A continuously improving franchise

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2014)

This installment by far better then the original three x-men movies with the new cast complimenting the old to make this movie work. This time travel story definitely makes up for and erases the disappointing X-men: The Last Stand while highlighting favorite moments of the past installments. However it seems that the events that took place in Last Stand did not affect this movie as Charles is alive and Magneto and Mystique have not lost their powers, in my opinion a good thing to forget. The opening action sequence is a great display of the older cast and their mutant powers. James McAvoy as the younger Charles along with Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Holt give amazing performances in their younger roles. Evan Peters performance as Quicksilver was rather funny and a very enjoyable sequence, hopefully we will see his character with the young X-men in Apocalypse. Like the Avengers, a seemingly impossible movie on paper, the huge cast and varied numbered of leading characters is excellently executed. My one critique would be Michael Fassbender's young magneto. Though Fassbender is a brilliant actor and his performance in First Class was perfection, the character development of young Magneto is flawed and overlooked in Days of Future Past. He went from attempting to save President JFK and mourning the loss of his fellow younger mutants to attempting to kill Wolverine, Beast, and Mystique along with attempting to publicly starting a war with the humans. Following First Class, I was expecting a lot more from young Magneto and his story in Days of Future Past was underwhelming. Another interesting plot point was Wolverines creator Stryker seeming to be compromised by Mystique at the end of the film. Does Logan end up becoming Wolverine under Stryker's experiments, we do not see in the new future whether he has his bone or metal claws. Overall this film proves that the X-men franchise is getting better and better, with the brilliant new cast to be outshining the old cast. Post credit scene making Apocalypse a very intriguing next installment.