X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) | Movie News & Review

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X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

X-Men-Days-of-Future-Past-movie-2014-poster

x-men: days of futre past (2014) movie

Genre | Science Fiction

Classification | M

Running time | 131 minutes

Released | 23 May 2014

cast

Hugh Jackman ... Logan / Wolverine
James McAvoy ... Charles Xavier
Michael Fassbender ... Erik Lehnsherr
Jennifer Lawrence ... Raven / Mystique
Halle Berry ... Storm
Nicholas Hoult ... Hank / Beast
Anna Paquin ... Rogue
Ellen Page ... Kitty Pryde
Peter Dinklage ... Dr. Bolivar Trask
Shawn Ashmore ... Bobby / Iceman
Omar Sy ... Bishop
Evan Peters ... Peter / Quicksilver
Josh Helman ... Maj. Bill Stryker
Daniel Cudmore ... Colossus
Bingbing Fan ... Blink
Ian McKellen ... Magneto
Patrick Stewart ... Professor X

director

Bryan Singer

writer

Simon Kinberg ... (screenplay by)

Jane Goldman ... (story by) &
Simon Kinberg ... (story by) &
Matthew Vaughn ... (story by)

cinematographer

Newton Thomas Sigel

music

John Ottman

film editor

Michael Louis Hill ... co-editor
John Ottman

box office result

Worldwide $747,862,775

Australia $21,121,336

North America $233,921,534

the best dialogue

Professor X: The future: a dark, desolate world. A world of war, suffering, loss on both sides. Mutants, and the humans who dared to help them, fighting an enemy we cannot defeat. Are we destined down this path, destined to destroy ourselves like so many species before us? Or can we evolve fast enough to change ourselves... change our fate? Is the future truly set?

Kitty Pryde: [prepping Logan] Basically, your body will go to sleep while your mind travels back in time. As long as you're back there, past and present will continue to coexist. But once you wake up, whatever you've done will take hold and become history. And for the rest of us it'll be the only history that we know. It'll be like the last fifty years never happened, in this world, in this war. The only person who will remember it is you. All right, Logan, I need to you clear head and to stay as calm as possible.

Charles Xavier: The past: a new and uncertain world. A world of endless possibilities and infinite outcomes. Countless choices define our fate: each choice, each moment, a moment in the ripple of time. Enough ripple, and you change the tide... for the future is never truly set.

X-MEN-DAYS-OF-FUTURE-PAST (2014) MOVIE IMAGES

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X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014) STORY SYNOPSIS

Convinced that mutants pose a threat to humanity, Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) develops the Sentinels, enormous robotic weapons that can detect a mutant gene and zero in on that person. In the 21st century, the Sentinels have evolved into highly efficient killing machines. With mutants now facing extinction, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) volunteers to go back in time and rally the X-Men of the past to help change a pivotal moment in history and thereby save their future.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 22 May 2014
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bryan Singer's return to the X-MEN franchise Director's chair brings a welcome return to form for the cast of the original trilogy of films. Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg have managed to bring to the screen a compelling drama whose focus on characters and themes harkens back to the highly-acclaimed X-MEN that launched the franchise and Singer's career fourteen years ago. In addition to key cast members Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, DAYS OF FUTURE PAST also sees the return of the key cast members from the prequel reboot X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult have all seen their careers head north since their first X-Men outing and the combination of the two casts is arguably the best comic book movie ensemble ever assembled. Throw in GAME OF THRONES star Peter Dinklage as the film's misunderstood villain - Bolivar Trask - and DAYS OF FUTURE PAST transcends its comic book origins to be a film that offers more than just slick set-pieces and zippy dialogue.

The story is an allegory about the horrors committed by monolithic oppressors and, in part, continues Singer's fascination with the acts of violence committed by the Nazi regime in Germany during the 1930s and the Second World War. APT PUPIL, X-MEN and VALKYRIE have all dealt with this issue, but DAYS OF FUTURE PAST is different. Simon Kinberg's screenplay gives the near-extinct X-MEN of the future the chance to go back through time and convince their younger selves that they must change the course of history by preventing the death of the man who has discovered the means to eradicate the Earth of the perceived Mutant threat. It's a great moral dilemma and one that sees Hugh Jackman's Wolverine selected to have his consciousness sent back through time, as his self-regeneration mutation is the only type that can survive being forced fifty years back into the past. It’s convenient, but a clever move on Kinberg’s part, to use Wolverine, as he never ages; so it’s easier for those somewhat familiar with the previous X-MEN films to accept that Jackman doesn’t look markedly different in either time period. At this point, if the viewer can suspend their disbelief of this MacGuffin, they will enjoy everything that happens throughout the rest of DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, as Wolverine’s passage back in time is the critical story moment in understanding the relationship between the 'Past' and 'Future' storylines.

While fans of the franchise will be delighted to see the return of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in their ‘Professor X’ and ‘Magneto’ roles, the 1973 'Past' storyline is far more interesting as the talents of Jackman, McAvoy, Fassbender and Hoult work together incredibly well in their efforts to prevent Jennifer Lawrence's 'Mystique' from setting the entire Mutant race on the path to extinction. The main four are joined for a short period of time by Evan Peters as 'Quicksilver', whose ability to travel at incredibly fast speeds is put to good use to break Fassbender's 'Magneto' out of an impossible-to-escape prison. Peters inhabits the role wonderfully and his youthful enthusiasm for his powers makes for the most visually striking sequence in the film, as well as one of its funniest, as ‘Quicksilver’ ensures his new-found Mutant friends make their way to safety. Kinberg's story doesn't allow 'Quicksilver' to overstay his welcome as the main players head to Paris where the backdrop of the 1973 Vietnam War Peace Accords are used for an extended set-piece that sees the Mutants revealed to the entire world and sets in train the events that lead to the film's Washington DC climax.

To fully appreciate 'Days of Future Past' the audience is required to understand a lot of exposition and are asked to make a number of cognitive leaps to keep pace with the story. It also requires some knowledge of the four previous X-MEN films to fully sympathise with the character's crises in the events that unfold in the 'Future' time period. (Hugh Jackman's Wolverine Origins movie is completely ignored, while last year's THE WOLVERINE is obliquely referenced in a scene between Jackman and McAvoy's young Charles Xavier.) This may make the film’s story a challenge for the uninitiated, as the “destruction porn” so prevalent in current blockbusters is eschewed in favour of genuine drama built around the dynamic but challenging relationship that exists between McAvoy’s ‘Charles’ and Fassbender’s ‘Erik’. There is no doubt that the Producers of the X-MEN movie franchise backed two winners in casting these two great actors in ‘First Class’, but their skills are continuing to appreciate and there’s an added layer in both of their performances this time around that imbues DAYS OF FUTURE PAST with authenticity and maturity not seen since Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ was released in 2008. Fassbender is especially good and the steely resolve of his eyes are put to good effect by Singer on more than one occasion where all that is required is a “look”.

On the production side, much credit for the success of the film must go to Kinberg’s screenplay; however, he was not a lone scribe on this project. Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughan help Kinberg create the story framework for DAYS OF FUTURE PAST in a continuation of the work they started back on FIRST CLASS. Goldman and Vaughan’s association dates back even further than FIRST CLASS, as they were collaborators on the first KICK-ASS movie. Bryan Singer brought back many of the original X-MEN movie crew to get this new movie up on the Big Screen. Newton Thomas Sigel returns to the X-MEN universe for a third time, following his work on both the first and second films. The multi-talented John Ottman returns as both Film Editor and Music Composer. The movie’s score is the best of the X-MEN films and the ‘Hope’ track, which is Charles’s theme, is an especially moving piece of music that beautifully captures the hopes and anxieties that both Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy convey throughout proceedings. Special mention must also be made of Production Designer John Myhre, Costume Designer Louise Mingenbach and the entire Make-Up Department; all of whom have contributed to realise the early 1970s in all its flared-glory and mutton-chop panache.

In X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, Bryan Singer has brought to the screen a remarkable film. Not only does it entertain in its own right, it manages to set straight many of the inconsistencies created through a lack of story coordination for the X-MEN franchise throughout the six previous films. This may not be important to the average movie-goer, but it’s important to fans of both the movies and the comic books that consistency exists within the X-MEN universe. The movie’s conclusion leaves plenty of story options for the already announced X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, as well as any further stand-alone movies including a follow-up to ‘The Wolverine’. The final moments leave the franchise in the best place it has been since the end of ‘X2’ over a decade ago and, once again, demonstrates that when comic book franchise properties are handled with care they can deliver as much drama & emotion as they do action & excitement!