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// On :Friday, July 4, 2014
Well, guys, this is it. The one you've all been waiting for:
This movie was just...it was...good G-d, words can't even describe the AWESOMENESS of this movie. So, instead of me going all insane about how AMAZING this movie is, let's get going!
We have AN INCREDIBLE CAST. Yeah. Tons of new additions, even though most of them don't really get a ton of lines. We have Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, Booboo Stewart, Evan Peters, Fan Bingbing (note that in Chinese, the last name comes before the first name, so her name in English would be Bingbing Fan. I'll be referring to her as Fan Bingbing for the review, though), Adan Canto, Josh Helman, Evan Jonigkeit, Michael Lerner, Gregg Lowe, and Mark Camancho. Note that these are new additions to the X-Men film franchise. We get actors from the X-Men trilogy and from X-Men: First Class in this movie, so I'm not mentioning them. Did I mention that there are cameos galore in this? No? Well, there are. Let's get going with the review!
Our movie opens up with a classic Patrick Stewart narration that sounds like it came straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Now, before you all start glaring at this post, I would like to point out that I DID NOT make one Star Trek reference in my post for The Last Stand. You should be proud of me. Especially because this one will probably be filled to the brim with references to Star Trek, Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and Les Miserables. You have been warned.
Anywho, how can this narration NOT sound like it came out of Star Trek? When you have Patrick Stewart saying something like this:
"The future. A dark, desolate world. A world of war, suffering, loss on both sides. Mutants and the humans who dared to help them, fighting an enemy we cannot defeat. Are we destined down this path? Destined to destroy ourselves like so many species before us? Or can we evolve fast enough to change ourselves, change our fate? Is the future truly set?"
Over a scene of mutants and humans gathered by a giant robot army to be killed, followed by a scene of a young mutant walking through piles of dirt and carcasses before kneeling down and brushing dirt off an object and then getting captured and likely killed, then you either haven't seen Star Trek: The Next Generation or just don't know what an epic narration would sound like.
We then hear some SERIOUSLY awesome music while the title sequence comes up. Now, I would say that the title sequence drags on for a little too long, but the music is seriously awesome, and even the title sequence is incredible to watch. The music was downright amazing throughout the entire movie, and I still can't believe I haven't ordered the soundtrack yet. Of course, you wouldn't expect any less amazing music from John Ottman.
Wait...who? Who is this guy? I know a lot of Johns in the music industry (not personally), and I've never heard of this guy. Who is he? What did he compose for? Well, let's go on Google and find out.
*one Google search later*
Holy frick. I feel like a total idiot. John Ottman is best known for his work with BRYAN SINGER. John Ottman did the music for X2, both Fantastic Four movies (Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), Valkyrie, Orphan, Unknown, Jack the Giant Slayer, and so many other movies (note that most of the movies just mentioned were not Bryan Singer movies).
Anyway, after that incredible opening, we cut to Moscow, Russia, where we see Warpath (Booboo Stewart), a mutant with superhuman senses, near invulnerability, super strength, and super speed. He spots a bunch of pods carrying these giant robots and runs back inside to warn fellow mutant, Blink (Fan Bingbing), a mutant who can create portals to teleport from place to place. Warpath and Blink join newcomers Sunspot (Adan Canto) and Bishop (Omar Sy), while we see the returns of Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Shadowcat (Ellen Page), and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore).
We learn that these giant robots are called Sentinels and are out to find and kill mutants. Blink, Warpath, Sunspot, and Iceman stick around to fight off the Sentinels while Shadowcat and Bishop run into a vault using Shadowcat's powers to phase through solid objects. Upon arrival at the vault, the other mutants are killed by the Sentinels, but they arrive too late to kill Shadowcat and Bishop, because Shadowcat's powers also include sending a person's conscious back in time and alter history.
Now that history has been altered, the mutants who were killed off when Shadowcat sent Bishop back in time are now alive (yay). We see Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Storm (Halle Berry), and Jean Valjean with claws, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), unite with Shadowcat and the other mutants. I was really hoping I could get through this without a Les Miserables reference. Especially because it was the movie. Well, let's see if I can get through this without a Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit reference.
Shadowcat explains her power to send people's conscience back in time, and Professor X explains how he grew up with Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), as well as the creation of the Sentinels, a bunch of robots created by a doctor named Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) in the early 70's. Trask covertly experimented on mutants and used their gifts to fuel his own research. Mystique found out what he was doing and killed him. However, this assassination only succeeded in persuading the government of the need for his program. Through Mystique's DNA, the Sentinels gained the ability to adapt to any mutant's power and then use it against them.
Professor X wants to go back in time to his younger body and use his relationship with Mystique to stop the assassination. However, Shadowcat's powers can only send someone back so far, and to send someone back decades would rip the mind apart. Wolverine volunteers to go instead because of his healing factor, and it's here where we get the biggest change from the comics.
In the comics, it wasn't Wolverine or Professor X who went back in time. It was Shadowcat. It probably would have made for a very interesting movie if Shadowcat had gone back and the movie's writers stuck to the comics, but let's look at it logically. The events of the movie start in the year 2023, and then we time travel to 1973. Shadowcat didn't even exist in 1973. If she went back, she would have been around -20 years old.
Anyway, Storm and the other mutants go outside to stand guard, while Professor X, Magneto, and Iceman stick around to here Shadowcat prep Wolverine on what will happen when he goes back in time. We then get a couple bits from Magneto that makes you want to remind yourself that you're watching X-Men and not Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. The bits are kind of scattered about, so wherever there's a break, you'll be seeing a "..." in the dialog. Anyway, here are the bits:
"And end this war before it ever begins. ...It's going to take the two of us, side by side at a time when we couldn't be further apart."
When Wolverine goes back in time, he meets Beast (Nicholas Hoult) in a pretty entertaining scene that involves Beast THROWING Wolverine across the mansion. It really shouldn't have been that funny, but the idea of Beast throwing Wolverine was just hilarious.
Anyway, we also get introduced to the 1973 Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) who doesn't really look like the Charles Xavier from 1962. Okay, granted, it's been eleven years and he's not quite at the Patrick Stewart level of aging (you know, where twenty years or so pass by and you still look exactly the same), but unlike the picture below, he looks drunk, disheveled, and just horrible. He looks a little better than he did at the beginning of the movie in the picture below, but that's beside the point.
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| 1973 Charles Xavier |
Anyway, Wolverine tells his unbelievable story of how he came from the future and that they also need Magneto's (Michael Fassbender) help. Wolverine also learns that not only can Charles walk, but he also doesn't have his powers thanks to a serum that Beast made which suppressed mutations and gave Charles his legs back. At first, Charles doesn't believe Wolverine, but then has a change of heart. We learn that Magneto is imprisoned in the Pentagon for the assassination of then-President John F. Kennedy, and there's only one mutant who can help get Beast, Charles, and Wolverine in: Quicksilver (Evan Peters). They recruit Quicksilver in another entertaining scene, break Magneto out of the Pentagon, and the hunt for Mystique begins.
THIS MOVIE IS AMAZING. Granted, there are a few continuity problems, but so many people have addressed those already, so I'm not going to bother with it. There are a few problems aside from continuity, but it goes without saying that this movie gets a PERFECT SCORE OF 10 OUT OF 10.
Why 10 out of 10: This movie is just amazing. The music is incredible, the acting is incredible, and the way that some of these scenes were written was just amazing. Pulling together an ensemble cast isn't always easy, but this movie managed to pull it off.
Quicksilver stole the show during his scenes and it took my attention away from Charles, Erik, Wolverine, and Beast. The way they filmed the scene where they showed Quicksilver's power was incredible, and the fact that they played "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce during that scene kept me laughing so hard throughout the entire bit. Also, Quicksilver was wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt from the "Dark Side of the Moon" album era. Great fashion choice!
It was a smart move to send Wolverine back instead of Shadowcat, and while it did provide for more work on the part of the writers, it also allowed for some fairly interesting twists that the writers used to their fullest extent.
We got to see some new mutants, and there were cameos galore in the movie. We can't forget about that scene after the credits that I kinda-sorta made my friends stay for when we saw the movie in the theater. I mean, come on! That's a teaser for X-Men: Apocalypse, which comes out...May 27, 2016. Thanks for making us wait, Bryan Singer. This better be worth it (oh, who am I kidding; it's definitely going to be worth the wait).
The problems I had with this movie are super small, and are more things that are based off of my opinion, rather than things that were actually wrong with the movie. I know I go on about them for a bit, but it's so that people can understand my opinion:
1. Fan Bingbing is a SERIOUSLY talented actress. I doubt most people reading this have any idea who she is, though, because she's not that well-known in America (or most English-speaking countries, for that matter). She's a pretty well-known actress in China; particularly for her work in the Chinese drama, Princess Pearl. I don't have a problem with her at all. My problem is more in regards to how the writers wrote Blink. In the movie, Fan Bingbing only got ONE LINE, and it consisted of TWO WORDS. I get that English isn't her first language. However, in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama, a Japanese actress who doesn't have English for her first language) had a few more lines than Blink did, and she had FIVE English words. The least that the writers could have done was have some of Fan Bingbing's dialog be in Chinese (considering one of the scenes took place in China) and just edit English subtitles in, or just teach Fan Bingbing more English. But they only gave her the one line. I just felt like she could have done more instead of just having the one line, fight scenes, and just standing around.
There is another issue I have with regards to Quicksilver, and while I'm sure that most comic book fans and fans of the cartoon will agree with me on it and will know what I'm talking about without me having to mention it, I have a feeling that most of the people reading this have either not seen Days of Future Past, the X-Men cartoon, or read the comics. This issue isn't super important and won't spoil anything, but I'd rather have people comment here saying that they're curious if they don't know or that they want me to spoil it for them. So, let's move on to the last problem.
3. If you haven't seen First Class, GO AND SEE IT. READ NO FURTHER. Okay, I'm actually kidding about that. You can read on, as the point I'm about to explain won't really spoil anything in First Class. Anyway, in X-Men: First Class, Hugh Jackman makes an uncredited cameo as Wolverine in a scene where Charles and Erik try to recruit him. After Charles and Erik introduce themselves, we get the best scene in all of First Class.
In Days of Future Past, this cameo is referenced. Just not properly. In Days of Future Past, the 1973 Charles Xavier tells Wolverine to "f*ck off." I get that Charles was drunk out of his mind, but if they wanted to give that cameo proper credit, they could have at least gotten the line right.
Well, that's it for my X-Men review series! I hope you enjoyed yourselves, because I know I enjoyed writing these for you! Days of Future Past was THE BEST X-MEN MOVIE BY FAR. If you saw First Class and didn't think anything could top it, you would be seriously wrong. I think that the only other X-Men movie that could potentially top this movie is Apocalypse. However, we won't get to find out if Apocalypse will top Days of Future Past for two more years. I hate waiting. But some of the actors did sign on for FOUR MORE MOVIES. What will they be called? What's going to happen? We'll have to wait and see.
Get ready for my next review! It might be a video review! Signing off for now! ~k
PS: Crud. I went through the review and made references to Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, AND Les Miserables. Well, because I can't possibly pile the references on anymore, please enjoy this parody of "Who Am I" from Les Miserables sung by Hugh Jackman.
