Back to the Future

Fox's X-Men franchise has been around for 14 years now and during that timeframe, they already have six films. Mostly with great reviews but surely they had misfires as well, please refer to X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. What's past is past, and it would be written in history unless they had the power to change the upcoming history. Enter X-Men: Days of Future Past. Based on a super popular comic series, it unites franchise veterans and newbies (not n00b newbies, but incredible newbies). It is a smart move, to expand the 14-year-old franchise, to disown the bad films, and to match The Avengers team power.

The story is a convoluted one. The original trilogy X-Men are in the bleak future where mutants are hunted by advanced Sentinels. Sentinels were created by Bolivar Trask, Mystique/Raven's first murder victim back in the 1960s. Mutants are forced to hide, even in China. Professor X (who's miraculously resurrected) and Magneto (who's miraculously regained his power) agreed to send Wolverine back in time to prevent Mystique from killing Trask. In the process, Wolverine witnessed young Magneto and young Professor's struggle and power as well as experiencing first hand Quicksilver's powers.

It's super great, I tell you, as a film. However, as an addition to a franchise this might be handicapped. There are so many plot holes inside the franchise that it's beyond saving. Firstly, so with the existence of DoFP, what happens to the other films? Does the original trilogy exist? Do the Wolverine spinoffs exist? It's such a shame especially with the case of The Wolverine where Wolvie meets his uber-hot Japanese girlfriend. However, let's praise the film. The cast is amazing. It's been a while since I experienced Fassbender and damn it's good to be back. James McAvoy is also great as the rugged and lost Professor X. Wolverine's a bit put aside but as always Hugh Jackman is the definitive embodiment of Wolverine. Best scenes: Quicksilver and Magneto's escape, young and old Professor X meets, and all the action scenes. One of the problem with the film is John Ottman's music that is too Zimmer-influenced. All that Inception horns are so bad to go with the incredible action. And that anti-climactic, anti-curiosity Apocalypse end-credits. Ah, and there's not enough room for Peter Dinklage to shine! At least we could still look forward to fifth season of Game of Thrones.

While X-Men: Days of Future Past remained great, the biggest problem in it is the whole 'fixing the franchise' thing. Continuity is ruined and there seemed to be too many plotholes to mention. And let's not forget that in my logic, even though Mystique saved Nixon, Magneto still attacked Nixon before, isn't that also make the mutants dangerous? If I were Trask, I would still pursue the Sentinel project. Also the future Sentinel design is so strange and out of place. And there's not enough time to introduce all those new future mutants. The only one shining bright is Blink with her teleportation device/mutation/ability/whatevs. X-Men: Days of Future Past: rated 3.5/4


This post has been lying around for three weeks now. Sorry for the delay. I'm going to roll out Noah review and my post about my experience joining Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow fan meeting within days before July. Bear with me!