Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Release date: May 23, 2014
Running time: 131 minutes
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence
Who to see it with: Comic movie lovers or anyone that liked First Class.

David:

What do you do when you have two popular X-Men story lines, one from the original series that went off the rails in the end, and the other from a surprisingly good prequel? Combine the two threads, obviously, and what you get is another surprisingly good X-Men movie and a perfect way to kick off the summer. In Days of Future Past, Wolverine (Jackman) travels back in time to stop a series of events that lead to creation of the deadly sentinel program. In order to do that, Wolverine must attempt to get Professor X (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) to work together at a time when they despised each other. 

With a plot line that aims at preventing the apocalypse, you can expect an epic story. There is an overarching sense of dread that permeates the story, and the events in both the past and present are especially apocalyptic. The plot jumps back and forth between the past and the present, with the events of the past theoretically determining the outcome in the future. This past / present dichotomy does provide some nice tension in the film, and gives you a chance to see some more mutants using their powers, but it doesn't necessarily make sense. But, then again it's a movie about mutants who can travel back in time, so I can forgive some temporal issues. 

Most of your favorite characters are back from both the original X-Men and First Class, and the new mutants that are introduced are fun to see and great additions to the already large Marvel roster. I especially liked Quicksilver, who has one of the most enjoyable action sequences in any of the Marvel movies. The special effects are top notch, as usual, and although there is a lot of CG, it is very well done and not instantly obvious. There are also some good callbacks to the previous movies that will have fans smiling. But, all in all, the movie is just fun; it's fun to see the various comic book characters on the big screen and the movie has a nice blend of action and humor. Overall, Days of Future Past is a worthy sequel to the surprisingly good First Class and a great way to kick off the summer movie season.

Watch it.