Bryan Singer bailed on X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) in order to make long-time passion project, the disappointing Superman Returns (2006). Therefore, the X-Men trilogy ended on a bum note, thanks mostly to Brett Ratner’s bland take on what should have been the Gone with the Wind of superhero movies. It’s with pleasure to report, then, that X-Men: Days of Future Past is the director making amends.
After two poor Wolverine movies, only Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class has felt an equal to X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003). So why not tie both worlds together? X-Men: Days of Future Past does just that in a rollicking time-travel adventure that sees James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as the younger Professor Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr, aka Professor X and Magneto, mixing it up with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and a few surprise guest appearances.
The time travel aspect is gloriously low-tech involving, as it does, transferring Wolverine’s consciousness back into his younger self. The dream-like nature of time travel is a bit like Chris Marker’s short masterpiece, La Jetée, in that the best approach to all this space-time continuum malarkey is to treat it in a minimalist fashion and not ask too many questions.
Wolvie, now back in the early 1970s, must help Professor X from his junkie stupor (he walks around like a Scottish version of The Dude, sort of) and take action in order to alter future events. Singer sets the narrative pacing and action sequences to ‘Non-stop thrill ride’ and runs with it all the way to the end credits.
The opening sequence, involving time portals, giant robots and fighting mutants sets the gold standard and is only bettered by a scene later on involving Magneto’s escape from the Pentagon. That Fassbender’s sneaky villain/antihero quotes from James Brown’s The Payback (‘I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy’) is the icing on the already awesome cake.
X-Men: Days of Future Past might not be the ultimate superhero movie that X-Men: The Last Stand once promised but with Singer and the cast back for X-Men: Apocalypse, in 2016, chances are – to quote an old song that featured renowned physicist Dr. Brian Cox on keyboards – ‘things can only get better’.
Martyn has awarded X-Men: Days of Future Past four Torches of Truth
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