Another solid X-Men film, if lacking a little substance.

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2014)

Here we are again for another Bryan Singer X-men film, and this one has all the hype that his last 2011 X-men outing had, X-men: First Class, but this time its back to the past, then the future, and then the past again and the future, which actually is the present in the film, but the future to us, and the past again wait WHAT!
Actually it's not that hard to follow, we have some of the current X-men crop, Storm and Wolverine along with Magneto and Professor X meeting up with a group of other mutants, lead by Bishop and Kitty Pryde. The reason for this meet up, well, like most problems in this darn universe, it's the pesky humans that need a helping hand, but actually this time the Mutants need some major help too, so Logan ET AL need to find a way to save everyone from the current (2023) destructive nature and ongoing problems caused by the super advanced versions of the robot Sentinel program that fast tracked into development and launched in the 70′s.
Fortunately Kitty Pryde has the ability to project someone's consciousness back in time, and she uses this to keep ahead of the current (2023) sentinels who are obliterating both mutants and humans, and by the looks of things New York (poor New York, it's always getting destroyed, it's a super villain haven). Kitty, along with Bishop, Iceman, Colossus, Blink, Warpath and Sunspot use her ability as a warning tool so that they can work out what to do and how to survive against the ongoing and relentless attacks from the Sentinels. The Sentinel robots, are so powerful now against nearly all Mutant abilities that along with modification from events that happened in the 70′s from when the program was started by Boliva Trask, they now have the ability to change or deflect the incoming attack of mutants depending on the type of attack, be it ice, fire, water, plasma etc, thus with it, making the Sentinels nigh on indestructible.
This prompts Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian Mckellen) and the gang to use Kitty's ability to send someone back in time to before the Sentinel program was put into full effect. They decided that never ageing Logan is the only real person who could take on this task so they send him back to 1973 to try to change the actions of a young Raven/Mystique who more than likely set in motion the current devastating events all the way up into our current future point, 2023.
Raven or Mystique, which ever name you wish to call her, depending on her current state or action, is played by the ever popular and ever busy Jennifer Lawrence, for the 2nd film running. In terms of story, she is major player in this, as this is the sole reason why Logan (Hugh Jackman) is sent back in the past, to go and meet a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and young Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) to try to stop Raven/Mystique (Lawrence) in, lets say, a few bullet point issues for Boliva Trask (Peter Dinklage) that caused her to then be captured, and having her shape shifting cells used in the future Sentinel technology by Trask's company.
Along the way we come across a few familiar faces, with the like of Beast (Nicholas Hoult) also playing a big part (not just looking dapper in a full brown 70′s suede suit! – check left!) in helping to get our young Charles Xavier in the right frame of mind, as well as the likes of Quick Silver (Evan Peters) who has the chance to show his abilities to the masses, and shall we say, get the better a few security guards all by himself, and not just playing a bit of table tennis against himself!
I still think I preferred the pacing of X-men: First Class over 'Days of Future Past'. There seems to be more of a focused start, middle and end in 'First class', we as the viewer knew what needed to be done, and it was straight forward, yet here in 'Days of Future Past' it can be a little messy and confusing to the time line (especially considering that it disregards everything from X3 .. but everyone has been trying to disregards X3 for years now, so maybe that's a good thing), however if we were to put the latest two X-men films against each other, 'First Class' and 'Future Past' I really wouldn't be surprised if both films were in many's top 3, or even the top 2 of people's favourite X-men films.
As like 'First Class', Days of Future Past is still excellently written, with some great action, and some fantastic story elements. We have fan favourites making appearances, the likes of Quick Silver is always a good thing, and with the story element of going into the past and future it leaves things open to cameos, maybe from characters we never thought we'd see again (YET STILL NO GAMBIT!). There are some really funny moments and even though some here and seem a little forced, the producers are confident enough in their final product of this action comic adaptation, that they are not shy of putting some laughs in, and you could easily look past those moments if you feel like it and still see the rest of the quality flowing through this film.
Some characters in my opinion are a little underused, as I would have liked more Quick Silver considering his hype and the likes of Colossus who I'm a fan of, however having not read the original source material, for all I know this is the way most of the story went, and even if it wasn't I still think generally everyone should be very pleased on this X-men outing and how the story played out.
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