wideI’ve been reading comics with the X-Men in them going back to the mid Seventies, I think the first issue I bought off the stand was around #155 maybe. I very quickly went backwards and filled in my collection back to issue 95 and bought everything moving forward. I still read most of the “X” books today. It’s safe to say I’m a fan of the comics. I’ve seen all the X-Men movies up to this point including the two wolverine movies.
My satisfaction with them has had varying highs and lows. All the movies had at least some scenes that left me ooo-ing and ahhh-ing. Though there were also parts that left me flat. The Wolverine Origins last half hour was crap, especially the way they did Deadpool. And The X-Men Last Stand was pretty ill concived, though I did enjoy parts of the movie, just not as a whole.
When they did X-Men First Class I was given fresh hope for the franchise and they delivered, what a fun movie and a great way to transpose the comics into a viable story for the movie versions. When they started discussing doing the Days Of Future Past story arc I was excited and worried. It is truly one of the most iconic of the X-Men tales told to date and our first glimpse of a possible future that ends badly for our lovable mutants.
Well now I’ve seen the film and I can safely say it feels like the franchise is firmly back on track and I can’t wait for more. Here’s a rundown as spoiler free as I can make it.
castThe movie opens in the future and the Earth has been overrun by Sentinels, robot like androids that were originally designed to hunt mutants, they evolved and now hunt humans as well. It’s not pretty. Some surviving X-men are on the run, they fight and flee, fight and flee. They end up in a monastery in China and meet up with other X-Men. We have a last stand while they try a hail Mary play to save everyone. As it happens Kitty Pryde can take someone and send their conscience back in time, a few weeks, maybe a month. The plan is to have her send someone back to a turning point and change it. The turning point is Mystique killing Bolivar Trask, the man who developed the Sentinels. The logical choice would be Professor X but the process could cause damage when used to go back that far and they decide to send Wolverine. As they set up to do this the others stand guard. These future scenes are full of great moments for X-Men fans, we have Warpath, Blink, Bishop and Sunspot running with Kitty Pryde and Bobby Drake. Magento and Charles Xavier are with Storm and Wolverine. Great fight scenes, especially the way they used Blink.
So, we jump backwards in time as Logan wakes up in his younger body in 1973. We see that in Viet Nam a number of mutants were fighting for the US and are about to be sent back to Trask so he can experiment on them. Mystique in disguise frees them. (Havok, Ink and Toad are among them). As Mystique preps to take out Trask she breaks into his offices and we see that a bunch of the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants have been killed and experimented with. Magneto is locked up (for killing JFK). Logan convinces Xavier and Hank (Beast) McCoy to help him and the quest is on. The rescue of Magneto is pure fun as they recruit Quicksilver. The scenes with him running were amazing and I wish he had been in the movie more. Hopefully more hints of great things to come.
From here the band gets back together and they set off to save/stop Mystique. Things go bad but when it’s all said and done the future is changed. We see this when Logan wakes up in the future and sure enough, he’s the only one who remembers the way thing were when it went bad. Professor X remembers Logan had traveled back and knew he would pop up again in the future. We leave with Charles telling Logan he has a lot of catching up to do and they both seem happy. What is interesting is that this seems to have reset things and Jean Grey and Scott Summers are both alive. So while the first movies are still in continuity, they are now an alternate history.
After the credits we see a teaser for the next movie as Marvel loves to do. I’ll just say this. Apocalypse and the four horsemen. (OH YEAH>>>)
I loved this movie and so did everyone I saw it with. Great action, great use of the characters though some were only cameos. They reworked the story in a way that worked very well and reset the franchise so they can go on for years.
Well Done.
_X2 _Beast _Bishop _Blink _Colossus _Iceman _Kitty _Mag1 _Mag2 _Mys _Quick _Storm _Sunspot _Trask _Warpath _Wolverine _X1