Hey, it’s time to get caught on X-Men again! Last year, four of my thirty movies were X-Men movies (Last Stand, First Class, and two Wolverine movies). Now I can finally say I am all caught up with the X-Men franchise with today’s feathre, X-Men: Days of Future Past.
In this 2014 summer blockbuster, directory Bryan Singer returns, and he brings a bunch of people with him. Last year, X-Men: First Class, took us back in time to the 1960’s where we see part of the origin story of Magneto, Professor X, and a host of other young mutants. This time around, we bounce back and forth between those characters in the past – now in 1973 – and the X-Men of today. The one think linking them together.
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, of course.
I knew that this movie took place between two times, but I honestly thought there would be more interaction between the characters and their past/future selves. But if I learned anything from Dr. Emmett L. Brown…
…I learned that your past self running into your future self is never, ever good.
To avoid anything like this, they actually constructed a good time travel device, where the mind travels back in time. Going back that many decades is too much for a brain to take, but Wolverine can always heal and regenerate. It also helps that the character never ages, so the actor can be the same.
Seriously though, does Hugh Jackman also not age?
When I first heard that the old Patrick Stewart was going to be in a movie where the old cast meets the new cast, I thought, can they do that?
Seriously though, I actually kinda felt bad for the new cast. Oh, Bryan Singer is back and he’s brought the original X-Men cast with him. But I was (actually happily) surprised to see that this was more about the new cast and focused more on the folks we met in First Class. However, saying that, I still enjoyed seeing a lot of the old cast, even if some of them were only there for a few seconds (that’s more than enough of Halle Berry for me).
Really what more can I say about this movie? I’m probably the last comic book fan left who hasn’t seen it already. I’ll tell you one thing, I think I enjoyed First Class and Days of Future Past more than most of the Marvel movies. I know – these are technically “Marvel” movies, but they’re not Marvel Studios movies. They’re not in the Avengers Universe – hence the fact that you have two versions of one character – Quicksilver – in both this movie and the new Avengers movie.
And yes they were best friends in Kick-Ass, but that’s besides the point. The point is this, I think the X-Men movies might be better now.
Couple things of note:
- The scene of Quicksilver in the kitchen at the Pentagon might’ve been my favorite scene in the movie. The effects, along with his performance, and the music. Perfect.
- Though I really like the new cast, I could watch Hugh Jackman play Wolverine in anything…..Even his X-Men: Origins movie.
- This may be a little spoilery, but I loved how the end of the movie has a real “Marty McFly wakes back up in 1985” feel.
- And apparently, there cannot be a movie about time travel where I don’t think about Back to the Future.
I did fast-forward to after the credits to see that final scene. Setting up for X-Men: Apocalypse I’m sure. No idea what any of it was yet, but I play to do a little reading (by that I mean Wikipedia) to see what that was….
Until tomorrow…..
4 DOWN. 26 TO GO.
