MOVIE REVIEW - “X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST” Release Date: 22/05/14 Rating: M Director(s): Bryan Singer Stars: Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, James McEvoy, Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Peter Dinklage & Ellen Page Run Time: 131 min’s Trailer: bit.ly/1kZD65y Score (out of 10): 9½ Honestly, if you’re not a fan of the previous 6 X-Men flicks, it’s unlikely you’re queuing up for tickets this weekend to DOFP. But if the novices out there want to roll the dice & see DOFP cold, here’s the quick skinny on the X-world … those across the globe possessing a wide variety of special powers are labelled ‘mutants’. Like us non-mutants, some are good, some not so much. Charles Xavier AKA Professor X (Stewart/McEvoy) is a super-telepath & the good guys’ team captain; whilst the baddies are led by Erik Lehnsherr AKA Magneto (McKellen/Fassbender), who as you may have deduced from his name, has the ability to manipulate magnetic fields. These 2 Alpha mutants are former friends, who fell-out somewhat dramatically in the preceding film, 2011’s X-Men First Class. In DOFP, the X-Men (good mutants) from 2023 send Jackman’s Wolverine back 50 years to rally their younger selves to save humanity. And whilst the near-future X-Men hold the mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels at bay, Wolverine rallies the ’73 X-Men to stop one of their own, Lawrence’s Raven AKA Mystique from murdering the Sentinel’s inventor (Dinklage’s Bolivar Trask). “Now hang on…” I hear you say. “If she kills the guy who invents the robots, surely that stops the robots?” Well you would think so; but it turns out that it was Trask’s death at the hands of a mutant that led to President Nixon giving the go ahead to create the mutant-hunting Sentinels. Boy, nothing’s ever simple in the world of sci-fi, now is it? Look, if you want the really simple plot outline … essentially it’s X-Men meets The Terminator with some classic Matrix-style bullet-time thrown in for good fun. “Geez Pete, why didn’t you just say that 3 paragraphs ago”???? Fan-favourite director Singer made the 1st 2 X flicks before handing over the reins to the less-than-inspiring Bret Ratner (Rush Hour trilogy), who made what’s universally viewed as the worst of the series (The Last Stand). We than got 2 Wolverine spin off films that book-ended Matthew Vaughn’s 1960’s origin film First Class - the film seen as resuscitating a shaky franchise at the time. Leaving several B.O. bombs behind (Superman Returns - which he left the X-world for in 2006, Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie & last year’s Jack the Giant Slayer), Singer makes a stellar return to the franchise that made Marvel Comics realise they actually had a wealth of material that could be spun into B.O. gold. Seriously, all bar a couple of continuity issues, there’s very little to fault here. The story, whilst sounding complicated when being described, is considerably easier to follow when you’re actually watching the film - a massive thumbs up to the 4 credited writers there. The onscreen performances are all solid, with Jackman’s series best effort as the self-regenerating, seemingly-ageless warrior, Wolverine. Other standouts are Peters’ Quicksilver, who has the ability to move faster than the eye can see - an ability showcased perfectly in undoubtedly the film’s funniest scene (involving the aforementioned ‘bullet-time’). Dinklage’s performance is perfectly measured (no pun intended); & Fassbender … well quite simply there can never be too much Fassbender (Shame pun also unintended). On top of that, there’s more than enough action, so many quality laughs & a great lesson for Transformers‘ director Michael Bay on how to successfully use special effects in an effective, engrossing & measured fashion.
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 00:29:40 +0000
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