Days of Future Past

Caught the seventh (!) X-Men movie this weekend. It was probably my favourite yet, or at least a close tie with First Class. The time travel plot is a great way to bring together both the new and the old cast, though it also raises a whole bunch of plot holes (such as, how the hell can Kitty Pride suddenly send people back in time?). It’s fun to see the future versions of the original X-Men (and some cool new characters) and while some may moan about Wolverine being the center of the story yet again, Hugh Jackman once more demonstrates why he’s perfect for the role (and will be very hard to replace when they eventually reboot the series).

Once we get back to 1973 the film teases us by slowly reintroducing the First Class characters (at least the ones that people actually care about – the others are killed offscreen or never mentioned). It’s nice to see that at least some of the story ideas cooked up by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman survived after they left the project, such as Magneto being involved in the JFK assassination. While a few of the character twists are a little silly (young Professor X gets to walk again thanks to magic heroin that fixes his spine and saps his mental powers) most of the returning characters get some decent character development, and I hope the producers stick with this cast for at least a couple more movies.

Of the new characters, Quicksilver is the undoubted highlight. Evan Peters and Bryan Singer throw down the gauntlet to Joss Whedon by creating a fun character with a visually stunning power, though he exits the movie too soon. There’s even a throwaway joke hinting at his mutant father. Peter Dinklage makes for a good villain (amazing, there’s no little people jokes), though it would have been nice to have some more motivation for why he’s so against mutants. The mutant hunting sentinels are an impressive creation, generating a real threat for our heroes.

The 70’s era is faithfully recreated (even Nixon shows up) though the design isn’t as fun as the James Bond inspired look of First Class. The special effects are pretty much flawless.

The slambang ending wraps things up pretty neatly while also handily changing the continuity of the series to render the crappy X-Men movies pretty much obsolete. You even get blink and you’ll miss ‘em cameos from a few X-people they didn’t have room for in the main plot. If Bryan Singer doesn’t return for the next one (for obvious reasons) at least this completes his trilogy of X-Men films on a high note. X-Men: Apocalypse looks intriguing (there’s a teaser at the end of the credits that won’t mean anything to people who haven’t read the comics) and the series seems in good hands with Fox, at least for now. I actually hope that the rights don’t go back to Marvel in the future, since mutant hatred makes no sense in a word with beloved heroes that turn into raging green giants.