The X-Men are back in a big way.

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2014)

X-MEN:DAYS OF FUTURE PAST really brings the franchise back in a big way after the sour taste many fans had after LAST STAND and WOLVERINE:ORIGINS, which most felt were lackluster. X-MEN:FIRST CLASS did a good job of getting the series back on track, but many of us were left with the notion there was work left to do. After seeing Bryan Singer's DAYS OF FUTURE PAST I can say with certainty that this is the best X-Men movie of them all and a real contender for best comic book movie ever-although THE DARK KNIGHT and THE AVENGERS are still very much in contention for the title.
What makes DAYS OF FUTURE PAST so great:
It perfectly expresses the idea that as a group, the X-Men are the down and dirty combat grunts of the comic universe. The Avengers and the JLA are made up of A list heroes, world beaters who come together in the face of some titanic threat, while the mutants are scrappy misfits, many of them with working class origins and with more than a few neurotic personalities and issues among themselves, but except for the Fantastic Four, they are more of a family than any of the others. They use stealth whenever possible and are not afraid of being underhanded if that is what is takes to get the job done.
It unites both the universes of the early X-Men films and the later FIRST CLASS and brings back Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, along with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, as they desperately try to rewrite history from the vantage point of a hellish future ruled by the mutant killing Sentinels. They also put Hugh Jackman's Wolverine back front and center in the action as it is his consciousness that is sent back to his 1973 body, where he will try to unite Professor Xavier and Magneto and prevent the murder of the Sentinel's inventor, Bolivar Trask, by Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique, which sets in motion events that will lead to the genocide of the mutants. All the previous X-Men films are referenced and virtually every character in the franchise makes an appearance at some point. This leads to a few inevitable logic and plot holes, the kind that drive some fans up the wall and across the ceiling- how is Professor X alive and in Patrick Stewart's body in DAYS OF FUTURE PAST when everyone saw him utterly destroyed by Jean Grey in LAST STAND? Not even the post credit scene from that film would explain it.
Fight scenes that come as close as any movie to truly capturing the feel of the epic battles of the comics; I'm specifically talking about the battle in the future that opens the movie where the surviving X-Men including Bishop, Storm, Iceman, Blink, Sunspot, and Warpath take on a squad of Sentinels. Each mutant's power is highlighted, but I really liked the way Blink used her portals to give the X-Men an edge. Then there is the scene where we see the action from the point of view of Evan Peters's Quicksilver as he moves so fast that everything else, including bullets speeding through mid air, appear to stand still. This might be my favorite scene from any comic book movie ever.
How it rectifies some mistakes of the past: Welcome back Jean Grey and Cyclops; their reunion scene with Wolverine at the end was the icing on the cake for me. And then there is Richard Nixon pulling a gun.
Of course some characters didn't get as much screen time as I would have hoped-Oscar Sy as Bishop, Hallie Berry back as Storm, Booboo Stewart as Warpath, Adnan Canto as Sunspot, and especially Evan Peters as Quicksilver, who nearly steals the film. Peter Dinkledge could have been been given some better lines as Bolivar Trask, the movie's main bad guy, since we know what he can do on GAME OF THRONES.
And the logic holes,it wouldn't be a comic book movie without them, like how could Ellen Page's Rogue keep contact with Wolverine's consciousness in the past for days on end? Maybe time moves at a different pace in the future. And maybe Charles Xavier is using his highly developed powers of telepathy to make everyone see him in Patrick Stewart's body or it really was his twin brother who was comatose at the end of LAST STAND.
As for the post credit scene, everyone had better go read THE AGE OF APOCALYPSE and get up to speed.