X-Men: Days of Future Past

You’d think that, seven movies in, the X-Men franchise would start to show signs of fatigue. And while there have been a few missteps over the past 14 years ranging from the awkward (X-Men: The Last Stand) to the outright embarrassing (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the balance was recently readdressed with the appropriately titled First Class, a film that thrilled and entertained in a way that prequels usually don’t.

But reenergising a series is one thing. Bridging together two existing ones is a rather less enviable task. And before you point out that Joss Whedon managed to pull off the triumphant feat of tying in four separate titles with The Avengers, he did not have to contend with the time-travelling loop holes that Bryan Singer is burdened with in Days of Future Past, not to mention an ensemble of characters that spans across two separate timelines. As a result, this makes DOFP effectively an “inbetweenquel” and arguably the most ambitious comic book adaptation to date.

The set-up alone requires some serious mental gymnastics. In a post-apocalyptic future, mutantkind is being systematically decimated by a legion of unstoppable killer robots called the Sentinels. Realising that the introduction of these systems stems from the 1973 assassination of a public figure at the hands of shape-shifting mutant Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), the X-Men decide to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time in order to persuade the younger versions of Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor X (James McAvoy) to team up and prevent the murder from happening.

As you can deduce from the above premise, this is one film where a toilet break could prove fatal to your grasp on what’s going on. If DOFP had an overarching flaw it’s that, with so much going on both in the past and future storylines, it demands a lot from viewers’ attention spans. Also, because it does its best to reference events from all of the X-Men movies to date (yes, ALL of them) and tie up loose ends left hanging throughout the franchise, the movie is virtually impenetrable to newcomers.

The fact that the quality of the film does not suffer from the convoluted narrative structure is a testament to Singer as a filmmaker. While he certainly possesses a keen visual sense – the filming of one scene through the lens of an 8mm camera manages to single-handedly nail the 70s aesthetic – he is more importantly a director with a natural talent for handling large ensembles, and one astute enough to understand that it’s not his mutants’ powers that make them colourful, but their personalities. Stick two characters with polar opposite moral/political views in a tentative game of chess and you know you’re going to get an electrifying scene without the need of a CGI-fuelled bust-up.

Adding more intrigue to the proceedings is witnessing just how different the younger incarnations of Magneto and Professor X are to their older, much wiser counterparts. Fassbender easily channels Ian McKellen’s gravitas and even manages to outdo him in the bastard stakes, making this Magneto’s most threatening on-screen portrayal to date, yet there is no arguing that this is James McAvoy’s show. Bitter, boozing and with the shaggy long hair to match the tortured soul, this is Charles Xavier like we’ve never seen him before – less Professor X, more Lieutenant Dan. It’s his emotional journey of redemption we’re invited on, and it is the stuff of compelling drama. Despite remaining cool and reliably charismatic, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine definitely takes a backseat to these two characters, not to mention Jennifer Lawrence’s more fleshed-out Mystique.

The X-Men that don’t get as much screen time certainly make up for their lack of depth and lines in the action sequences. Nicholas Hoult’s Beast sadly does not get to do as much as he did in First Class, but enjoys a game of tag team (stop snickering) with Logan in the final showdown. Evan Peters’ Quicksilver is a hoot in the film’s most memorable set piece and makes a serious case for sonic speed as the coolest superpower ever. And the future mutants make sure the Sentinels realise they won’t be going down without a fight, in a series of visually inventive battles that are sure to have kids (and adults) re-enacting them in the playground for weeks to come.

Factor in a perfectly executed finale and a couple of surprising twists and what you have is the best X-Men movie to date. Plus, if the tantalising post-credits sequence is anything to go by, we’re possibly in for an even bigger movie in two years’ time. Who knows? In Bryan Singer’s hands, the Apocalypse might just be something worldwide audiences will want to eagerly sit through in 2016.

4/5