Believe the hype! Days of Future Past succeeds where so many action films fail.

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2014)

We begin in a very bleak future. Mutants are fighting a war they cannot win as next generation sentinels have pushed them to the verge of extinction. The last remaining mutant survivors converge on a single location and hold out for one last stand. Magneto and Professor X have identified a singular event in the past that was the catalyst for their current predicament. If they can prevent this from occurring, they can save not only themselves, but most of humanity. The strain of travelling back in the past on the subconscious is significant however and given his regenerative mutant powers, only Wolverine can survive the journey. Once back in time, Wolverine must race against time to convince the younger Magneto and Professor X to put aside their differences and unite in order to change the course of the future before the sentinels discover their future holdout and wipe them out.
Days of Future Past is a fantastic film. Most summer movies have tonnes of action and special effects, but they mostly fail to cast good, convincing actors, create sufficient drama or develop the story necessary to make the action scenes resonate and be meaningful (Godzilla anyone?). This film excels in this regard. Time is taken to develop the story and the inner conflict of Professor X, Mystique and Magneto as they struggle with overcoming personal fear, rejection, past differences and whether or not they can trust not only themselves, but also the humans. The slight downside of this is the film is a little slow in the middle, but this is pivotal to the effectiveness of the last act. Having said that, at no point does the film drag on and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Evan Peters (Quick Silver) provide plenty of humour to keep what is mostly a dark narrative light and enjoyable. Admittedly, as in all time travel movies, not everything totally adds up when you think through all the permutations of how this affects the previous films, events and characters in the Marvel universe. For the most part the story isn't convoluted and is entertaining throughout.
The film has excellent casting, from top to bottom and I would say this is the best cast Marvel film to date. There are no unnecessary characters or weak performances; every character plays a key role in the story and is convincing. Hugh Jackman continues to be excellent as Wolverine (sadly, they still can't seem to make a great movie where he is the headline). Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and James McAvoy (Professor Xavier) once again provide solid performances and along with Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) are the emotional centre of the film and elevate it above the usual summer fair. Peter Dinklage (Dr. Trask) isn't given much to work with, but he delivers a fairly serviceable performance. I also really appreciated that Bryan Singer provided some of the lessor known X-Men such as Bishop and Blink with meaningful screen time. All in all, this is as good as you can get for such a large, ensemble cast; full marks across the board.
The highlight of the film for me though was the future sentinels; they were fantastic! The special effects for these are incredible and they are the catalyst for some amazing battles in the future story arc. While I was a little disappointed in the interpretation of sentinels of the past (as they weren't quite how I remembered them from the Saturday morning FOX cartoon of my childhood), the design and action sequences with them more than made up for it as they were so well done (and that is an understatement!). Very impressive special effects overall and plenty of action to keep even the most ardent fan boy satisfied. This has to be seen in a higher end theatre such as IMAX or UltraAVX.
The film brings together a strong balance of action, good story telling and meaningful performances that lead to an emotionally jarring conclusion as the X-Men fight to survive in both the past and future. As the story lines converge it was impossible not only to be on the edge of my seat as it came to a thrilling conclusion, but also to be invested in their struggle. It was reminiscent of the last act of The Dark Knight, it was that good. This is the perfect summer movie and not to be missed by Marvel or action fans. Not only does it challenge as the best Marvel film yet, it's also the best film of 2014 to date.
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