Katniss Everdeen vs. Tyrion Lannister...

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2014)

That's what it all really comes down to in the end. Will she shoot him or not? Come on, it's Tyrion! No one could shoot him, not even the stone-cold assassin Raven's turned into. The reason why she WANTS to has something to do with Boliver Trask (Peter Dinklage) building machines called Sentinels from Mystique's DNA that allows them to adapt to any attack and therefore be unbeatable in the future. So Wolverine gets sent back to the 70's to prevent Trask from being assassinated so the future won't turn out so bleak for mutants and mutant supporters alike. In the immortal words of David Tennant's Doctor: it's a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey...stuff. Original director of the first two X-movies, Bryan Singer, knows what this franchise is all about. It's not only nice to welcome back the original X-movie theme/DNA strand opening credits/Cerebro door closing bit, but also he who kick-started all this. Oh, what could have been if he had done the third movie. Speaking of, this film (to the gratefulness of many) remedies a good chunk of what transpired in The Last Stand and made so many unhappy. But don't fret, Singer has said he's not erasing the past movies and he believes in "multiverses".
After a beginning, where a handful of new X-Men characters who we don't give a fig about die, we learn it's a total "psyche!" moment and they're all good. This happens again near the end of the movie. It really doesn't have much effect, as all the new mutants are forgettable and the only ones we care about are from the previous films. Stewart and McKellen are what really grounds these future scenes. More of Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, complete with potty mouth, is welcome after she was underutilized in Last Stand, but she's more just a means to an end here. It's Logan who gets to do all the time travel. His visit to the 70's allows for some nice/funny moments acknowledging the era he's in (lava lamps, water beds, the music!). Things are much more interesting in the past, with McAvoy as young Charles, Fassbender as young Erik and JLaw as young Mystique (sadly, she only really shares one moment with Hank/Beast). These actors are what made First Class so enjoyable/successful, so it's a good thing we spend the bulk of the movie with them.
McAvoy brings so many depths to Charles (who has found a serum that allows him to walk, but doing so takes away his abilities). He and Jackman play well off each other, and Charles gets to repay Logan for his telling him to eff off in the last movie. Fassy, meanwhile, plays a much more angrier Magneto here. So much so that he's willing to kill Mystique, the one whom he brought over to his side last movie. What scenes the two of them share are really good, it's just a shame they were opposing each other. No disrespect to Rebecca Romijn, who was a welcome cameo in First Class and did a decent in the previous movies, but Jennifer Lawrence imbues her character with so much more nuance. One can understand her motivations/conflict, and the big moment between her and Trask has suitable weight to it, given what's at stake. Not to mention she's picked up a slew of kick-arse moves that she uses to take down large numbers of enemies all at once. Her fight scenes are some of the stand-outs in the film - they're so imaginative/creative and never boring. Describing her as quite flexible/bendy is an understatement.
Jackman, as always, is easily likable in his most recognised role. He's gotten playing Logan down to an art by now. Despite the lack of 'snikt!' (as his past self's bone claws are adamantium-less), he still kicks a fair amount of arse. He shares some good scenes with Xavier, Lehnsherr and Hank. The past cast certainly elevates the movie. New character Peter/Quicksilver is mostly played for some funny visuals, though he does come in handy with his super speed. However, the scene in X2 when Nightcrawler attacks the White House remains the better of the two. Judging by my audience's reaction, this Quicksilver may indeed prove a hit with film goers, though I personally am more looking forward to seeing what Whedon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson do with the character in Avengers 2. I imagine/am hoping he'll have more character depth. Dinklage, who we all love, naturally makes the most of his role and does not feel like some cartoonish villain or anything.
The most note-worthy thing, cast-wise, is all the cameos we get of characters long-thought lost. It's an emotional/highly effective moment when we see Famke Janssen's Jean again (no longer the Phoenix), James Marsden's Scott (who's still got that great dynamic with Logan) and Anna Paquin's Rogue. While the first two prove that the events which made so many mad in The Last Stand have been corrected, the last one is a bit of a shame only because of how minuscule her screen time is. Sadly, Paquin's Rogue has always been criminally underused and (especially in Last Stand) done a disservice by the writing, but at least she and Bobby/Iceman (who finally does some ice-ramp forming/surfing in this film) get a happy ending. Actually, it seems almost everyone gets one, more or less (except for the poor X-Jet, which gets destroyed every movie), while the very end promises interesting things to come. While it's a shame Matthew Vaughn, who directed First Class (which I thought rejuvenated the series after it had gone stale), declined directing this one, Singer does a good job of bringing back the positive memories of the first two films. While I do prefer First Class and feel this film had some unnecessary characters/got a bit muddled, the good mostly outweighs the bad. This is an X-Men sequel right up there with X2 on the successful scale and should make most X-fans happy.