Comic enjoyment intertwines with top notch acting and excellent human drama

Rating: 9/10 (2 June 2014)

In the convoluted time-travelling plot of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Fox molds two X-Men franchises into one, by colliding the future mutants, now living in the post-Sentinel cleansing wastelands of Earth with the past versions of themselves from Nixon-era 1970s. With mutant genocide bringing about the collapse of civilisation, the remnants of the mutants, including core X-Men members: Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Bishop (Omar Sy), Blink (Bingbing Fan), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Warpath (Booboo Stewart) and the once infamous Magneto (Ian McKellen) attempt one last daring ploy to avert the imminent disaster. This means Wolverine must be sent into the past with the use of Kitty Pryde's powers to stop the murder of Sentinel mastermind Dr Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) by mutant rights activist turned rogue Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). The future's hope lays in averting the past - thus Wolverine must force the downtrodden and resigned drunkard Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and the imprisoned Eric Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) to stop the occurrences of days to come from ever coming into being. Only Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and a fickle youth Quicksilver (Evan Peters) are willing to aide the best at what he does...
Amongst the many faucets of success of Bryan Singer in he reclaiming of the franchise, one seems to be strongly undervalued by most viewers. Despite an onslaught of characters the X-Men are rejuvenated thanks to one simple truth: not all character need to be character studies and albeit each of the cast receives their moment in the limelight, the X-Men resonate all so much more strongly that the super-powered mutants need no introduction. To a varying extent introduced in previous episodes of the series, most of the characters function as direct imprints from the comics, cartoon series or previous movies with the entire mythology appropriated to them. They need not be presented, delved in, they just function as part of a well-oiled team of superheroes. Much like in the comics the movie finally understands that focus can only be placed on a select number of characters, the rest operate within action sequences to wow the audience into submission, while the drama evolves around just a few in their midst.
Thankfully also focus shifts away from Wolverine, the franchises most important and recognisable character, towards the trio of Professor X, Eric Lensherr and Mystique. Wolverine still features heavily in the plot, but is mostly a backup cast member with limited impact on proceedings, but with charm and character attributes helping to liven up the story throughout. Nonetheless McAvoy, Fassbender and Lawrence shine with a well-thought out plot centred around the morality of Mystique and the dark path she has chosen to follow. Support cast is unanimously superb within their characters, even if they receive but a few minutes of screen time they each memorably capture their moments: Storm is godlike and enchanting, Colossus is almighty, Blink has a lingering presence, Iceman is all-powerful, while Magneto of the past and future display their otherworldly power. Quicksilver naturally steals the show, but Singer has improved in leaps and bounds in his presentation of fight sequences. Only Bishop cries out for more screen time and focus, which hopefully he will receive come X-Men: Apocalypse.
Also thoroughly enjoyed the teamwork, so key to the comic book, that is on show throughout all the future sequences of battles with Sentinels.
It says a lot that the two mayor flaws of the movie are its short runtime of 130 minutes (it honestly feels like the movie could easily go on for another 60 or so minutes and never lose traction on the audience) and the fact that we have to wait for the next episode of the series for another 2 years (how I wish this was a mega-budget several episode series...). Minor faults of the feature are some laboured story, which at times struggles to piece together the plot holes of past episodes, and the somewhat funny, but ultimately jarring, jokes centred around Magneto's supposed involvement in the assassination of J.F.Kennedy.
By far the best comic-book movie of the year and arguably only inferior to "The Dark Knight". The mouthwatering prospect of X-Men: Apocalypse is just too far away to bear...