Bryan Singer is back to save the franchise

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2014)

X-Men has been a dying franchise for a while now. Last Stand was good for what it was and I don't blame Ratner for how mediocre it was compared to the original and X2, but Origins was a poor effort and last years The Wolverine showed that Wolverine wasn't the only thing that made the original two films great, and First Class showed that an X-Men film didn't even need Wolverine to be great. Days Of Future Past is exactly the type of film this franchise needed to be saved... and who better that the man who started it all, Bryan Singer, to save it for us.
The film got off to a brilliant start with the theme and very similar title sequence to X2, Singer clearly wanted you to know the boss is back and he ain't messing around. The film started off with one of the most heartbreaking scenes I have seen in the X-Men franchise. Colossus, Ice Man and more all getting demolished, decapitated, burned alive etc by what seem like unstoppable Sentinels. Its something I don't think we are used to in the superhero genre and it sets the tone perfectly for whats to come.
I wont spoil the whole thing for you but there are many scenes that make you care about these characters, there thoughts and feelings, who they are and it reminds you that these are people who are fighting for the right to fit in with a society that cant look past their differences. A competition between Eric and Charles on a plane is a tense and emotional scene that shows that both men have motives that are neither right or wrong, but a different way of dealing with the same problem.
The music I have to say is a high point. Just a beautiful score by John Ottman. The effects are some of the best I have seen in a superhero film. The action scenes are intense but easily followed and the use of the 70s style news cameras to capture some of the action gives the film a different edge and makes it stand out in a great way. The shaky cam is also nowhere to be found.... Booyah. Also, Jennifer Lawrence in nothing but blue paint... yeah.
Quicksilver is actually not as bad and annoying as I thought, he doesn't have a huge role but he does have one of the best scenes in the film and Evan Peters plays him well. Also, props to the Nixon actor, Mark Camacho was actually a great Nixon, I think Nixon may just be the most portrayed President ever actually.
Overall, Days Of Future Past is the best entry in the X-Men franchise, it manages to blend both timelines together seamlessly and gives every character reasonable screen time so nobody feels wasted. It revitalised the franchise and makes me all the more excited for Apocalypse in 2016