Way too convoluted and often baffling, but thoroughly entertaining anyway.

Rating: 6/10 (9 September 2014)

People walked out of Days of Future Past with one phrase on their lips; "definitely the best X- Men movie." With our market over-saturated with Marvel and there being 6 other X-Men movies in the last 15 years, does that sentence really mean anything? Does that make it something of worthy value to cinema? I just wanted to know if it was good on a scale of all movies. The answer is no, but a mild no, I'm still partial to X-Men 2, but while Days of Future Past was entertaining, it's very flawed. First problem is that it doesn't have a first act, it just dives straight in after a huge cringeworthy exposition dump. It's a totally clunky introduction which followed one of their best action sequences in a long time.
It takes a long time to sink back into the narrative after a series of painfully bad dialogue that shows a complete lack of confidence. At times it's just way too convoluted, but that might be just because I haven't watched any X-Men movie since First Class and I'm rusty. There's a lot of chronology where I'm not sure what's changed or fixed or whatever. The problem is that the antagonistic force requires a big suspension of disbelief that I'm not prepared to give. It's a film very derivative of its inspirations and in particular in that regard, The Matrix. But predictability aside, it has some very involving and colourful action scenes that make up for any moments where I'm lost.
Mutant fighting is always a joy to watch and Fassbender and McAvoy prove their worth as Magnetic and Professor X. I could take or leave the Quicksilver stuff but I get why he's popular. However, the film does do a great job at raising the stakes with a tiny shot of emotional resonance in its biggest moments and I think that's partly why the film works much better than other blockbusters this year, even if its first act misstep shoots itself in the foot. I guess it depends on the backstory from the other movies but I can't quite figure out at what point it's entering from. Days of Future Past is just real easy to watch with plenty of lights (aka crowded with characters) buzzing at once to keep you occupied for two hours. We know what worse looks like anyway.
6/10