X-Men Week Part 7

Alright everyone, it’s time to close out “X-Men Week” with the latest installment that came out back in May, “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”  Lisa Kennedy of DenverPost started her review by saying, “Few can track warp and woof of time travel the way comic-book fans can — except perhaps quantum physics brainiacs. And so we leave the space-time nuances of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" for Marvel aficionados to deconstruct.”

Instead, let’s take a look at the philosophical goals of the latest sequel, where gravity and a kind of scaffold humor sparkle like Wolverine’s claws. Once they are metal, that’s it. Which came across as weird because at the end of “The Wolverine,” he had his adamantium skeleton taken away by the Silver Samurai so how did he get them back? Meh, it’s just minor, who cares?

It’s not just this amazing cast that makes the franchise so entertaining. Despite that it’s hard to ignore the brilliance of having James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender reprise Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto and Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as their adult selves. The elderly versions are now arch frenemies. In this film, they come together to put their younger selves in a mission to change the course of the past.

Similar to the great “First Class” (which did live up to its title), this film doesn’t waste any time before throwing us into the horrible.

The future is a dark, miserable place for both mutants and their human friends. Everyone compares this film to "The Terminator," which I can see, but wait for it. Despite the location they travel to, whether it’s New York, Moscow or China, giant robots called Sentinels start taking them into a battlefield for a fight.

The film starts with a group of mutants (Halle Berry as Storm, Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Omar Dy as Bishop, Daniel Cudmore as Colossus, Fan Bingbong as Blink, Adan Canto as Sunspot, and Booboo Stewart as Warpath) hiding in a subterranean cave fighting bravely against the apparently indestructible Sentinels. The only way they can change the course of this unwinnable war is to stop it before it begins, to stop the Sentinels from ever being created.

The film’s mad scientist shows up in Dr. Bolivar Trask, played by Peter Dinklage from the hit sitcom “The Game of Thrones,” who’s another person that likes to mess with genetics with no doubts about testing mutants in his research. 

Now the last time we saw Raven aka Mystique, reprised by Jennifer Lawrence, she was determined to be a mutant avenger. The reason why she is a catalyst is because it’s implanted into her DNA. Her transformation to Mystique is exactly the proper fight at the core of “X-Men.” What’s the best method to protect mutants: take on humans or kill the dangerous ones? It’s because Xavier and Magneto split but also because Xavier and Mystique were like siblings.

Ellen Page reprises Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat, who sends Logan aka Wolverine’s, reprised by Hugh Jackman, mind back to 1973. Wait a minute. Shadowcat can walk through walls. When did she get the power to send people’s minds back in time? Remember, I only grew up watching the 90s animated cartoon and “X-Men Evolution.” I never read any of the comics, so if there is a comic issue that mentions how she got that ability, comment below.

Kennedy commented in her review, “The era allow for some larks. Bring on the lava lamps and Top 40 hits by Roberta Flack and the late Jim Croce.” But this isn’t a popcorn kind of movie. “X-Men” also brought up the Vietnam War in their story. “First Class” mentioned the Holocaust and the Cold War.

A handful of superhero movies satire but don’t really talk about history. Bryan Singer is back as director and along with screenwriter Simon Kinberg, they don’t talk about Vietnam very clearly, but they’re bravely intent on making mutant fates with the non-mutants.

Possibly more than all of the superhero franchise, “X-Men” captures the going beyond fantasies of not only being unique, but also being a hero and being saved.

Contrary to the arguments made by Trask, the young Xavier argued in his Oxford thesis that mutations help world evolution, it did not cut mutants from humans but set the basis of understanding.

These are injured and outstanding beings. Sure it takes some time to get to Logan’s hurts and hopes, but he does have them.

Thanks to Jackman’s ironic and grim depiction of Logan, there’s a lot of humor along with ache here.

When Logan finds Xavier, the school he found for mutants is close to ruins and empty except for the messy professor and Hank aka Beast, reprised by Nicholas Hoult. Xavier doesn’t have his telepathic powers because of addiction.

Magneto is taking over a different void. He’s deep into the Pentagon because he committed a lethal, deceitful crime.

One of the best scenes is with Wolverine, Hank and Xavier using the help of the fast and highly minor thief Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, to free Magneto from the Pentagon. The only downside to this is that they never use him again after this segment, and I thought he was one of the coolest characters ever.

Another great part in this movie is when Magneto is in a baseball park, the old man asks if he needs help with anything, Magneto says no, and then he takes the entire baseball park over to the White House. I have to agree with LazerDude99 when he said that this part is better than in "The Dark Knight Rises," when Bane blew up the Football Stadium.

It’s close to a masterful set piece like Christopher Nolan’s choreographing the van crash in “Inception.”

There are a few flaws that I would like to point out about this film. First off, why does Trask want to use Mystique’s DNA on the Sentinel’s? Mystique was able to shape shift into a different mutant, but she never could mimic their powers. Unless they put Rouge’s DNA in the Sentinel’s later, but they never say. Magneto does tell Wolverine to find him and make him help out the team, convincing him not to turn evil regardless. Doug Walker argues that Magneto does absolutely nothing to help out, which I can see where he’s coming from. Although, Doug’s brother, Rob, argues that maybe he doesn’t want to change. Maybe the reason why he tags along is to cause more damage than repair. When adult Magneto said to find him in the past, maybe he was tricking Wolverine into wanting the future to stay the same and not change. Speaking of Magneto, how was he able to power up the Sentinel’s using train tracks? Also, just like the end of “First Class,” Magneto gives a big speech and no one steps in to stop him. Quicksilver was watching him on his TV. He could have easily run out and knocked the helmet off of him, giving Xavier a chance to get inside his head. However, that problem was kind of in here, but Mystique does come in and shoots him in the neck, unlike in “First Class,” which I don’t hate, but that part in "First Class" was annoying. Like I said, it was kind of the same problem in "Days of Future Past," but I think Bryan Singer redeemed the X-Men series by fixing it in this movie.

But the biggest relief ever in the movie is the ending. Wolverine wakes up and sees that every mutant that we know and love is there in the school happy. I know that all of the mutants were not used to the fullest, but Bryan Singer was only using the mutants that really mattered. Evan Jonigkeit plays Toad and Gregg Lowe plays Ink, but I don’t think they were utilized that much. All you see are their faces and that’s it, if I remember correctly. Lucas Till is back as Havok, but I don’t remember what he did. Maybe you just saw him for a glimpse, and that’s it. We see Anna Paquin reprise Rouge, Famke Janssen reprise Jean Grey, James Marsden reprise Cyclops, and even Kelsey Grammer comes in for a bit as Beast. The ending is like waking up from a long nightmare, and makes you eagerly waiting the next X-Men movie. Bryan Singer must have been flipping off the other directors and telling them, "This is how you do an X-Men movie!" With this movie, maybe the past movies didn't happen, but does that mean we get bone claws instead of adamantium? Well, at the end, William Stryker, played by Josh Helman, saves Wolverine from drowning, but it turns out it's Mystique in disguise, so I guess Wolverine will be getting adamantium claws, but we'll have to see in the next movie. Now this series can do the same thing that all these other Marvel movies are doing, like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and so forth. Although I don’t hate any of the X-Men movies, this one was one of the most satisfying endings in any of the X-Men movies. Plus, unlike the other movies where not all of the X-Men fight, every “X-Men” in this movie is jumping in and fighting. Even though they may or may not have enough dialogue, they still contribute their part in the battle.

In the end, I’m agreeing with everyone in saying this is the best X-Men movie ever. The post credit scene (spoilers) show people in Egypt chanting En Sabah Nur, who uses telekinetic powers to build pyramids, as Four Horsemen are watching nearby. This is building up the Apocalypse movie, which is coming out in a few years.

In the mean time, if you missed the chance to see this movie in the theater, definitely see this when it’s released on DVD, it’s worth the rental. Go rent it from your RedBox, NetFlix, local library, Amazon, or wherever you go to get your movies. Or, buy it from the Best Buys, Target, Wal-Mart, anywhere. Hands down, this movie gets a 10+. Like I said before, it’s the best X-Men movie by far, and another one of my favorites.

Thank you for joining in on “X-Men Week.” I hope you enjoyed these reviews as much as I and reviewreviewer1, for the most part, had making these reviews. I was originally planning on reviewing all of them when “The Wolverine” came out, but reviewreviewer1 was not feeling very well, so we had to hold out on it. Now that we’ve done it, please check out his channel to see his reviews, you’ll love all of them. Stay tuned to see what I will review for the rest of the month.