Immensely popular, deservedly

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2014)

While verdicts of many major film critics are not yet out at the time of this posting, the fact that this X-men "convergence" has won a resounding approval (8.9 rating) from some 17,000 IMDb users to-date is not surprising. I use the word convergence to denote the two separate time frames in which the X-men movies have appeared: the initial story set in the present (loosely defined) on the one hand, and time of the 1962 Cuban Crisis on the other when the two nemesis were young men. This convergence takes up both time frames: the continuation of the "present" when the mutants are facing the risk of total annihilation and the year 1973 to which Logan is sent back to try to save the day by changing the future. Sounds familiar? You've seen it all, the best of which is "Back to the future".
While the basic premise is familiar, the work done with it is clever, with good attention to details. The plot is simple and uncontrived, makes sense, and works. Don't be overwhelmed by the alarming proliferation of characters. Focus on the few key ones – the rest are almost like animation, although not in a literal sense. The new enemy, potential annihilator of the mutant species, is called Sentinels: robots developed with one single-minded agenda – identify, hunt down and kill all mutants. Sentinels were developed back in the 1970s by Dr. Trask (Peter Dinklage). Ironically, the successful assassination of Trask led to the immediate capture of assassin Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), the analysis of whose genetic makeup became instrumental to the perfection of Sentinels. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Gandolfsorry, I mean Ian McKellen), joining force in the mutant's last stand, commission Kitty Pryde (lovely Ellen Page) to send Logan (whatsisname again?) back to find and persuade the pair back then (James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr) to stop the assassination. If successful, this would remake history - Sentinels would never progress beyond the prototype stage and nobody would remember anything about the alternative, sinister time line. This time-travel here is a tricky concept. What is sent back is actually Logan's "consciousness" from the present, to sort of "possess" his body back in 1973. Why Logan? He is the only one who can survive the ordeal of this decades-spanning time travel, and any worthy follower of the X-men or Wolverine story knows why. Just one more thing: if this works, Logan is the only person who will remember what happened.
No more needs to be said about the plot. What I have not elaborated on are just details that enhance the texture of this basic plot. The two key set pieces, as can be easily surmised, are the titanic battle against the Sentinels in the present time frame and culminating assassination scene back in 1973. Towards the end of the movie, they converge and cross-cut in a totally predictable fashion.
I mentioned the proliferation of characters, mostly mutants, both new and old. I am only going to mention two additional ones. Nicholas Hoult as Beast gets almost as much screen time as the key characters, as the only company kept by Xavier (details omitted here). The other one is Evan Peters as Quicksilver, not so much for the character as for one specific scene with Jim Croce's all-time hall-of-fame classic "Time in a bottle" as background music (details omitted here). There is a lot more, old and new, all tremendous fun to watch.
This movie has a lot of everything in it (characters, stories, situations), although none with any real depth. That it is hugely entertaining is amply demonstrated in the aforementioned IMDb user rating. To some, probably, the mere special effects are worth it.