Image courtesy of Marvel Entertainment/20th Century Fox  

X-Men: Days of Future Past

By Lori Garrett | published May 29, 2014 |
Thursday Review contributor

X-Men: Days of Future Past is not only a sequel to 2011’s X-Men: First Class, but also to 2006’s X-Men: Last Stand, intertwining some of the storylines and using many of the same characters and actors from both films. It is loosely based on the 1981 comic of the same name, but the movie and comic share only the name and a basic plotline.

If you are a fan of the comics--or at least the 1990’s animated series--you should be able to recognize the opening scenes of Days of Future Past as the terrible effect of Mutant Registration (for those of you not in the know, this is basically the Holocaust for mutants, where they are rounded up and/or systematically killed). The few remaining free mutants have banded together, and are on the run from a large group of Sentinels-robots specifically built to track and kill mutants. They decide to send one of their members back in time to 1973 to warn the younger versions of Professor X and Magneto of the upcoming disaster, hoping to avoid the tragedy all together.

Warning: I generally try to avoid spoiling anything in my reviews, so I’m going to go ahead and warn you that the following paragraph is one big SPOILER ALERT!

In 1973, we find that Professor X (James McAvoy; Wanted, Shameless) is no longer inviting young mutants to seek refuge at his school. He has lost faith in himself and his abilities as most of the original X-Men have died during the Vietnam War. Magneto (Michael Fassbender; Prometheus, 12 Years a Slave) is in prison, having been accused of killing John F. Kennedy. They enlist Peter Maximoff, aka Quicksilver (Evan Peters; American Horror Story, Kick-Ass) to break Magneto out of prison in what is one of the most well shot scenes of the movie. For that scene alone, I salute Director Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2, X-Men: First Class, The Usual Suspects) and the effects crew. Meanwhile, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence; The Hunger Games, American Hustle) is planning on helping mutantkind by killing Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage; Game of Thrones, Death at a Funeral), the man behind the deaths of many of her friends, and the Sentinels.

Between the multiple special effects and the generous smattering of movie stars—this film joins together most of the casts from all the previous installments including but not limited to Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ellen Page, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Ian McKellen, and Kelsey Grammar—it’s not difficult to see how this film comes with a $200 million dollar price tag. But I don’t believe it will be a problem for the studio, either Marvel Entertainment or 20th Century Fox. They have already made that back and more, scoring a whopping $305 million dollars worldwide on the film’s opening weekend.

In short, go watch the movie. Go watch it now. The special effects demand to be seen on the big screen. After this one (remember to stay through the credits to catch the stinger and a hint for what the next one contains) I honestly cannot wait for 2016. They simply cannot make these movies fast enough for me.