Wednesday, June 4, 2014

My review of X Men: Days of Future Past

So I am going to try something different here and maybe I have not done it before, at least not on this blog...


I just watched X Men: Days of Future Past and I have some serious doubts here.

(warning : may contain spoilers)

Firstly, let me start off to say that the character I liked the most was not Wolverine but Peter Maximoff aka Quicksilver. He was a delight and treat to watch. Boyish charms and as quick as mercury and innocently playful. I hope to see more of him and I really like the inclusion of Time in a Bottle for the scene where he rescues Magneto.

The first surprise was to see Professor Xavier alive. Yes, at the end of "The Wolverine (2013) " and right after the credits there is a scene that shows the older Magneto paying a visit to Wolverine while he is at the airport and then suddenly Professor Xavier appears on the wheelchair with the line  " A long time ago...you were not the only one with gifts" but that still did not explain how did he materialize (if that is the word I am allowed to use here) as we all know that The Phoenix aka Jean Grey had destroyed his body in
" X-Men: The Last Stand". So the question that was not answered was how did Professor Xavier
re-emerge.

The next surprise comes when towards the end of "The Wolverine (2013) " we see that Logan has the bone claws now as his admantium claws were cut off in the ensuing fight. Now in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" there is no explanation given how did he get his admantium claws back when he slices at Kitty Pride.

I was sorely disappointed to see Wolverine so tame and such an all out good guy. Professor Xavier mostly sat in the chair and did nothing quite dramatic. Both the Magneto's did have something to do but the younger Magneto had too many change of minds that happen abruptly like trying to kill Mystique then suddenly dropping a football stadium on the White house and just before that he and Charles kiss and make up and now he maims Charles again. The intentions do not make sense. Beast served as a distraction but could have been used more extensively.

I did find a couple of glaring holes too like if Mystique could access Trask's office then why did she have to kill him in DC. She could have killed him anywhere and anytime. A shapeshifter would not find it so difficult to kill either the President or Trask but they instead decided to stretch it. I found it really silly.

Wolverine thrown out of the fight completely and left to drown and if he drowned, how did he come back to life. He can regenerate but how does he produce oxygen under water or how did he hold his breath for that long till he was found again and brought back to the surface. That was not explained too.

The younger Charles had a very complex fight going on with his demons and doubts and that was very interesting to watch and Mystique was quite transparent but still appeared at times to suddenly change her mind mid way like the younger Magneto. Bishop was interesting and so was Blink. Warlord, Bobby Drake and the new 'fire guy' were there either for support or a display of power but could have been developed more.

Overall, there was too much shown and too many plots in between. I think Bryan Singer should really take pointers from Christopher Nolan when it comes to making sequels or reboots. Christopher Nolan made a very complex trilogy that could be easily understood and it was much loved and each character was given space and time. Here it seemed a little rushed, under cooked and being a huge fan of the comics and having read the entire X Men series with all their timelines, this movie did not live up to my expectation. I am disappointed but there were many good scenes but the story seemed too convoluted and had too many unanswered questions.

I mean, you have the courtesy to hint more than once who is the father of Quicksilver but you do not explain how Professor Xavier comes back to life and how does Wolverine get his claws back and how does Wolverine survive the drowning. You ignore your two most important characters and downplay them so badly to give Mystique (was it because of Jennifer Lawrence and her Oscar outing ?) and the younger Magneto complex shades, even the younger Charles had his plateful but what about the others? Was Storm only used to create bolts of lightning and smash the ships into one another. I mean, she could have been used a lot too. Bishop and Blink were paired nicely and I wish they show more of these too in the coming films.

I was really expecting more and a much better story at the very least. I would watch it again to just see if I missed something but I really don't want to watch this movie again.

I am sorry but I normally don't criticize but that's what I meant when I said I was going to do something that I had not done before.