The X-Men franchise is almost 15 years old! It’s kind of nuts to think that Bryan Singer, embattled director of the first two films in the series (X-Men and X-Men 2, as it happens), hasn’t been in the director’s chair on an X-film in 11 years. And here he takes on the mammoth task of tackling a storyline so complex, so all encompassing, it’s difficult to keep track, or stay afloat.
The big draw for this installment was the crossover of both X-Men casts, the beloved ‘originals’ from the first three films, and the chipper ‘new’ cast from the inventive X-Men: First Class (technically Days of Future Past’s forerunner). Sadly though, the original cast is wasted here, since they are mostly nothing but set dressing. Iceman is reduced to blithering on the sidelines, and Ellen Page’s Shadowcat essentially does nothing in the entire film expect sit in a chair, channeling unexplained blue time travel beams into Wolverine’s ever-so-slightly aged temples. Newer characters rich with potential, like Blink and Warpath (Twilight’s Booboo Stewart), are just there, doin’ their powers like party tricks, never once letting us in on who they are (partly because they are just not given enough time). Poor Halle Berry has to yet again content herself with the most basic utilitarian lines, which amount to no more than a paragraph. The only mutant who does get his due, and then some, is the impressive Quicksilver, who speedily steals the entire show.
As for the newer cast from First Class, they are compulsively watchable—Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence in particular never fail to take things in a fresh direction. But the story here essentially amounts to cramming ideas from The Terminator into the X-Men universe, namely a very far-reaching time travel arc and generous helpings of the if-a-butterfly-flaps-its-wings-in-Japan theory. This is a crude, yet apt, description of the proceedings: what may have worked in the sprawling, boundless world of comic book pages is not as well supported here. While there is a lot of fun to be had in revisiting where the X-Men were in the 70s, the threat provided by an ultimately disappointing Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones also happens in the 70s—meaning, his killer Sentinels start out as dangerous yet fairly inane looking robots. And the Sentinels’ future versions look like Harry Potter Dementors made of chain mail.
Aside from some irresistibly gratifying cameos at the film’s (confusing) end, Days of Future Past doesn’t satisfy the character development side of the story, save for one or two principals. Instead, the highly elaborate plot takes center stage from start to finish. Sure, it’s a tough feat to be able to manage both plot and character in such a packed project, but Singer demonstrated his ability to it well twice, in his first two outings as X-Men’s director.
—DH