Just a few quick thoughts about "X-Men: Days of Future Past."

Rating: 8/10 (16 June 2014)

And, no, that is not a lame attempt at a "Quicksilver" pun. Honestly.
I really, really liked it. It isn't my favorite "X-Men" movie — those will always be what is arguably the darkest of the franchise ("X2: X-Men United") and the lightest ("X-Men: First Class"). But it's definitely a nice addition to the series.
Here are a few reactions, with minimal spoilers, in no particular order:
-- What a radical shift in tone from "First Class." Way to bring the pathos, Bryan Singer. The opening scenes are brutal, and there are many major character deaths. Some of them occur off screen; others do not. Some are violent. I do believe this is the first superhero movie I have ever seen in which a major character and fan favorite has his or her head crushed, in close-up, during the opening action set piece.
Speaking of the opening segment, will somebody please validate my uber- nerd-dom and tell me that they saw what I saw?! I KNEW that the overflying airships that are dropping The Sentinels looked familiar. Am I nuts, or are those none other than facsimiles of the lone "Valhalla" airship depicted in the woefully under-appreciated "Marvel 2099″ universe from the mid-1990′s?! If Singer intended that, it's a terrificly obscure and fun shout-out to 40-year-old comic book fans. (Ahem.)
There isn't any unnecessary exposition to bore us. This is a major issue in comic book movies. We can forgive the Christopher Nolan films for revisiting Bruce Wayne's metamorphosis, because those films were exceptionally well made. The new Spider-Man films? Not so much. In "Future Past," we have thankfully no flashbacks for every single character. We're briefly told that there is a global pogrom waged by The Sentinels against mutants and innocent humans, and that Xavier and Magneto have joined forces to fight the good fight. Then we're shown various heroes with various superpowers fighting. We don't need to know all of their backstories.
The action scenes were very well directed. Nice work, Mr. Singer. The special effects were top notch. What great fun it was seeing Blink, Iceman, Quicksilver and Bishop do their thing.
Given the movie's central plot device why on earth are we concerned with Mystique, and not Rogue, given their respective powers? There are a few obvious guesses One, Mystique is a more popular character. Two, Jennifer Lawrence has more star power than Anna Paquin. Still, this bugged me throughout the film.
I personally hate the plot device itself, in which various characters can steal or borrow others' powers.
Time travel is also a frequently unwieldy plot device, but I think it was capably handled here, thanks to careful writing and a little restraint.
It would also be just great if somebody could explain to me how Mystique apparently alters her body mass.
I love how this movie and "First Class" integrate the comic book mythology with real world events. It's pure fun, especially the nod at JFK.
Once again, we have an "X-Men" movie in which the darker characters are less predictable and more fun to follow. A better adjusted and more grounded Wolverine makes perfect sense. (We don't need to endlessly revisit the same character arc.) But he actually is less interesting when he becomes more stable. And characters like Beast are flat out boring. I'm happy that we spent a nice amount of time with Magneto, Mystique, and the human antagonists.
Speaking of which, Peter Dinklage was perfect as Bolivar Trask. What a performance — especially with respect to making weighty dialogue sound natural — look again at his reaction to the suggestion that he hates mutants. Incredibly good line work. Is this the same guy as in "Games of Thrones?" I refuse to watch that show simply because I am tired of hearing about it. But the "X-Men" movies seem to do a great job providing us with human adversaries that are threatening despite an absence of super-powers.
Michael Fassbender is simply a wonderful actor, and he is perfectly cast as Youngneto. He vocalizes and emotes just like a raging, charismatic ideologue.
If I said that Patrick Stewart's and Ian McKellan were fantastic, that would just be belaboring the obvious.
I like Jennifer Lawrence. I do. She was great as a strong, sympathetic protagonist in "The Hunger Games." And she deserves her fanbase. But here, she just doesn't demonstrate range enough to play a vengeful, homicidal woman. Rebecca Romjin did a better job of giving us a good, scary, bogeyman to make us think that humans needed protection by Xavier's kids. Or, for an amazing example of a young actress portraying anger and vengeance, look no further than co-star Ellen Page's amazing performance in the brutal, incredible movie, "Hard Candy" (2005). Furthermore, Mystique, as written here and in "First Class," just isn't as much fun. No, she wasn't really an identifiable character in the previous movies, but she was a great bad guy — something that a doe- eyed, redeemed Mystique just isn't.
Quicksilver steals the show. Evan Peters was awesome. Unsupervised teenagers with superpowers are always fun. This movie takes a lighter look at what transpired in the extremely enjoyable "Chronicle" (2012). What would happen if this kid met those kids?
It's rather nice seeing how this movie placates fan complaints with "X- Men 3: The Last Stand."
If you're the kind of flick nut who enjoys movie marathons, good luck figuring out where this film fits chronologically with the other movies! :-D
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