8.5/10

Rating: 8/10 (26 September 2014)

8.5/10 I saw this film on opening day and went back the day after to see it again. This really speaks to how much sophisticated entertainment Bryan Singer has managed to pull off. This is not the kind of soft fun you're having in an average blockbuster, the one you will most certainly forget very easily, yet it even isn't heavy or "dark" fun: it's a way in the middle. This is due to many, many ingredients: firstly on a performance level everybody is doing an amazing job. I think that the best Wolverine performance was in the film "Wolverine" but Hugh Jackman still is great an still remains my favourite superhero performance to date. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen could just be standing with the same face throughout the movie and I would still be in awe: it was great to see them back on screen together and they even had some magnificent character moments that they pulled off flawlessly: I'm hoping beyond hope to see them once again together because they fulfill their roles simply perfectly. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender aren't the legends their old counterparts are, but they are the best rightful substitutes we could have asked for (and Micheal Fassbender might actually become a legend sooner rather than later, he is on the right path for it). They have lots going on and thanks to a fantastic chemistry and talent, they do live up to their roles improving what we had seen in First Class. Jennifer Lawrence is immensely better as Mystique in this one and, taking her lesson from Rebecca Romain, gets her character to a better place where we left her, I am really interested now on where will she go, she won me over with this one. Peter Dinklage gives proof he is a special actor, bringing a very subtle and humble performance and without ever being showy he gets Trask to the perfect mix, even though the character was someway underused, Dinklage managed to give him relevance and presence. The rest of the cast is as good as you could ask, but most importantly they all get their chance to shine and we see some great references here and there. On this topic a shout out to Quicksilver has to be given: he has on of the best WTF scene I have ever seen. To this contributed perfect special effects that carry out across the board and I can safely say that even though this isn't a heavy Cgi movie (in a very positive way) every single visual effect was flawless and I never saw a shot that took me out of it. Bryan Singer demonstrates that he know this property very well and this proves in the directing. The screenplay is the richest and most complicated aspect of this movie: on a general aspect it is astonishingly deep and fluent, the fact is that it is striving to keep the movie going on whilst playing with the whole X-Men canon and to a comic book geek like me that is very important. On one hand it succeeds beyond expectations in tying up loose ends and respecting the majority of the canon yet on the other hand it sometimes feels a bit too artificial and doesn't give explanations to some minor devices that as the audience we are expected to pass (and we do because they are all great adjustments): why is Xavier alive? why does wolverine have metal claws back? why does Kitty make people travel in time? What exactly is the chronology for the future? I was more than happy about all of this but I would have appreciated them to give me an explanation and I will reiterate the fact that I was stunned at how brilliantly they managed to keep up-to-canon and how they ended it all. So before I enter into spoilers I will say I think this is another great entry in the comic book genre (X2 still remains my favourite x-men movie, but this one is right under it), where the movie really succeeds is in the characters and the portrayal of these iconic relationships and stories that bring in some breathtaking moments and some deep themes (to which the x-men have always been associated with), I do see myself rewatiching this over and over in the future and really hope it will get better with its sequels and with time, yet for now I must acknowledge a very fluent but sometimes uneven story (not plot!).