I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past in theaters with my co-worker and his sister the other day, and I wanted to share my thoughts on the movie to anyone who's interested. This is kind of like a review, but not really. I might do this more with other movies I see, some I'll be more critical with then others.
...Just so anyone who reads this knows, some of what I have to say about this movie is based around this review I saw beforehand. So some of you might want to take some time to go watch it for yourselves to get a better understanding of where I'm coming from (spoiler warning).
The Escapist - Escape tot he Movies - X-Men: Days of Future Past
With this in mind, here's what I have to say about the movie, after the break.
I can pretty much agree with the review on 3 things:
1.) Yeah, it's stupid how Shadowcat suddenly has the ability to send people's consciousness back in time and there's literally no explanation as to how she got that power or how it's connected to her normal power.
2.) Wolverine IS kind of dull/overrated. Not that Hugh Jackman isn't awesome as Wolverine, but it feels like his healing power being able to undo Shadowcat's made-up-on-the-spot time-travel power was there just to make Wolverine the "protagonist", or at the very least, make him one of the main focuses... even though it seems to be more about Professor X trying to prevent Mystique from doing something that will do more harm then good.
3.) Yeah, it does feel like the series is jogging in place a bit compared to what other Marvel movies have been doing, but then again, after X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, we could use a bit of a reboot. I haven't seen First Class yet, and from the looks of things, it doesn't look like this necessarily undoes THAT since this takes place after the Cuban Missile Crisis... Though as I recall, apparently the mutants that were in that movie that weren't in the first two X-Men movies apparently died inbetween First Class and this movie, which does kind of suck.
All that aside, freaking awesome movie. I think maybe it's because I saw the first two (or perhaps just the second) X-Men movie a long time ago that I don't remember them as well, but seeing this new movie with the perspective as an adult is very refreshing! Hell, when I was a kid/dumb teenager, still in a weird phase where only cartoons interested me (as opposed to still being interested in cartoons but now also expanding my horizons to live-action), I didn't really pay attention to all that much in the movies. The only thing I could do was connect the movies to the X-Men: Evolution TV series I was watching/was most familiar with at the time. Now that I'm older and I "get" a lot more of what the X-Men are about, I could appreciate what was going on a lot more, especially since I could understand their motivations better.
Oh, one more thing I can agree upon: the action was great! Seeing all those mutant powers being put to good use was a thrill to watch. My co-worker/friend pointed out, too, that all the action scenes weren't just there for the sake of an action scene, they served a purpose in the story, or at the very least, helped move the story along. They were also highly entertaining to watch!
Really, I was just on the edge of my seat the whole time, because I was genuinely concerned if Wolverine/Logan would be able to pull this off. It really did seem like several characters were unwilling to cooperate and/or understood what was going to happen but used the information to their advantage, specifically Magneto. I kind of "knew" he would do something drastic to prevent the horrible future that awaited them... though killing Mystique wasn't what I was expecting (though it does make sense, seeing as it was her DNA that lead to the creation of the nigh invincible Sentinels). Hell, since it was so long since I've seen the other movies, not to mention I had no idea how this movie would end, I was really curious as to whether or not Mystique or any of the characters would make it out alive. And really, Magneto's so powerful that at times I wondered just who could possibly stop him in times of desperation...
Speaking of desperate times, Professor X continuously trying to convince Mystique really had me intrigued. I'm not a comic book fan and I only have passing familiarity with X-Men characters, but the idea that Mystique could be swayed to not be evil, or rather not to continue the cycle of hatred, was something that I was genuinely curious about. When Mystique managed to knock out Magneto and was about to shoot the short guy (yeah, forgot his name, sorry), I was practically biting my nails; would she really let her hatred for what that man did to her fellow mutants get to her or will she stop this cycle of hatred before it even begins?
I guess I should mention QuickSilver now. Unlike MovieBob, I really liked QuickSilver; I found him really funny, his personality matched his powers, and his big scene during the break-out from the Pentagon was so brilliant, I was laughing and fidgeting with excitement the whole time! Though yeah, one does have to wonder why they don't use him more; like he'd be insanely useful form there on out, though then again, maybe he'd side with his father Magneto and that definitely wouldn't have been good. Besides, yeah, it does kind of feel like he's there because Fox and Marvel/Disney are still fussing over character copyright for their movies.
Speaking of which, this is something I wanted to bring up as soon as I saw this movie... If X-Men movies keep making money, and are about as good as this movie is, I honestly wouldn't mind if the rights never revery back to Marvel. I'd prefer to see Fantastic Four go back to Marvel (the characters associated with that universe feel better fit to being part of the whole Marvel universe), and I DEFINITELY want to see Spider-Man get taken out of Sony's hands, if only so that we stop getting these completely soulless, passionless Spider-Man movies from them. But the X-Men? I think they have enough characters and themes going for them to sustain themselves for a while. Not to mention, there's a teaser after the credits that leads into the next movie, which is going to be called "X-Men: Apocalypse" and is going to be released in 2016, and I'm looking forward to it!
So yeah, all-in-all, REALLY good movie. Don't really have much to complain about, I just really liked it! Not sure how to judge it when compared to the previous X-Men movies or the other Marvel movies since I barely remember the older X-Men movies... maybe I should revisit them... while skipping over The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine, since I'm guessing I won't be missing much from them. Highly recommended.
There was a score here, but I decided against it; this wasn't really a "review" so much as my general impressions on the movie, and thus I don't really feel like ranking it is all that far if I don't give it a proper critique.
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