"X-Men: Days of Future Past" | MOVIE REVIEW

It's better than the Avengers.

There's been a lot - and I mean a LOT - of superhero movies coming out lately (from Marvel, in particular), and a lot of them seem to have trouble setting themselves apart from one another. Iron Man 3 didn't really do the job for me and I was struggling to sit through Thor 2. While the recent DC movies (The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel) earned really high marks from me, I felt a lot of the new Marvel movies lacked something that the new DC movies did. Even on TV, DC has the better show.

Sure, The Avengers was an okay film, but, to me, it really isn't just more than a 'splosion-filled sh*tfest that was good for maybe the first couple of watches. Then it started to get old. To me, The Avengers lacked any real staying power - which is something only one of the new Marvel films actually has. That particular film was X-Men: First Class.

As a kid, I grew up watching the original X-Men and Spiderman trilogies, and so it really isn't much of a surprise that I'd be holding First Class in such high regard. It was a great film. Not exactly on the same level as The Dark Knight, but still pretty damn great. It was well-written, had a really great premise, had enough action to keep you glued to your seats, and it had a really great (as in, really, REALLY great) set of characters, and each of those characters felt human in their own way. The highlight of that movie was Magneto - who, in spite of his mutation, was a very human character with very human emotions and a very human motivation. You connect with characters like him. And that's what made X-Men: First Class different from, let's say, Iron Man or Thor. It's what made First Class better than Iron Man and Thor.

Once I got the hint that a sequel to First Class was in the works (thanks to that little scene at the end of Wolverine) and that the said sequel would feature the cast of the original X-Men trilogy AND the new X-Men (or should I say "old"?), I had one of the biggest nerdgasms one could possibly imagine (to put it into perspective, it's very similar to how I felt upon watching the trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey). When I saw the trailer for the very confusingly named X-Men: Days of Future Past, I, as stereotypical white girls do, couldn't even. I mean, how could I have even? My favorite childhood superheroes (minus Tobey Macguire, sadly) were banding together with the heroes from a superhero film I regard as one of the greatest. There was no way this could fail.

Did it?

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

If it did, we'd have a very angry blue monster man on our hands.

Days of Future Past is a refreshing break from the more light-hearted and brighter franchises like Thor and Iron Man, and the tonality of the film itself sets it apart from all other Marvel releases from the past two years. To sum up the plot, in the year 2023, the mutants (not just the X-Men) have all been wiped out by a bunch of robots called the Sentinels in a human effort to drive them into extinction... or should I say X-tinction? He he he... okay, fine, that joke sucked.

Anyway, the only way to defeat the Sentinels (who, by the way, were programmed from Mystique's DNA and now have magical adapting powers) is to stop them from ever being created, meaning they (and by "they", I really mean Wolverine because he's pretty much invincible and the only one physically capable of making such a trip) have to go back in time and convince Mr. Tumnus to get Katniss to not kill Tyrion Lannister.

Everything else that follows is a potential spoiler, so I won't go into detail about that. Needless to say, as confusing as the plot may be, it carries itself out quite well throughout the movie and really doesn't do any harm to the continuity of the original trilogy and First Class. It's a nice, strong plot that sails smoothly although it could take the average viewer some time to wrap his/her head around. But the real highlight of DoFP wasn't JUST the plot. It wasn't the action or the sex appeal, either (even if the movie did have Ellen Page). It was the characters.

Oh yeah; she's in the movie, too.

In spite of how many characters you had onscreen at the same time, it never felt too crowded or visually tiring. Each of the mutants felt equally important to the plot as the next one. Even Quicksilver, who has roughly ten or so minutes of actual screentime, was important to the plot. The characters were all carried out in the best ways possible. These characters weren't some invincible celebrity tag-team like the Avengers were. No. These characters were, in spite of their respective mutations, very human. You ended up connecting with these characters, even if they only had five or so lines. You cared for them, and they, in turn, kept you glued to the story. Bryan Singer made sure that each of the characters played an equally important role to the film, and he managed to pull it off.

What I like so much about the X-Men being very human characters is that you get to establish emotional connections with the characters. In recent years, only a handful of superhero movies have featured superheroes that actually felt human (The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel). But why is this so important? Well, it's so important because it shows us that superheroes can't do everything on their own, and that they're all human beings, just like us. It shows us that anyone can be a superhero, regardless of what powers they have. DoFP is no exception. The heroes and the villains are all driven by a very human emotion: fear. It's fear that drives Bolivar Trask to do what he does, it's fear that drives Magneto and Professor X to send Wolverine back in time. It's fear that keeps them all together.

It's probably also fear that keeps his awesome mustache together.

The acting in this film was superb and did nothing BUT compliment the portrayal of the characters. James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart present two VERY different sides to the much beloved Professor X, and Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender both manage to fill each other's big shoes as they portrayed my favorite Marvel villain ever, Magneto. Even more minor roles like, let's say, Colossus and Iceman were all acted out very well. Even Booboo freaking Stewart (whose name alone makes me kinda nervous) managed to carry out his role with finesse.

And the character development. HOLY CRAP, the character development. It was visible. You could feel the characters grow. Past Professor X, for example, experiences a change in his world view as he's forced to let go of his fear of hearing all the voices inside everyone's heads. Mystique experiences a change of heart. Even Magneto, as stubborn as he is, grows smarter and more perceptive as a character. While there really isn't much character development to speak of as far as the mutants of the future are concerned, the mutants of the past is where most of the character growth (and very visible character growth, mind you) is at.

They also have a pretty awesome sense of fashion.
 

The technical aspects of the movie can't be ignored. Visually reminiscent of The Dark Knight, the movie isn't exactly what a lot of superhero movies are nowadays. The sets have a more natural look to them and hardly ever feel artificial. The movie is visually immersive, and feels distinctly X-Men. The darker lighting compliments the setting and overall premise of the movie. It gives you that feeling of despair and helplessness - it makes you feel what the mutants are feeling. It makes you feel as if you're actually in the movie.

The costumes and make-up all feel distinctly X-Men. Everything from Mystique's awesome blue skin to Beast's blue beastliness (Grimm should consider taking a page out of X-Men's book - just saying) even to Toad's various warts and his huge jaw, it all feels natural. While I do have nothing against CGI, I am a bit more partial to the more natural look of movies. Nothing in the movie looks too overly-CGI'ed, and nothing feels too overly artificial. Even the Sentinels (a.k.a. the badass plastic robots out to kill the mutants of the future) hardly ever seemed fake. The costumes and sets in the scenes that were supposed to take place in 1973 all felt historically accurate and really just immersed me into the movie. Visually, the movie looks better than the film it, without a doubt, risks being compared to - The Avengers.

The score might not be anything spectacular, but it does the job well enough. It sets the tone, which is what it should be doing.

The movie, inevitably, risks comparison to The Avengers due to its basic premise, which involves an all-star cast of superheroes uniting against a common enemy. However, it surpasses The Avengers in all aspects. It has characters viewers with connect with as human beings, there's an almost tangible sense of danger, and it has real staying power. Whether or not Age of Ultron would ever be better than DoFP (or at least match its level of intensity and overall depth), we will find out in the future. But, for now, I'll let Days of Future Past take its spot as the best film Marvel has to offer nowadays.

And that, Avengers, is how you make a superhero movie.

PROS: Wonderful set of characters, amazing character development, immersive, superb acting, brilliant sense of nostalgia

CONS: Nothing I can really think of.

OVERALL: 9 out of 10 (really freaking great!)

PHOTO CREDITS

 http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=115188#/slide/2

http://screenrant.com/x-men-days-future-past-images-blink-stryker-toad/

(C) Rafa Duran, The Galactic Deep-Fry, 2014

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