BEFORE: As I write this it's June 29, I've got three weeks to go before Comic-Con break, and naturally I'm thinking about how I'm going to get there, what I'm going to pack, what autographs I may need to track down. I don't need to worry about falling behind on my movies (other than the week I'm going to miss) because this is the first of THREE comic-book films that I crammed in this spring and summer, in between the daily movies. I wrote the reviews without posting them, because I figured that the few days leading up to my San Diego trip, my head's sort of already there, so having reviews I could just post would be a potential time-saver.
If things go according to plan, the last few movies before this one have starred Halle Berry and/or Ian McKellen (yep, carrying over from "Apt Pupil") - which is sort of a perfect lead-in and an excuse to post this one first. Generally I've been very against pulling this sort of thing, seeing films without blogging them, because in a way I'm messing with the timeline of my chain. But since this film appears to be all ABOUT messing with the timeline, I figure that makes it OK.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "X-Men: First Class" (Movie #1,100)
AFTER: Any long-time fan of the X-Men should already know what "Days of Future Past" is all about - it's based on a storyline from the comics, from the early 1980's, just after Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) joined the team. In the comics, her adult self from a dystopian future in which mutants were corraled and slaughtered by Sentinels (giant mutant-hunting robots) is sent back to inhabit her teenage body to get a message to the present-day X-Men, which tells them to stop the assassination of Senator Kelly, who's a proponent of anti-mutant legislation. This puts them in a delicate spot, because if they keep him from getting killed, he'll probably pass more anti-mutant legislation, but if they allow him to get killed, the anti-mutant paranoia will kick into high gear, and bring about the worst possible future.
The first "X-Men" film already dealt with Senator Kelly, and the character of Shadowcat wasn't enough of an audience draw, so this film had to change up the storyline a bit. Instead it's audience-bait Wolverine who's sent back in time to send the message (which makes sense because he's been alive a very long time, plus his healing factor might help his consciousness survive the trip) and instead of Sen. Kelly, the X-Men have to prevent the assassination of Bolivar Trask, the inventor of the Sentinels. See? It all fits - this is a rare case where a film adaptation demanded changes, and the changes all work. (for the most part, I'll get to the ones that don't in a bit.)
This is also a de facto sequel to "X-Men: First Class" - the original plan was to make a direct sequel ("Second Class"?) but a director change prompted them to combine that storyline with the "Days of Future Past" idea. So we get to see Prof. Xavier and Magneto in 1973, 11 years after the mutant Cuban missile crisis, with the X-Men scattered, Magneto in prison and Xavier without his powers. Old Wolverine's mind in young(er) Wolverine's body has to motivate Xavier, free Magneto and put a team together to stop Mystique. (this was all in the trailer, I don't think I'm giving anything away here...)
This was also an opportunity to fix some of the continuity bugaboos that have crept into the franchise over the years, with different directors on each film, different casts and no one (apparently) minding the store, mistakes are bound to creep in here and there. For example, Prof. Xavier was injured in "First Class" by a bullet, losing the use of his legs. But when he's seen, years later, in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", he can walk. "Days of Future Past" goes well out of its way to suggest a solution for this contradiction, providing both a way for Xavier to re-gain AND re-lose his ability to walk. It's a long way to go, but at least it does try to correct a mistake.
Some mistakes, however, are never addressed at all. Xavier was essentially DEAD at the end of the last X-Men film set in the present-day, and then popped up again in the post-credits scene of the next film, without any explanation. How did he survive? Your guess is as good as mine, but at least this sort of thing happens all the time in comic-books, each writer just leaves it for the next one to sort out. You kind of have to get used to everything happening in "story time", where everything that's supposed to happen just kind of happens, and everything eventually sorts itself out. Sure, it's a cop-out, but that's what sells comic books and movie tickets.
So this film manages to re-unite most of the X-Men, nearly every major character appears in one of the two time periods - either the 1973 past or the 2023 future. (It's funny, in the original 1980's comic, the dystopian future took place in 2013, the year they started filming this...) But, as you might imagine, I still reserve the right to call shenanigans:
NITPICK POINT: This film also serves as a sequel to "The Wolverine" (as well as sort of a prequel to "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", but I digress) - that film was presumably set in the present (or at least sometime after "The Last Stand") and definitely NOT in a world threatened by Sentinels. So the tiny bit in that film with Prof. X and Magneto contacting Wolverine for help now makes no sense - unless they were contacting for help with something else, in which case, why include it?
NITPICK POINT #2: And this has to do with all time-travel movies, really. If the mission (sending Wolverine back) is successful, then the Sentinels will be stopped, they won't slaughter mutants, and there won't be a problem that requires sending Wolverine back - so they won't. In which case they don't send Wolverine back to fix things, and Trask will be shot, and the Sentinels will be built, and then they'll be right back where they started, right? Time loop. This is why you can't travel back to 1963, for example, to keep JFK from being shot - because if you're successful, you'll also change the timeline and remove the reason for traveling back, which means you won't go, and then he'll get shot. So the only real time-travel stories that WORK are the ones where someone is unsuccessful, or they travel back to prevent something and end up causing it to happen instead.
NITPICK POINT #3: Another common problem with time-travel films - the events of the past and the future are intercut here, almost as if they're happening at the same time. But by their very definition, that's not the case. One's in the past and one's in the future, you can't just cut between them like they're just happening on opposite sides of town! If I send a time-traveler back to 1963 and he spends a year there trying to fix things, I don't have to wait a year for him to come back, he could just arrive back a few seconds after he left, even though he spent a year in the past. I guess for some reason the time-travel here is all based on Wolverine's experience, so I have to allow for that, but I shouldn't have to. For some reason the future X-Men all have to wait around and protect Wolverine's body while things are taking place in the past, even though that makes no sense - they've already happened.
NITPICK POINT #4: This concerns Quicksilver, the best new character introduced in this film. He was so helpful to the X-Men for just one sequence, and then just sort of gets discarded. If his powers were so great and helpful, why not keep him around? See also my review of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", which I watched before this film, but which I'll post a couple days later.
OK, so time is a circle, or a Mobius strip, or a parallelogram or whatever. I should just try to relax and enjoy it, because there was still a lot to love about this film. New characters, old fashions, many things got explained or over-explained, clever twists and in a fashion similar to "Star Trek", the timeline got changed so that the next set of films can proceed in whatever direction it wants to.
Also starring Patrick Stewart (last heard in "Ted"), Hugh Jackman (last seen in "Scoop"), James McAvoy (last heard in "Arthur Christmas"), Michael Fassbender (last seen in "Prometheus"), Jennifer Lawrence (last seen in "X-Men: First Class"), Halle Berry (last seen in "Cloud Atlas"), Nicholas Hoult (last seen in "Jack the Giant Slayer"), Ellen Page (last seen in "To Rome With Love"), Peter Dinklage (last heard in "Ice Age: Continental Drift"), Shawn Ashmore, Evan Peters, Omar Sy, Daniel Cudmore, Bingbing Fan, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Josh Helman, with cameos from Anna Paquin (last seen in "Finding Forrester"), Famke Janssen (last seen in "The Wolverine"), James Marsden (last seen in "The Notebook"), Lucas Till, Kelsey Grammer. (Damn, no Stan Lee cameo? This could present a problem...)
RATING: 9 out of 10 senators
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