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Friday 23 May 2014

The Days of Future Past in the X-Men Franchise

You see what I did there with the title? Future Past? X-Men? Play on the title of the new movie? No? Okay.

So, far I am legitimately the ONLY one in all my friends and acquaintances (ten people) who disagrees with the general consensus on the movie 'X-MEN: Days Of The Future Past'. Critics, reviewers, fans - everybody is literally gushing over the film but is it really that good?



I'm going to have to start with the title. I am aware of the fact that the title doesn't define the movie but 'Days of the Future Past' has to be the worst title ever! Subtitle actually. Or whatever. Does it even make grammatical sense? I feel like zero energy and effort were put into naming the film. It is honestly the most unimaginative, and literal title I have had the misfortune of coming across.

X-Men: Days of the Future Past is based in a dystopian future when the world has been taken over by killer robots (of course this is original!). These robots were created to kill mutants but went rogue, and started killing anyone who had even the slightest connection with mutants and their mutations. Mutants decide to save the day by sending Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back into the past to stop the event that led to all this.

Although, the story boasts of complexity, in reality, however, people are forgetting that 90% of the movie only follows Wolverine, Beast, Prof X and Magneto as they chase Mystique down to stop her from shooting Trask (creator of Sentinels): the event that spirals out of control into a bleak and dark future.

When Jackman arrives in the past, Magneto is in prison for killing JFK and so it is decided that he must be freed. There is an extensive albeit hilarious breakout scene featuring Quicksilver which proves to be the undoing of the main characters. Magneto was meant to help them stop the creation of the Sentinels instead he ends up making the situation worse and then abandoning the protagonists to follow an evil path - entirely his own. Notably, Quicksilver's powers would have been much more handy and much less messy in stopping Mystique and the decision to leave him behind seems inexplicable.

Coming back to the other 10% of the story, it is quite unfortunate, but the action sequences are seriously lacking. Mystique's fighting scenes are repetitive, Wolverine's fighting scenes are non-existent because he can't fight with his non-metal claws, and the beast hardly ever uses his powers. Moreover, Professor Xavier can't use his powers as a result of a drug that allows him to walk. When he does come around to using his powers, he is too weak to provide an substantial result. Hence, the movie spans a multitude of  long narratives instead, through which (surprisingly) he is able to convince the villains of the hour against their villainy.

The film ends on a predictable happy note with an altenate future in which all of the previous characters are alive since none of the events of the past films have occurred. For instance - Jean and Scott are alive. This means our money, time, and patience were all truly wasted watching the previous films as none of it ever happened.

'...characters diagnose and cure each other through the power of motivational speechifying...[Xavier] eventually pumps everyone up slowly, empathetically, boringly.' - rogerebert.com


This could not get any worse but unfortunately, it does. The cast of the film is bloody amazing! James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart are as usual fantastic as Charles Xavier as are Micheal Fassbender and Ian McKellen as Magneto. Peter Dinklage plays Bolivar Trask with panache. Moreover, there is Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Halle Berry (Storm), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Ellen Paige (Shadowcat), James Marsden Nicolas Hoult (Beast), Lucas Till (Havok) and I am not even halfway through the cast. The acting prowess of these actors is commendable and the movie felt short to fully showcase their abilities.

I love the X-Men.; the comics and all but the truth is that the X-Men franchise is a huge disappointment. People keep saying that the movie is a huge improvement from The Last Stand  however, the point is not the compare it to other films from the franchise. It is a better than The Last Stand, yes, but that doesn't make it any good. Much like its predecessor, apart from a few chuckles and mediocre graphics, the film really doesn't offer much to the viewer.

X-Men movies have stopped depicting what the comics and its characters stand for. The standards of this franchise have been falling for a while now, and the The Last Stand did hit an all new low. The only hope is that now that rock bottom has been hit - there is no way but up!

To conclude - eh!

1/5 stars

P.s - There was a post-credit scene that I obviously missed, as did everyone else in my hall. #StopThePost-CreditScenes. The short scene introduced Apocalypse as the new villain of the series.


Similar Reads: Den of Geek 11 questions about X-Men Days Of Future Past answered

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