X-Men Days of Future Past

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2014)

Talk about a rise and fall and rebirth of a franchise. If you're around my age than the big superhero franchises that we soaked in were the Raimi's Spider-Man films, Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, and of course the X-Men movies. Overall, I can honestly say that I really love this series. Origins: Wolverine, is certainly a low point and while The Last Stand was no where near the awesomeness and greatness that was Bryan Singer's first 2 films, it's still a fairly entertaining action movie. First Class was (before yesterday) my favorite X-Men movie, and even THE Wolverine was an awesome and gritty and much needed different take on an X-Men story. I literally grew up with this movie franchise, so I guess you can say I was extremely hyped when I sat down in the theater for DOFP.
You start off with a Terminator like intro, the first 10 minutes of this movie had some of the strongest and haunting scenes I've ever seen in a comic book movie. Humans AND mutants are on a losing side of a tragic war against the genocidal, Sentinels. A group of X-Men, led by Patrick Stewart's, Prof. X and Ian McKellen's, Magneto. They have a last hope idea of sending someone back to the point in time, where these Sentinel's were created. With his ability to heal and agelessness, Wolverine offers his services to travel back to 1972, to try to reunite the torn friendship between young Magneto and Prof. X, and band together to prevent this horrible war from happening.
My god, what a rush this movie was. I don't think I had this sense of wonder watching a comic book movie since The Dark Knight Rises premiered. The eerie opening got me by surprise, but it worked. It perfectly showed us the audience, just how serious and catastrophic this battle with The Sentinels is. So from the start I'm hooked, then we get into this crazy plan hatched up that sends Wolverine to the 70's and get a bit more lighter, but then we see James McAvoy in a terrific performance as young and troubled Charles Xavier, Jennifer Lawrence being as hot and more bad ass than ever as Mystique, and of course Michael Fassbender as the multi-layered Magneto. Everyone's performance in this movie was utilized so good. Oscar winner Halle Berry has minimal dialog, but her presence was felt, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, and Evan Peters all aren't front and center a lot, but they give it their all every minute they're on screen, which makes the dramatic tension so powerful especially when you see certain characters die or get injured. Hugh Jackman was great as Wolverine as usual, but in a different way, as opposed to past films. Here, Wolverine is a much more centered guy, who really wants to help everyone. He even agrees to think happy thoughts to keep his mind from bursting by traveling through space-time.
You would think a movie THIS packed with story, characters, and action, that'd the movie would get lost and tumble over it's own weight and I can't tell you happy I am that it doesn't. You're never once lost as to what's going on, what needs to be done, and how everything got to where it is. The story is played out rather well. Each character and actor has the perfect amount of screen time for what it is their character's are needed for. Quicksilver is a perfect example, he stole every scene he was in, and while he's here and gone pretty swiftly, it gives other more important characters their time to shine. You gotta give it up to the writers and the absolutely terrific direction of Mr. Bryan Singer.
Just hearing the X-Men theme song playing during the begging made my eyes tear, this movie really brought the X-Men back to greatness. The special effects were spot on, my favorite scene even outshining the big stadium scene was, Quicksilver's kitchen run. The combination of music, humor, effects, and practical effects worked to summer blockbuster perfection. The design on the Sentinel's were OK, I wasn't blown away by them as they reminded me a lot of the giant robot guard from the first Thor movie. The setting of 1970's Washington makes for some pretty nice looking sets and sequences and the future scenes were awesome. The action is filmed so well and the powers of the mutants make the action just the kind of jaw dropping eye candy I've been wanting.
This is one of the best movie I've seen all year, it may have even beaten out Captain America: The Winter Soldier as my favorite comic book movie of the year. The action, acting, and story are exceeded my expectations. I really believe the hype and I see why people are rushing back for another viewing, this is a fantastic movie and I give it my highest recommendation. This movie was a Cineadventure.