'X-Men: Days of Future Past' is witty and has dynamic action scenes
I was pleasantly surprised by 鈥淴-Men: Days of Future Past.鈥� Given聽that these Marvel superhero franchise movies are not going to go away聽anytime soon 鈥� not in this millennium 鈥� I suppose we should be grateful聽for the few that actually deliver the goods.
Time travel is the centerpiece for this new Bryan Singer-directed聽installment, initially set in the future. A government army of Sentinels,聽mutant-killing robots, have forced Prof. Charles Xavier (Patrick聽Stewart), Lehnsherr/Magneto (Ian McKellan), and some others of their聽ilk into a Chinese safe house. Their only hope is to transport Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) 鈥� or, to be exact, his consciousness 鈥� back聽to 1973 in order to undo the Sentinel program and make the world once聽again (sort of ) safe for mutants.
The young Charles is played by James McAvoy, Magneto by Michael聽Fassbender. The plot hinges on liberating Magneto from the subterranean聽Pentagon prison where he is being held for a particularly heinous聽crime (not to be revealed here). Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence),聽shape-shifty as always, snarls into view, threatening to take down the聽scientist (Peter Dinklage) whose relationship with mutants is not unlike聽Ahab鈥檚 with Moby Dick.聽
What elevates this film above most of its predecessors is the dynamic聽action filmmaking and, above all, its wit. (The script is by Simon Kinberg.)聽The 鈥�70s scenes, with their period references to lava lamps and waterbeds聽and Tricky Dick Nixon, provide the requisite chortles. The best scene in聽the movie is actually relatively free from mayhem: Quicksilver (Evan Peters) intercedes in a shoot-out with such celerity that he聽has time to rearrange the scene to the advantage of Team Mutant while聽everyone remains frozen in superslow-motion. It鈥檚 a classic sequence,聽worthy of audience applause.
I couldn鈥檛 follow many of the ins and outs of the time-travel scenario,聽and I鈥檓 not altogether sure that the filmmakers could, either. It doesn鈥檛 really聽matter. It鈥檚 enough that the movie is fun. We shouldn鈥檛 also expect it to聽make sense. Grade:聽B+ (Rated PG- 13 for sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language.)
