A brilliant sequel to First Class and the original film trilogy

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2014)

The X-Men film series has been "hit-and-miss" throughout the years, from the successful 2000's X-Men and 2003's X-Men United, the mediocre and pointless standalone Wolverine films (2009 and 2013), to the terrible Last Stand (2006) and the excellent First Class prequel (2011). It's been 14 years long since Bryan Singer directed the first X-Men film that kickstarted the whole franchise. This time around, he's back directing the franchise's 7th installment (His third X-Men film), Days of Future Past.
Loosely adapted from the 1981 Chris Claremont and John Byrne comic storyline of the same name, Days of Future Past intends to bridge the gap between the original trilogy of films and First Class, melding together the disjointed history of the X-Men world, erasing or fixing certain plot holes, continuity errors and inconsistencies that exist in the franchise, start anew and open up possibilities for future films. With that being said, this is considered the most epic and ambitious taking of the X-Men films to date.
Days of Future Past fulfills its long-term promises and achieve the 'impossible'. This film wouldn't work without a solid foundation laid over throughout the years. We have known some of these characters for so long (4 films, 2 spin-offs) that we can identify with them strongly. Fans would definitely be pleased with the numerous cameo appearances of Marvel characters in the film as well.
Because the film involves time travel (a story that jumps back and forth between 2023 and 1973), it is intensely plot-driven, linking the events that happened in past films together with historical events as part of the story. The film has decent pacing and story flow, successfully integrating both future and past timelines together, avoiding many of the typical time paradoxes without overcomplicating the story.
The film takes the best thing about the X-Men and show it to the audience: taking all of these 'gifted' individuals and make them into a team, watch how they face and solve issues inherent to teamwork. Forget The Avengers. This film has two generation of mutants from two different timelines (14 of them) teaming up to prevent an apocalyptic future that could mean the extinction of both mutants and humans.
Finally at last, Marvel fans get to see how these individuals complement one another in terms of power, weakness and personality by teaming up to fight against an army of mutant-hunting, lethal Sentinels. There's also one amazing action sequence involving Quicksilver, which is probably one of the film's highlights. The way he infiltrates and stages the prison break from a highly-secured Pentagon cell is simply brilliant. Not to mention, the song that comes with the scene is spot-on as well.
While many would have thought this film is overcrowded with characters, but this is not the case. The film cleverly focuses on young Xavier's character arc, which acts as the central story that ties the various subplots together into a single narrative, watching him go from a guy who lost nearly everything...his legs, his best friend, his adopted sister, his students due to the Vietnam War (his school as well) to a guy who will become the powerful, wise, compassionate teacher and leader of the X-Men in the future. There's a wonderfully shot, exceptionally acted, heartfelt moment in the film...the conversation between the young and old Xavier. "Please...We need you to hope again..." pleads the older and wiser Xavier, with emotional heft and gravitas to his broken and disheartened younger self.
However, the franchise has yet to provide a compelling villain that poses a huge threat to the X-Men. The series have always been repeatedly dwelling with themes of discrimination, prejudice and social injustice...with the human race always in conflict with the mutants. (This will soon change in the next sequel) There's another gripe regarding the CGI effects presented in the film. Some of the shots aren't realistic enough and shown to be rather sloppy, which is definitely not expected from a high-budget Hollywood blockbuster film. Overall, this latest instalment of X-Men film series have left me incredibly hopeful for the upcoming sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse. Highly recommended.
Rating: 9/10
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Note: As usual with many Marvel films, please stay for the after-credits scene.