Welcome Back Mr. Singer

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2014)

An entertaining return to the Marvel world of the X-Men with a fairly straightforward plot and a very good cast. It is rare for a movie to unfold exactly as it seems in the previews but this one seems to have done just that. There are NOT a ton of surprises here. The movie unfolds very similarly to how I expected. The future is dire, and transporting Logan's (Jackman) consciousness to the 70's seems to be the last hope for mankind. Professor X (Stewart), Magneto (Mackella), and Storm (Berry) (along with some new mutants and some alumni from X-men 3) return for what is most likely their last hurrah as X-men as I feel another film with these folk may seem campy and a bit unlikely. They hold up in a structure to protect Wolverine's body as his consciousness attempts to save the day back in the 70's. Back in the 70's, Charles, (McAvoy) Erik, (Fassbender) Hank (Hoult), and Raven/Mystique (Lawrence) have their own issues and agendas until Logan shows up with a different agenda, stop someone from killing someone, and save the future. They don't all perk up with happiness and unity to this news however, and the linear cause and effect notion of time travel is not always so simple, as sometimes changing something in the past will course correct and not really change, or possibly change the future for the worse. The time travel notion however does not get overly complicated here, and Singer does a GREAT job at implementing it, and not blowing audiences mind so they can't understand the basic nature of the story.
What was missing for me was a bit more action. There IS action here mind you, in the beginning, at the end, but not a ton in the middle. I was hoping for a tad more Wolverine excitement as well. His character was present in almost the entire movie, but his lame claws in the 70's, and the lack of need for him to fight was a downer. Especially when he most likely had to stay in supreme shape for a cool year with the back to back filming of "Wolverine" and this film. Charles, Erik and he spend a lot of time running around in 70's clothes. Even Beast gets more action than Wolverine this time around which I found disappointing. One of the best sequences is the rescue attempt of Erik from a prison, with new mutant Quicksilver (Evan Peters). It is refreshing, humorous, and entertaining, and I wish the film had a couple more of these moments. These were my main concerns, and as an entire film, and a comic book one at that, this one does not fail to deliver. It is the BEST movie of the summer so far.