Great film for comic fans, confusing to the outsider

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2014)

Days of Future Past Review X-men days of future past marks the 7th x-men film to come to cinemas and is quite possibly the best since x-men 2 in 2003. Director Bryan Singer who directed the first two x- men films picks up the franchise after the massive thematic and chronology changes left by the other films and their directors. Some of the mammoth tasks facing singer with this film included accounting for the deaths of several major characters in x-men last stand and continuity questions raised by x-men first class. Having checked some of the media reviews by some newspapers I found their reviews rather critical and not understanding the nature of the source material and the excellent job of adapting that story from page to the big screen. The more niche outlets and reviewers heaped on the praise a lot more, perhaps they are more invested in the universe in the characters. Confused. I would strong advise watching at least xmen first class before this and I'd recommend the original trilogy as well. Minor Spoilers
The premise for the film comes from the 80's fan favourite comic of the same name, it is one of the many x-men time travel stories and involves a young kitty pryde/ shadowcat going back in time to stop the sentinel programme which later leads to machines wiping out mutants. It was decided to make Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) the timetraveller, this was a smart move as the audience is accustomed to the character, it is easy to suspend disbelief as wolverine is equally perplexed by what is happening around him, in much the same way the audience is. One of the difficulties in balancing this film was giving enough time to the old and new cast, the focus is certainly focused more towards the new cast. The character mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is tied directly to the plot as it is her wolverine is sent back to stop, this was a wise move as it develops the mystique , Magneto(Micheal Fassbender) and Charles Xavier/ Professor X's (James McAvoy) triangle nicely, this proved to be one of the strongest parts of the story. These 3 actors have proved their acting abilities all coming off a string of strong performances in shame,twelve years a slave, trance, filth, silver lining playbook and the hungergames which have made all of them a-listers, all 3 of the actors play off each other excellently and their scenes together are a joy to watch. Besides the acting heavyweights IanMckellen as the older magneto and Patrick Stewart as the old Professor X the remainder of the cast are not given a lot to do except as being special effects set pieces, whilst the cameos are appreciated this will likely annoy some of the comic fans who are begging for other x-men characters to be fleshed out besides wolverine. The only two new characters are Bolvier Trask(Peter Dinklage) and Quicksilver played by , dinklage is underused and is given very little chance to act, he seems miscast and out if place, perhaps a role as a more maniacal villain or as a mutant would have been better, the quicksilver introduction was not overdone and paid off well. Besides a few references to Vietnam and Nixon and the clothing the setting was largely underutilized which is a shame, a hippified Xavier may have been interesting. The Xmen series has always been symptomatic of the themes of fear and violence, staples of the persecuted minority status, the moral debate is raised when the prospect of extinction is present it raises the stakes further pushing the extents the characters are expected to go. Minor Spoilers End
The special effects were brilliant throughout, the future sentinels are really menacing and pose a strong threat to the strong remaining mutants, the older sentinels match the artistic style originally developed for the comics and are possibly slightly underused. The makeup and prosthetics for beast and mystique were again extremely well done as was the cinematography. Moving on the x-men franchise is in a good place from a chronological and storytelling perspectives, having shown the scope of a big x-men movie that can match the likes of the marvels avengers. In a lot of ways it is fortunate marvel don't have the cinematic rights to the x-men as their universe alone is comparable to that of the other marvel characters, this movie shows that that universe is big enough to be left alone to thrive on it's own merits. After Singers failures with superman returns and jack the giant slayer it is good to see him back where he belongs, and that is directing x-men movies.