evan Peters’ Quicksilver (a character also to be seen in a completely unrelated context and recast with Kick-Ass/Godzilla's Aaron Taylor-Johnson for the Avengers sequel) have their moment to shine and then disappear stage-left. Peters' action sequence is one of the most fun of the entire film. In darker-themed scenes, the future X-Men will be instantly  recognisable to die-hard fans but newcomer characters, while proving great to watch, barely get a name-check. However, having said all that, the film rarely feels too crowded. Some tangential characters and references may merely be little more than easter eggs to fans (consider yourself No-Prize'd if you catch that the government's Congressmen Davis and Parker are actually X-Men scribes Chris Claremont and Len Wein) or just indulgent nods that are superfluous to main requirements... but the in-jokes and nostalgia don't stop the spotlight from remaining firmly placed on the key set of characters needed for the main story.

After a relentless pace throughout, the climax may not have quite the logical ‘oomph’ needed in character resolution, but a coda and epilogue is guaranteed to make fans leave the cinema with a massive smile across their faces. If you liked the original X-Men films, this is for you. If you thought First Class was a great reinvention, this is still for you. If you hated Ratner's The Last Stand you may yet find yourself doing cartwheels.   If no more X-films were to be made, this would be a fantastic bookend to proceedings, but as the now-obligatory end-of-credits extra scene extols, there are still adventures to come.  Here there's definitely an apocalyptic nod to plans for the next chapter, though those unfamiliar with the comic may be mystified at its inclusion and lack of apparent relevance to what has come before.  

The film is likely to be – and deserves to be – a major summer hit. Yes… those above caveats mean it is likely to work better with the existing fanbase but it is exciting, dramatic and funny enough to please almost everyone.  While other factors may decide on his days of future participation or not, here director Bryan Singer honours the original comic's story, breathes life back into an acclaimed franchise that might have been previously been looking a little weathered… and ultimately delivers a benchmark for the summer’s blockbusters to beat...

A must-see.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is released by Twentieth Century Fox on 22nd May.