The perils of time travel stories aren’t to be underestimated and neither are the challenges of navigating it amidst a universe of superheroes. Few among them can then claim as much unbridled energy as “X-Men: Days Of Future Past” for creating a world in which time matters little and fun takes center stage. Here, director Bryan Singer (X-Men) reunites with writer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand) to reimagine the series’ former glory, encapsulating super powers as honed as its rich source material. A comic classic in the running, Days of Future Past delivers on its immense promise, dotting its “I’s” and crosses its “Xs,” as part of the X-Men’s finest hour.
The mutant world is quite a different one then when we last left it. The plot, loosely based on 1981‘s two-issue story arc of the same name, opens to the ravaged world of 2023 where the robotic Sentinels have hunted mutants and their sympathizers to near extinction. Their inventor, Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) invented them in 1973 to defend humanity against the mutant threat. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) killed him for it, starting a national panic in which the government harvested her shape-shifting DNA, rendering the Sentinels virtually invincible. Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen), now allies, reconvene with the remaining X-Men in China and concoct a plan to send Wolverine via Kitty Pryde’s powers (Ellen Page) into the past alongside their younger selves (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender) to prevent Trask’s assassination, preventing his creations from reaching their destructive potential. With few options left and the Sentinels knocking at their doorstep, the X-Men race against the clock to undue the past before it dooms their future.
Singer knows this world well and he and editor John Ottman do a splendid job melding the past and future, mixing eras and metaphors in ways the dedicated and casual viewer can genuinely enjoy and understand. A follow-up of sorts to director Matthew Vaughn’s 60s-ish “First Class” romp as much as Singer’s own prior mutant work, callbacks and easter eggs abound for the fans that want them, yet not so much to deter the uninitiated. Flashbacks reference a wealth of cinematic references (even X-Men Origins and The Last Stand are here) and they quite effectively weave around the greater narrative at hand of how individual destinies are not so irreconcilable.
The vilified writer of X-Men’s original trilogy closer, it’s Kinberg who largely redeems himself most and he does so to an admirable, if not imperfect degree. Days of Future Past clicks by at a rapid pace with much to see and even more to do in just two hours time. Not a word of dialogue fails to carry a sense of exposition and much of it is appreciated, minus their tendency to lose track of characters’ names. Nevertheless, time travel is as much Days of Future Past’s strength as an annoyance. Pryde’s abilities go particularly unexplained to all but comic fans, along with Magneto’s own ability to control the Sentinels, but in X-Men’s already extraordinary superhero staples, it’s all the more meaningless and easy to accept. Meanwhile, as the film’s past heroes try to solve a past born from their own selfish and incompatible agendas, it’s the “future” X-Men who mostly sit and fight the Sentinels that they (and the audience) know will find them. This makes for a largely inert and boring section of the film–and one face to face between past and future is disappointingly predictable–but the crosscutting crescendo of past and future colliding is appropriately operatic and well orchestrated in its compelling finale.
Spanning several continents, and the decades that come with them, Days Of Future Past never ceases to feel vast and epic in scope. At its best, it feels not just like an X-Men comic, but like an X-Men comic crossover, joining multiple threads amidst impossibly high stakes. Those stakes are no more evident than in its first few minutes. Its corpse strewn prologue recalls Singer’s own Holocaust imagery in X-Mens past in as much elusively grim detail as much as it does James Cameron’s Terminators, as much as its PG-13 rating can concede.
As large as the film is, it never loses sight of what characters and themes matter to it. Now in the Nixon era, the Vietnam War is seemingly a real-world backstage to its mutant tensions: The Professor is a peace loving hippie, Magneto the unrepentant Congress, and Mystique the guerilla soldier answering to no one but her own conscience. It’s against these dark, dystopian surroundings that Days of Future Past best balances dark with the light. Its humanist themes of hope and fear raise a familiar chord, perhaps overstated more than once, but carried by such strong actors, they remain endearing enough to keep you watching. To Days of Future Past, one act really can change the world, and it’s that notion that plays out across time in gripping ways.
If DC has its universe, then Marvel has its characters, and Days of Future Past employs its titular cast to full effect. It’s the film’s central quartet of MacAvoy, Fassbender, Stewart, and McKellan that take center stage as the film’s heart and soul. James McAvoy’s dissolute ’70s Xavier, able to walk again thanks to a drug that heals his spine but numbs his powers, cleverly hints at the gravitas of his older self and Michael Fassbender’s younger, angrier Magneto makes sure we never know where his true allegiances lie. Both their choices are ones borne out of engaging, internalized conflict and are frequently compelling if not a bit more favorable towards McAvoy. Meanwhile, Stewart and McKellan could say anything in their short amount of screentime with their trademark class.
Regulars and newcomers further fill the ranks. Jackman once again slips into Wolverine’s jacket with the same swagger he’s maintained for over a decade, expressing a vulnerability as a kind of reluctant moral compass. Dinklage’s understated Trask provides us with a particularly refreshing perspective. Rather than money or world domination or, it’s the mutant gene that piques Trask’s interests, and more meticulous and human than we’ve seen in the series’ antagonists. Lawrence’s Mystique has become both more deadly and vulnerable since we last saw her with some impressive footwork to boot. Yet she’s only more aimless in this particular arc than mysterious, with her relation to Xavier all but irrelevant by this point in her increasingly hum-drum role.
For a cast comprising dozens, there’s inevitably a number of characters that fall through the cracks as has come to be expected of the series. Ice Man (Shawn Ashmore) and Storm (Halle Berry) are essentially security guards as is Omar Sy’s Bishop, even Beast (Nicholas Hoult) is no more than Professor X’s furry blue chauffeur and gofer. Nevertheless, their mutant power sets are stunningly highlighted in some of the best effects the series’ had to offer us so far and one of them coming from the famously mocked speedster Quicksilver (Evan Peters) who may have most fanboys eating their hats. The super-powered highlight of the movie, his sections are laced with a humor and cleverness that add the perfect comic relief, employing a bit of slapstick comedy which will surely have audiences begging for more.
As one of the most expensive films in Twentieth Century Fox’s history, the effects are cutting-edge, but Days Of Future Past’s vibe is pleasantly retro, right down to its period piece fashions. Bell bottom jeans, Pong, and an action set piece to the tune of Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” litter the script as do a rich variety of locales from Paris to Vietnam. The film’s intermittent 8mm, 70s era news reels portraying mutant action is a particularly amusing historical aesthetic as are Mystique’s quick-change 70s wardrobe. Add those to a rather candid JFK conspiracy theory and an uncanny Nixon. While production and costume design make the most of the details, the exceptional effects tear Washington D.C. down in grand style with its Inception-style score and breathtaking destruction. Standouts include Blink (Fan Bingbing), who can create teleportation portals, and Quicksilver’s proverbial show-stopping gunfight at impossibly fast velocity that’s easily the most exhilarating and inventive sequence since Nightcrawler’s White House attack in X2. And it’s only fitting that Singer saves the best set pieces for last, dropping an entire stadium on D.C. itself complete with a Sentinel attended beat-down.
Of course, much of Days of Future Past often feels just like an excuse to undo the franchise’s past misjudgments and can’t help but feel a tad too convenient for its own good. Its jaw-dropping finale leaves it the most open-ended Marvel’s films have ever been, and its Christmas morning-style ending is likely an open book for interpretation. True to its fandom drumbeat, its exciting cameos may belay any misgivings of their dubious promises, and within the frame of its story, they work satisfyingly so, with only its baffling after credits teaser preventing it from being a fitting conclusion to a strong series.
While all good things come to an end, it seems as if X-Men is just beginning again. Action and drama abound in equal measure and it’s cast binds it together in near perfect accord that even plot holes can’t hold back. Low moments never last long enough to keep you guessing and their dynamics pay off in the end. What results holds no truer to the comics or films alike and sets the bar higher still for what later installments will only be hard pressed to follow. If time can heal all wounds, Days of Future Past has certainly felt like a recovery a lifetime in the making, bringing back the magic as if it never left.