14 years after effectively jump-starting the ongoing superhero boom, and 11 years after giving the “X-Men” franchise its best entry with the pitch-perfect “X2,” director Bryan Singer returns to his world of super-powered mutants with “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and in doing so, breathes new, ambitious life into the franchise’s lungs. As if the series’ scope wasn’t wide enough, Singer widens it even further, presenting us with a dark and bleak vision of the future: a nightmare world where surviving mutant rebels are exterminated like vermin by terrifying robot hunters called Sentinels -- not only does this lend the film an epic scale, it also gives it a really neat sci-fi edge, with unstoppable killer cyborgs and a grimly scary dystopia straight out of James Cameron’s “Terminator” movies. But this dystopia is not the film’s main setting, because also like in “The Terminator,” there’s a time travel plot, as Hugh Jackman’s older Wolverine, now sporting silver streaks which jut out from his temples like the claws from his knuckles, is sent back to his younger body of 1973: united with the characters from “X-Men: First Class,” Wolverine leads a mission to change the course of history and put an end to the genocidal war on mutants before it even begins.
The groovily fashioned ‘70s setting essentially makes “Days of Future Past” a continuation of Matthew Vaughn’s stylish, ‘60s-set prequel “X-Men: First Class,” continuing the stories of the young mind-reader Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), metal manipulator Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) and shapeshifter Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). Worries that Wolverine was once again hogging the spotlight (exacerbated by the fact that in the comic book source material it’s Ellen Page’s Kitty Pryde who goes back in time, not ol’ metal claws) are proven to be of the knee-jerk variety: the film is absolutely an ensemble piece, with Xavier, Erik and Mystique (once again all played to utter perfection by McAvoy, Fassbender and Lawrence) as the main players, and Wolverine, along with Nicholas Hoult’s blue furred Beast, sort of tagging along for the ride. Oh, and not forgetting Evan Peters’ super-speedy teen Quicksilver, whose jail-break set-piece, where he effortlessly springs Magneto from a maximum-security prison, is a dazzling and funny highlight -- I guess first appearances aren’t everything.
As he did in his first two “X-Men” movies, Singer does a terrific job in balancing out the spectacular, energetic action with resonant character development: McAvoy’s arc is particularly moving, as a troubled Xavier must learn to give up the use of his legs and regain his telepathic powers, both for his own good and the good of mutantkind. All the while Singer gracefully keeps the film from feeling crushed under the sheer weight of its ambitious scale and overload of mutant characters: despite the epic scale, Singer keeps the spectacle firmly grounded in the emotions of his protagonists. The end result is both a hugely enjoyable summer blockbuster and a thoroughly satisfying franchise entry, impressively topping the excellent “First Class,” if not quite knocking “X2” off its almighty perch. Of course, attempting to work out all the ins and outs of the intricate time travel plot will surely turn your brain to scrambled eggs, but one thing’s for sure: it rather brilliantly renders the franchise’s more rubbish entries, i.e. “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” entirely null and void. For that we can be eternally grateful.
Rating: 8/10
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