The Best X-Men Movie

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2014)

A screen extravaganza that we long waited for.X-Men: Days of Future Past, adapted from the Uncanny X-Men storyline of the same name, is about the mutants being in a dystopian future where they are wiped out by the Sentinels which are huge robots that are superior to them and have the ability to replicate their powers.They have to send Wolverine back in time (a la Terminator) to prevent Mystique from an act that caused the creation of the Sentinels and thus creating an alternate universe in which the last 50 years in their lives are altered (a la Star Trek). The film is superior to every other feature in the franchise on every aspect.Bryan Singer is back with a style of originality and creativity.The script by Simon Kinberg is very well paced and structured.The production design by John Myhre and set decoration by Louise Mingenbach are great.And John Ottman's score refreshes our memory with the old themes of the original trilogy and providing new terrific ones such as Hope (Xavier's theme). The ensemble cast of the film was a great eye candy especially for the devoted fans,and easter eggs were thrown by the characters at every chance possible (Quicksilver remarking that his mother knew someone who could do stuff like Erik).Hugh Jackman as Logan, arguably the main protagonist of the franchise, gave yet another down-to-the-bone characterization of the Wolverine.It was exciting to see him carrying such a life-threatening responsibility on his own. James McAvoys made a brilliant work as young Xavier with a performance drastically different from First Class, this alcoholic hairy desperate Professor X is unquestionably a new treat to the viewers.Fassbender is the same old Fassbender as Erik but I really believe that his role was a little bit overshadowed in this one, but he did an excellent job overall.Jennifer Lawrence excelled as Raven in the evolution of her character to emerge as Mystique , but the heavily CGI-based make-up didn't quite feel convincing as Rebecca Romijn's authentic one in the original trilogy.Nicholas Hoult was the perfect sidekick as Hank McCoy but didn't do much as Beast. But it was Peter Dinklage as Trask and Evan Peters as Quicksilver who stole the show.Dinklage, though an inferior villain to the mutants, was a very great threat as the cunning arrogant inventor, and Quicksilver's slowmo sequence accompanied by Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle is the most memorable part of the film.Josh Helman was amazing as young Stryker and though his role was comparably small, he did it with grace.It was great to see back Ian Mckellen and Patrick Stewart (who gave his best Professor X performance) and you'd wish to see more of them.Also in addition to bringing back Shawn Ashmore as the now mature mutant leader Iceman, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde who is the connecting gear of the plot and Daniel Cudmore as Colossus.And also introducing interesting new characters such as Blink portrayed by Bingbing Fan and Omar Sy as Bishop.But there were a few letdowns: Cutting down most of Storm's role due to Halle Berry's pregnancy (she has only one line of dialog and 30 seconds of action), cutting Anna Paquin's role down to a mere cameo of Rogue with Bobby in the very end, and I was personally disappointed that Lucas Till had only a small cameo as Havok, I wished he could have a more significant role.We were compensated with surprising awesome cameos of Famke Janssen as Jean and James Marsden as Scott that even topped Jackman's cameo in First Class, and also a blink-and-you-miss-it moment of Kelsey Grammar as Beast. The action sequences were well choreographed, and edited perfectly to seamlessly flow with each other.You can hardly feel distracted when jumping from the future to the past, and it's a huge suspense when you could see how an action in the 70s could affect directly the protagonists in 2024. Overall, the film is nearly flawless and hits all the right points.Hold on till after the credits for a pacing scene to the next installment.By far the best X-Men film, rating 9/10