X-Men: Days of Future Past

Or as I like to call it, X-Men: The Giant Reset Button.

But I'll get to that.

X-Men: Days of Future Past takes place in a desolate and just overall dark future. It is a time when mutants are hunted down by giant robots called Sentinels and many mutants have been killed.

Except for the main cast of the past few X-Men films.

They've developed a way to teleport the consciousness of someone back in time to warn their past selves on the dangers and how to escape from the Sentinels. Charles Xavier (played once again by Patrick Stewart) and Eric Lehnsher, or Magneto (played once again by Ian Mckellan) formulate a plan to stop the war from ever happening. They want to send the consciousness of someone back far enough to where it all began so they can stop a sequence of events that led to the creation of the Sentinels and the start of the conflict between mutants and humans.

However, they discover that Wolverine is the only one who can make the trip. (How convenient the most popular X-men character is the only one)

The plan is to send Wolverine's consciousness back in time to prevent the assassination of Boliver Trask (played by Peter Dinklage) by Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and the only way this can be done is if Wolverine recruits the help of young Professor X and young Magneto. (Played by James McEvoy, and Michael Fassbender respectively.

What really surprised me was how much this movie was actually about Mystique.

Thinking about it, its really not surprising. Jennifer Lawrence is the biggest name since sliced bread today and it would only make sense to have a large part of the story about her.

The cool part about this movie, and an element I didn't think of, was how much of a sequel this is to X-Men: First Class. Almost every character in that movie is accounted for in this movie one way or another and its actually really well done.

And Mystique is not quite the Mystique we know her as yet.

Her mission in this movie is to assassinate Boliver Trask, the creator of the Sentinels. Now at this time, Trask has not created his machines yet but he has utilized the DNA of different mutants to help his research. In Mystique's mind, this man must die. And yet she hasn't killed anyone yet. She's not the coldblooded killer we know her as in later movies. Again its a sequel because it continues the story of the Mystique we met in First Class.

Oh and Peter Dinklage, phenomenal.

The best part about him as the villain of this film, which as far as actions go in 1973, he is the main villain, his motives are actually reasonable motives. Sure they're clouded by fear and prejudice but that's the amazing part about his role is that he thinks what he's doing is the right thing to do. He's not doing it for wealth, he's not doing it, necessarily for fame, and he's not doing it because he's evil, on the contrary, Bolivar Trask is actually a normal man that is just scared. He's just scared of something he doesn't understand. Does that make what he does right? No. Does it make him an intriguing character? Incredibly.

Before going on in the story that takes place in 1973, which the majority of the film does, I'll talk about the whole concept of how Wolverine is able to be in that time. Like I've said before, his consciousness is projected back to his former self. The thing that makes the stakes higher is that Sentinels are on the way and Wolverine must maintain a calm mind while being projected by Kitty Pryde.

All in this time we're able to "meet" other mutants, some we've met before, like Colossus, and other mutants we haven't met, like Blink, who now takes on the mantle of coolest, most unique power.

PORTALS!!!!!!

It also shows the brilliant and just deadly power of the Sentinels, and by jove, those guys are just power houses. There is almost nothing even the most powerful mutants can do to stop them and it makes the mission of Wolverine even more important.

And that brings me to the final important part of the story, the further sequelness of the film when Wolverine goes and meets Charles Xavier.

Again, this is more of a sequel to First Class than you know. Charles Xavier is still feeling the effects of the end of First Class. He's tried to open up the school "for Gifted Youngsters". And this was actually one of the best parts of the movie. The fact that while this is a universe where mutants exist and crazy ass shit goes down involving them, changing the course of human history, the parts of human history that remain, affect the mutants. They're not exclusive to each other.

For example, Vietnam happens, a lot of teachers and students are sent to war and suddenly Charles starts feeling all the pain and suffering. That's all I'll go into because we're breaching on spoiler territory, but Charles Xavier is at his lowest moment and its brilliantly done.

James McEvoy gives a phenomenal performance as someone who has just hit rock bottom. There's more I can say but the short of it is, McEvoy was brilliant in it.

The one problem I had with the film was the distinct lack of Magneto.

In First Class, the movie was focused on the relationship between Eric and Charles and it was just brilliant seeing those two react to one another.

Unfortunately with all the focus this movie has on Mystique, it doesn't necessarily feel as though Magneto totally fits in the story.

For some reason they think its so necessary that Wolverine gets Charles and Eric to stop Mystique from pulling through the assassination but in the end, Magneto just becomes an obstacle. I don't feel like he was totally needed for the film and there isn't much resolution between him and any of the characters.

That being said, I love Fassbender as Magneto. It would have been a stupid choice not for them to put him in the film and I am in no way saying he was bad. He was phenomenal. The conversation he has with Charles on plane about their different philosophies was really great, I just think there was a little bit more he could have done. The majority of the film is just him doing his own thing, he doesn't really contribute to the retrieval of Mystique. I felt the drama that worked so well between Charles and Mystique kind of left Magneto in the background and many times made me feel as though he wasn't really needed.

Speaking of not totally necessary but good characters. Let's talk about Quicksilver.

I'll be honest, I had my doubts about Evan Peters as Quicksilver. Even looking at the picture to the left right now, I still think he looks kind of stupid.

However, this Quicksilver was just a really, really fun character. Not only is he physically fast but his mental capacities are also incredibly fast. There's a scene where the main characters are about to be killed and QuickSilver fixes the entire situation in a matter of miliseconds. However, the way its shot is if he stops time in order to show how fast he is able to create so much mayhem.

It was a really, really cool scene. However...

There's not really much learned about Quicksilver as a character. He's snarky, he's a klepto, and he may or may not be the son of Magneto. Beyond that, he's in the movie for 20 minutes tops and then is only seen one more time in the film.

Quicksilver was the Gambit of this film.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, Gambit had a similar type of role in X-Men: Origins Wolverine. He showed up for 20 minutes, helped the story along but didn't really contribute. This character really could have been anybody, it didn't have to be Gambit. It could have been anybody and the story could have been progressed. The problem people had with this interpretation of Gambit was that he was in the film for 20 minutes and there was no character. He was just a plot device.

Quicksilver is the plot device of Days of Future Past. Sure he's got some cool action scenes, but again, it could have been anybody. They could have thrown Gambit in again and the story would have still been able to survive. Its really a device these X-men movies need to learn to not do. Seeing different powers is cool but they don't mean anything if the characters are pointless.

And speaking of X-Men: Origins Wolverine, I'm going to start talking about the ending. So SPOILERS!

There is a lot that happens in the end, a lot that would ruin the experience of watching it, but in short, they succeed in preventing Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, the Sentinels are never created and history is changed.

Quite literally.

Wolverine awakens in the new future and suddenly everyone is alive. And when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE.

Remember how Jean Grey died? Nope, she's alive. Remember how Cyclops died? Nope, he's alive too.

Some important events are changed and therefore makes it so multiple movies never happened. On first glance, X-Men 3: The Last Stand and Wolverine: Origins, never happened. The Wolverine, never happened. X-Men 1 and 2? Probably never happened and if it did, it happened differently.

Like I said, a giant reset button.

On one hand, its a good thing because it gives Fox a chance to rewrite the timeline in a way they want to. They basically pull exactly what the 2009 Star Trek did and can do with the timeline what they like.

However, on the other hand, it makes my entire experience watching The Wolverine, pointless. The only reason I thought that movie was worth watching was because it bridged the gaps between The Last Stand and led into Days of Future Past. But now it really seems pointless.

Also I don't know what that means for the cast of the First Class movies. Its not that I'm worried about how their continuity works because that movie is prior to 1973 when history was changed.

The problem I have is that there's a good chance those characters won't be used substantially again, at least not as substantial as the old cast. To me that doesn't make that much sense.

To me, changing history seemed to give the the series the opportunity to start over with new characters, or at least new versions of the characters in a new timeline.

Wolverine could still be in those movies and remain as the last connection to the old movies but it would be a new opportunity to do something new with the series. Instead it provides a future for those versions of the characters that is set. None of them that showed up in the end of the film, which is basically all of them, can die in any future movies featuring that cast so the suspense is gone. It worked for First Class because that was an origin story. However, I wanted to see new adventures with James McEvoy and Michael Fassbender helming it.

Now I don't know what they're going to do for the next film, X-Men: Apocalypse. Apparently its been said that it'll focus on the First Class cast so maybe it'll all work out. I think with the result of Days of Future Past, I'm pretty optimistic.

Overall, Days of Future Past is a really great Super Hero film. Its got great characters, a great story, and really opens up questions for what is going to happen in the future of the franchise.

I've heard things about an X-Men Fanastic Four team up and I'm wondering when they're going to make that happen. I think Fox has just proven they're in league with Marvel/Disney and there's still a lot they can do with the franchise, a franchise that's been around for almost fifteen years.

Sure, there are a lot of characters that needed more development or could have been cut out of the movie completely but overall, the story is fantastic. Unsurprisingly, Bryan Singer delivers.

But have you seen Days of Future Past? What do you think they'll do with the future of the franchise? Who is your favorite X-man (or woman?) Comment and discuss below.

I'll leave you with this. When there's a movie this big, they'll usually do an Honest Trailer. So here's the honest Trailers on the movies that this movie really kind of made irrelevant. Enjoy!