THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Before Avengers: Endgame, there was another Marvel Comics adaptation that explored time travel differently.
PLOT
X-Men: Days of Future Past takes place in a distant future where machines known as Sentinels began attacking mutants, along with whichever who would aid them. The remaining X-Men: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, Logan/Wolverine and Storm (Halle Berry), regroup with other mutants that include: Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Warpath (Booboo Stewart) who is an expert tracker, Bishop (Omar Sy) who redirects energy he absorbs, Blink (Fan Bingbing) who summons portals, and Sunspot (Adam Canto) who projects solar energy. Kitty reveals that she has the ability to project people back in time, via consciousness. Xavier explains that the Sentinels were created by the human military scientist Bolivar Trask. When Raven Darkhölme/Mystique discovered his experiments in 1973, she found and killed him. However, her act of revenge on the fallen mutants only greenlit the Sentinel program. She was captured, tortured and experimented on. Because of that, the use of her DNA will eventually enhance them. The plan is to travel back to '73 and stop her from killing Trask so that the sentinels will never exist and the war between mutants and machines will end before it happens. Wolverine volunteers for this task because his healing factor will help him recover from the trip. He is also tasked to get the younger versions of Magneto & Xavier to cooperate in order to stop Mystique. When waking up in the past, he moves forward with his mission. He finds Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, only to discover that the school has been closed due to many students and staff members being drafted into the Vietnam War. When meeting the young professor and Hank McCoy/Beast, he also discovers that both of them take serums to suppress the mutant genes. For Beast, he won't be covered in blue fur and for Charles, he loses his telepathy to walk again. Logan does explain to them his situation and what must be done. They break Erik out of the Pentagon, who was falsely accused of killing John F. Kennedy, with the aid of speedster Peter Maximoff. After his help to break him out, the rest go to Paris to stop Raven from assassinating Trask. They do stop her but Magneto attempts to kill her, hoping to secure the future. Beast stops him from doing so, allowing her to escape. In another perspective, Wolverine temporarily becomes disrupted when encountering William Stryker, who put him through the Weapon X procedure, causing his eventual amnesia. He does maintain his focus when he and Trask flee. With the mutants going public, Trask gets his Sentinel program approved by President Richard Nixon (Mark Camacho). Magneto does tell Raven of what he knows of the future, but still encourages her to kill Trask. When returning to the mansion, Charles dismisses his serum and regains his abilities. Before using Cerebro again, he looks through Logan's mind to communicate with his future self, becoming motivated to save the future. When contacting Raven through Cerebro, he discovers she's heading to Washington, DC, where the Sentinels will be unveiled, to attempt to kill Trask again. They all go there the following day to stop her. The young Magneto makes things worse as he traps the President around a baseball stadium and takes control of the Sentinels. In the future, Sentinels attack the remaining mutants. Future Magneto gets injured when getting involved and many are killed. Back to the past, the young counterpart be rids of Wolverine by tossing him into the Potomac River. He then pulls the White House Bunker out of the actual White House, with the intent of killing Nixon. Mystique intervenes by incapacitating him and due to persuasion of Charles, she finally decides to spare Trask, saving the future in the progress. While Erik and Raven flee, Bolivar is eventually arrested for selling U.S. military secrets to Vietnamese officials. We then see Wolverine wake up to see his new future. He discovers that the X-Men have survived, including Beast, Storm, Iceman, Kitty, Rogue, Colossus, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Cyclops (James Marsden). When he talks to Charles again, he claims that they have a lot to discuss. Because he only remembers drowning, we go back to the past for the last time, discovering that Logan was recovered from Mystique disguised as Stryker.
THOUGHTS
When seeing this film in theaters in 2014, I have to admit that I had much such a mesmerizing experience at the time. And I still do now when rewatching. Bryan Singer's return to the X-Men franchise as director was the best thing to happen to this movie as the combination of his vision and other films not directed by him fit in smoothly, making it a remarkable crossover in its own right. While I still think Logan is the best film of this franchise, this is still a great film as well for bringing things full circle. Since this is a superhero film, you'll definitely get a fair share of action sequences. This is truly the franchise's best visuals as the designs of the Sentinels are goddamn menacing as they should, while Colossus and Iceman's alternate forms are highly realistic, earning its Oscar Nomination for Visual Effects. I also think that this is the best Costume Design for the franchise as well, as many of the costumes look very creative in comparison to the films in between. And John Ottman returning as composer was genius, considering he provides a great score here as he did in X2. Because this is still a superhero film, it almost feels bound to have a big ensemble, and it really was bigger than ever with the cast from the original trilogy and First Class all appear in the seventh film of this series. Hugh Jackman leads the cast here as Wolverine and delivers spectacularly. He carries a fair amount of weight as the future relies on him in this case. If you don't think so, Charles looking through his tragic memories back it up. The ending where he wakes up and discovers he succeeded with the mission, by seeing his friends are alive and well, is joyful to witness because it’s just a relief that such a nightmare had vanished for their kind. Seeing both perspectives of Xavier and Magneto, past and future kept us invested, due to the different actors involved. Michael Fassbender shows the remorseless aspects of Magneto while Sir Ian McKellen reflects the character's regret of such actions. James McAvoy shows a rockbottom Xavier which is something no one would expect and he succeeds in creating the character's personal redemption. And for Sir Patrick Stewart, he is also great in reflecting the same wisdom the character is known for. The scene in where both counterparts talk to each other is well acted by both men and becomes awe inspiring to see because it felt relatable that if no one else can motivate you, only you can. I honestly did enjoy Jennifer Lawrence here as Mystique compared to her outings in between because she's almost as conflicted as Charles. She is on the path of revenge, following Magneto's footsteps in the process. She chooses this path because without the right guidance, she became more solitary and it pushed her to be almost as cold and ruthless as Erik could be. You are relieved however when she stops herself to be just like him because by the time she chooses to not kill Trask, she regains the compassion Charles taught her. She left him in the first place and pushed herself to be who she became because she felt that he was controlling her. The fact that he admits it is a relief not just for saving the future but because she changes for the better. The arc of Beast is interesting because Nicholas Hoult is still embracing the character's identity crisis and regret how he was to Raven. And Kelsey Grammer's cameo as the character's older self in the end is highly satisfying as he was a highlight in The Last Stand. I think seeing these arcs come together created a powerful approach to never doubt change, no matter how difficult life can be because only you can push for a better tomorrow. I caught on to this allegory thanks to Charles saying "Everything that happens now is in your hands" because it is universally true to me. Moving on, Evan Peters was great in his given time as Quicksilver as well, due to bringing the same energy the character is all about. The entire scene where he shows off his speed in the Pentagon is so exhilarating yet hilarious, due to the song 'Time in a Bottle' by Jim Croce playing in the background. Lucas Till's cameo as Havoc was cool to see because if the other First Class characters were gonna get killed off, some were gonna wonder his whereabouts. Thankfully, the Vietnam scene fills in that blank spot for this character. I got nothing against Josh Helman playing Stryker, but my problem with him is that he doesn't look similar to previous actors who played the character, making him feel misplaced. While I would've preferred Bill Duke from The Last Stand for the continuity's sake, Peter Dinklage does back it up when it comes to playing Bolivar Trask, expressing his desire to keep the world safe by going after the wrong enemy. I was livid that Anna Paquin's Rogue was cut from the theatrical edition of this film but thankfully, she is fairly present in the extended edition dubbed the 'Rogue Cut'. In that version, she takes Kitty's place to project Logan after he accidentally injures her. The difference in that cut is that when she is rescued by Iceman, he is killed midway instead of near the climax. Also, the sentinels find them because when one jumped on the jet, its arm was chopped off but remained with the jet, causing a tracker that the rest would follow once activated. Another thing from this cut is that Mystique infiltrates the school to destroy Cerebro, leading to the others to go to Washington, DC based on a hunch she'd be there because Trask would. The last scene is an additional mid credit scene where Trask is in the Pentagon cell due to his acknowledged crime. Going back to theatrical, many don't understand the ending that was never explained in the follow ups, but I think I have a theory. To simple put it, I think that Mystique who disguised as Stryker suggested to the others on the boat to go back to base which is Alkali Lake. And once Logan was in some kind of cell, she takes off unnoticed leading to the real Stryker dealing with this situation. While this film has its moments feeling perfect, I have to admit that there have been stuff that’ve bothered me after rewatching. First off, I know the younger mutants who contact Charles are smart to alter time to give themselves a chance to avoid Sentinels but during the opening fight, why doesn’t Blink teleport somewhere else but the building they were hiding? I know everyone’s buying time for Kitty and Bishop to change the past but if they want to avoid casualties no matter what, just travel somewhere else. It is interesting knowing how Charles and Erik were in different predicaments in the 70s but how do they get back to their roots? Young Charles was so depressed he gave up his powers to walk again, but what motivated him to overcome it and how did Erik break out of the pentagon before Wolverine ever goes back in time? I feel like the older versions should’ve explained this to Logan thoroughly so that we wouldn’t be confused if we already haven’t. I like that we get to see Quicksilver but how come we’ve never heard about him before until now? Yeah there was an Easter egg of him and Wanda in X2, but he was never foreshadowed at all. So if Wolverine encountered him during the apocalypse, we should know that. There were some stuff I still question during the Rogue Cut. If Bobby knows where Rogue was, why didn’t he tell this to Charles before Wolverine went forward with the trip? Of course they had no idea he would accidentally injure Kitty but with his help, it seemed that they’d have a better chance of getting her without being followed. So if Storm went as well and Bobby still touches Rogue, it would seem that Iceman himself would be the only sacrifice. I can buy that there’s a facility where the government retrieved stuff from the 60s Cuba incident, but why the coin? We know Magneto used it to kill Shaw but were officials certain that it had mutant DNA? I know that island was deserted but that can’t be the only coin there. I know it’s suspenseful when Trask’s mutant detector goes off but how come it didn’t when Mystique was near him, outside the White House? If he didn’t hear it go off and it doesn’t have a vibration, that’s a technical flaw in his part. And how did Charles and Hank leave the stadium surrounded White House? I mean if the President gave them some kind of assistance, I’d like to see it, considering we got to see how Wolverine got freed from drowning. Lastly, the after credits scene to build up 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse is cool to see but is completely forced in comparison to other after credits scenes from this series. Because of that, it forces a resemblance to the MCU on hyping the crowd for the next big thing. Ignore all of this, and the film is still exhilarating to witness. To bring it all together, X-Men: Days of Future Past is the best film of the franchise since X2 and if you've made it this far watching all these movies, you won't regret seeing this one.
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