Not only is it the best X-Men movie, it's one of the best comic book movies ever made....

Rating: 10/10 (28 May 2014)

X-Men: Days Of Future Past' serves as a sequel to both 'X-Men: First Class' (which is excellent) and 'X-Men: The Last Stand' (which is pretty bad). Now, I used to be a pretty big X-Men fan a few years ago, but after the disappointments of 'X-Men: The Last Stand' and 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine', I kind of just stopped caring about the franchise, even though the subsequent two movies were actually very good (the aforementioned 'X-Men: First Class' and then 'The Wolverine'). That being said, I was still looking forward to 'Days Of Future Past', what with it being the return of the old 'X-Men' crew, and I was also moderately familiar with the 'Days Of Future Past' comic. I was just expecting it to be good though, but it turns out not only is 'Days Of Future Past' the best X-Men movie yet, it's also one of the best comic-book movies ever made.
In 'Days Of Future Past', the X-Men of the future are facing extinction due to the sentinels which threaten to wipe them all out. They send Wolverine back in time to 1973 where he must recruit Professor X, Magneto and Mystique in order to change the course of history so that the X-Men may survive.
First things first, this is a time travel movie, and time travel movies normally either go very well or very badly. 'Days Of Future Past' marks an occasion where it goes very well, as the time travel logic in this movie is very well thought out and makes perfect sense, I can't pick any holes in it. This movie even manages to validate 'X-Men: The Last Stand' and 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine', which is something that I thought could never be done. It even feels weird just saying that, because righting the wrongs that those movies made is a huge, monumental task, yet this movie pulls it off perfectly.
For a movie that's crowded with so many characters, it's surprising that all of the characters included feel meaningful and aren't shoehorned in. We have Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine, and there's not much to say about him that hasn't already been said. He is Wolverine, the role is made for him and he absolutely owns it. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are incredible as Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr respectively, their characters have an amazing relationship and the two of them are just phenomenal at pulling it off. We also have the future X-Men cast with the like of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan and Ellen Page, and while they have a lot less screen time they're still great. I was surprised at how prominent a role Jennifer Lawrence had as Mystique, over the past few months I've had a growing dislike towards Jennifer Lawrence but I can't deny that she is great in this role. Then we have all of the new characters, like Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), Bishop (Omar Sy) and Blink (Bingbing Fan), all of whom are great. But there is one new character who is greater than all, and that character is Quicksilver.
Quicksilver in this movie is perfect. In fact, it's worth seeing this movie just for him. He doesn't have a huge amount of screen time and it comes fairly early on in the movie, but he is the best part of this film by far. There is one particular sequence with him in a kitchen, and it is jaw-droppingly beautiful. The visuals in the scene are gorgeous, the music is perfect, and it's both hilarious and stunning. The way that Quicksilver's super speed effect has been done is amazing. Some people thought the costume looked goofy, but I think it works perfectly well considering the time period and the personality of the character. I've been a big fan of Evan Peters for a while, and he is great in the role, he is very entertaining and has a great screen presence. I never thought I'd be saying this, but I doubt Marvel will be able to produce a better Quicksilver in 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron' than the one that's on display here.
But you know what I think all this great quality comes down to? Bryan Singer. I'm pretty sure Bryan Singer is just the perfect X-Men director. Even though up until now I thought 'X-Men: First Class' was the best of the X-Men franchise, it didn't really feel like the X-Men in the way that 'X-Men' and 'X2′ did. 'Days Of Future Past' nails that X-Men dynamic while still being an exceptionally good movie. Part of that X-Men dynamic comes from John Ottman's amazing score, as it's so good to finally hear his X-Men theme again.The action scenes are incredible, especially the opening one which uses some of the new mutant powers phenomenally, especially Blink's. The movie is very well paced, I never grew bored and I didn't want it to end.
'Days Of Future Past' also surprisingly has a lot of very funny humour in it, but it's not humour that's just forced in for the sake of it, it all feel natural and within the confines of these characters. This film nails the comic book movie aspect; it has a plot which is clearly very serious yet it is still silly enough to remain a comic book film, unlike movies like 'Man Of Steel' and 'The Dark Knight' which go so dark that they just completely ditch the comic book aspect. There are also a few nice references that fans of the comics will get, which is just a small example of the great fan service this movie does for readers of the 'X-Men' comics.
'Days Of Future Past' made me remember why I was such a big X-Men fan. It rekindled my love for the characters and story lines, and like I said above, it's one of the best comic book movies ever made.