(This article has first appeared in Tellychakkar.com.http://www.tellychakkar.com//movie/movie-news/movie-review-x-men-days-of-future-past-631)
X-Men comic book lovers are in for a metallic spectacle filled Simon Kinberg scripted 3D epic that joins some old dots and appeases any past discontent with disarming ease.
X-Men: Days of Future Past gives a fast forward, faster backward roller coaster experience that switches time lines in seconds. Set during two time periods - a post apocalyptic near future 2023 and 1973; boasting of an attractive ensemble of "X-Men" stars, the superhero film is supposedly the second most expensive one by 20th Century Fox, after Avatar.
Is it a prequel or a sequel? Well, it’s both. Timeline is the best device used here to satisfy the young and the old. Watch out for an absolute stunner of a tension filled sequence in which Wolverine in his younger self time frame suddenly snaps into his actual, older self, losing track of a crucial and fatal moment involving Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence).
In rare light moments, the VFX work has some fun, using Quicksilver’s (Evan Peters) gift for supersonic speed and stopping time. A freeze frame involving a bullet fire round, shows him maneuvering every bullet as if they were bubbles. Jim Croce’s song, ‘Time in a bottle’ plays delightfully to this marvellous sequence.
Such moments and one liners like “take it slow” are few and far between. This makes this somewhat complicated but familiar plot sit long and heavy at times.
The seventh film in the X-men series; it is based on the 1981 story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. First published in "The Uncanny X-Men”, the story depicts a dystopian future where mutants are captured or killed by robotic mutant hating ‘Sentinels’. Kitty Pryde sends her mind back to the past to stop a fatal moment that turns humankind against the mutants, in order to avoid a destructive future.
In the film, expectedly Kitty is replaced by the much popular Logan/ Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) while Kitty (Ellen Page) aids him in the mind transport. Wolverine's consciousness is sent back in time to prevent the blue paint bodied, red haired Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing the sentinels’ mastermind, Trask (Peter Dinklage), getting captured and have her mutant DNA used to destroy the rest of the mutants.
Wolverine time travels in his mind to his younger self, meets the younger and a depressed Professor X/ Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) who has lost his special powers and can only walk after taking a serum drug.
Amidst trips from China to Paris to Washington, we see changing dynamics between Charles and Eric from enemies to team players and their competitive hold over Mystique. This central plot is the better and the most engrossing part of the entire rescue saga.
We are treated to spectacles where Mystique changes bodies, Charles enters minds while he struggles with the voices in his head, Erik/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) wields metals, bullets and stadiums, Beast (Nicholas Hoult) lends some battling strength and Wolverine bares his knuckle claws.
If you have a favourite amongst X-men, this film will satisfy each one. Mine was the young, extremely expressive and more human Charles.
But don’t bank too much on either the brawny superhero, Wolverine or the evil but not so scary central villain, Bolivar Trask.
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