X-Men: Days of Future Past (Singer)

[Morris Schæffer]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/

[Morris Schæffer]

I liked it a lot, especially the fairly clever story. The FX are great, but action scenes don't pack the punch that for example Captain America 2 did. True, the X universe has always been more outlandish, but missing here is a sense of danger, that shit can go belly-up. Maybe I shouldn't expect that, but there's a lot of doom and gloom in this one and a sense of relative restraint and real-world ideas thanks to its 70's Washington DC setting. Thankfully, there are moments of levity, one set during the Pentagon sequence that had the auditorium combust in spontaneous, but appreciative laughter and that is sure to be one of the definitive blockbuster scenes of 2014.

And yes, stick around during the credits.

[Watashi]

This makes up for the shitastic First Class.

[TGM]

Probably the best one yet.

[Wryan]

High marks. Great balance of character and action, though the breadth obviously gives some people precious little to do. I like Jennifer Lawrence. Really. She was great in Winter's Bone, been fine in Bow and Arrow 1 and 2 and she seems all bubbly and goofy and shit in real life. But she's just not a very good Mystique; granted, it'd be hard to simply walk around, let alone convince, under Romijn's shadow, but I can't get past her. Good stuff from most others, though Dinklage was a little dry, I thought. Also, since fucking when can Kitty do this time shift shit? What? Great effects work all around. Superfun cameos at the end; wonder if they'll run with that...angle...in future movies.

EDIT: And Quicksilver's totally fine. In fact, Peters sells the hell out of it and has some of the best moments.

[TGM]

Also, since fucking when can Kitty do this time shift shit? What? .

Ellen Page just bringing what she learned from Inception. :P

[Wryan]

One more item: Holy Jesus, Jackman. Relax on the workouts. I don't think your muscles are supposed to look like that at rest.

[eternity]

This makes up for the shitastic First Class.

That's good to hear. That movie really is spectacularly awful.

[Ezee E]

Highly enjoyed this.

The thing with X-Men is the motivations of the "heroes" allows for a great amount of conflict and chaos. Far better then the obviousness of the other Marvel movies. The action seems to have a point rather then just explosions occurring out of nowhere, and endless punching.

The future scenes definitely don't compare to how well McAvoy, Fassbender, and Jackman work off each other.

[Ezee E]

The only thing I guess I didn't completely back was the ending.

[

Show Spoiler

Shouldn't Wolverine's mind basically be "restarted" after waking up from Weapon X? I suppose that would be a rather DIM moment to end on, but why in the X-Mansion?

]

[Rowland]

About on par, if not just a bit superior to the underrated First Class as my favorite entry in this series, which I've never been a huge fan of besides these films.

[Wryan]

I liked First Class too. It gave us awesome McAvoy/Fassbender interrelationship, cool '70s styling and Kevin Bacon as a mutant. I found it fun.

[slqrick]

Not quite the greatest superhero movie in all of the land, like some critics have been saying, but this was definitely a fun movie. If nothing else, it wipes away X3 and Origins, while adequately adapting a classic X-Men story. It felt like this film took the best parts of First Class (Fassbender/McAvoy) and excised the crap (Angel, Emma, etc.), and focusing on the Xavier/Magneto/Mystique dynamic made the story feel personal besides the "world is ending" stakes that are in every one of these movies. I'd say it's on par with X2 as the best X-Men flick yet, but this still isn't anywhere near the euphoric experience of The Avengers for the first time.

[slqrick]

Also yeah, those promo pics of Quicksilver were atrocious, but he has one of the best cameos in any superhero movie.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, he probably has the highlight scene of the movie, but I wonder why he didn't continue with everybody?

[megladon8]

Going to see this on Wednesday, but count me among those who think First Class is unfairly maligned in these here parts.

The fire-spitting Angel was embarrassing for sure, but the flick as a whole was a fun, colourful superhero romp. Neither the best or worst the genre has to offer. Fassbender alone elevates the material.

[Wryan]

Yeah, he probably has the highlight scene of the movie, but I wonder why he didn't continue with everybody?

Screenplay. He would have made everything pretty trivially easy. :P

[Ezee E]

Screenplay. He would have made everything pretty trivially easy. :P

I'd have liked a Sentinel to show how it could've adapted easily to any mutant and stop him in his tracks. Even if it was his first attempt, or be completely at odds with who to side with.

[Skitch]

I like First Class but some of those scenes of the youngins hanging out and talking are painful.

[slqrick]

The more I think about the movie, the more I appreciate some of the action sequences. The portrayal of Blink's powers was really thrilling and gave me Portal 2 flashbacks.

[Henry Gale]

Been a while since I've seen X2 (I meant to re-watch it before this), but in my mind Days Of Future Past feels every bit as good. Maybe even as solid as any Marvel-branded movie since the back-to-back years that last of Singer's work, Ang Lee's Hulk and Spider-Man 2 came out. (The Marvel Studios works are a bit harder to compare since they interweave and rely on each other considerably more than other studio's standalone efforts, but my favourites there are Branagh's Thor, The Avengers, and Iron Man 3.)

These are movies that started when I was just a kid, which meant I then had to watch them deteriorate in my teen years, later slightly redeemed by First Class (though sadly not enough of The Wolverine), so seeing everything come together the ways it does here, with certain majorly beautiful scenes [

Show Spoiler

Mainly the two Xaviers and pretty much everything from the resolution of the future at the end.

] that were so deeply emotionally striking for me in ways I hadn't thought it'd have the capacity to going in. Factor in the added realization that Singer was more or less cleaning up the drudgey and disheartening paths the films took since his departure, even coming as close to resolving certain serious issues I had with them, and I was pretty much as blissful as I'd ever been with any X-Men on screen. [

Show Spoiler

The way it even retroactively brings together so much of Logan's journey in The Wolverine (in terms of how it harped on just how much he was haunted by his killing of Jean), was kind of stunning in a weird way. As much as that was a story move I was heavily against in The Last Stand (where she wasn't sacrificing herself for anything beyond her own life), eventually having him be able to unexpectedly resolve that through his efforts in DoFP really hit me because I somehow hadn't considered it. Same with seeing so many of the others in Xavier's school at the end, particularly Rogue (who I realize was cut out of earlier scenes of this) and Scott.

]

It's still not the great Phoenix story I was excited for next time around when I left the theatre with X2 in '03, but a decade and year later (with the help of a new cast and even some less stellar building blocks along the way), it somehow comes together and feels like every bit that satisfaction that's been missing with these characters ever since. It's a big, thrilling and deserved two-hour sigh of relief.

***½ / 8.2

[Morris Schæffer]

The more I think about the movie, the more I appreciate some of the action sequences. The portrayal of Blink's powers was really thrilling and gave me Portal 2 flashbacks.

Far more breathtaking than any of the huuuge scenes towards the end.

[Skitch]

Been a while since I've seen X2 (I meant to re-watch it before this), but in my mind Days Of Future Past feels every bit as good.

I always like X2 better than X1, until I revisited them after a long period of time...since then I think I like X1 better. It always bugs me that Cyclops never seems like the leader, and Wolverine is too nice. He needs to be more of an a-hole. On the other hand, its been quite a while since I've seen em, and the fam has been bugging me to rewatch so my opinion is subject to change...

[Dukefrukem]

Aw man you didn't set the votes as public.

11 - 0 right now is shocking me.

[Henry Gale]

I always like X2 better than X1, until I revisited them after a long period of time...since then I think I like X1 better. It always bugs me that Cyclops never seems like the leader, and Wolverine is too nice. He needs to be more of an a-hole. On the other hand, its been quite a while since I've seen em, and the fam has been bugging me to rewatch so my opinion is subject to change...

X1 is almost miraculous by today's standards in how simply and clearly developed its world, characters and eventual conflict are, and it all wraps up within around 100 minutes. (Even First Class exceeds 2 hours, 10 mins!) It almost gave me whiplash from blockbusters today (in a good way), but my undeniable gut reaction was still that it almost felt too slight. It's well made and a solid introduction to everything we now take for granted, but it's not the ultimate installment.

The third act was definitely awesome at the time, but the retroactive rote-ness of a final battle that's mainly just one on one mutant fights in the way of a big device that's going to endanger some civilians doesn't quite have the snap it used to. Though, setting it all in the Statue of Liberty does still has a nice visual snazz to it.

My main complaint with the series at this point, even at its best and with these last two prequel-slanted stories, might be that I feel like we still haven't really seen a story that drives home the initial strength of Charles and Erik's relationship to justify the pathos and weight they seem to feel its subsequent crumbling should have on screen.

I realized rewatching First Class how few actual conversations they have, and all of them feel oddly shortened by editing (script or otherwise).

Aw man you didn't set the votes as public.

11 - 0 right now is shocking me.

Well hopefully everyone can just give it a rating to eventually give a sense of where they fall over time, especially once some nays roll in.

EVERYONE: Yeah... Do that. ^ (Rate it.)

But it is very good, as good as these movies have been, so I can't imagine too many non-fans rushing to it too soon, even if it's probably their best shot of enjoying any X-Men movie (especially since it helps salvage so much of the shittiness in past entries).