Finally a marvel movie brave enough to do something genuinely important, to make the difficult choice, a movie thats willing to skip the Stan Lee cameo.
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“X Men Days of Future Past” is the 7th film foray into the world of the X-Men, this time taking us on a journey between two time periods in a battle to save both mutants and humanity. Bryan Singer is back to direct, with basically everyone from the first 6 films coming along as his actors. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. It’s kinda like Singer is the Ash Ketchum of the X-Men films, and he has indeed caught them all. Nothing like a nice pokemon reference to kick off an X-Men review, huh. So if “Days of Future Past” wants to be the very best, the best X Men movie there ever was. Does it succeed?
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Yeah. I think so. Probably based on level of difficulty if nothing else. I mean think of it this way. The Avengers had to play nice and integrate 5 characters in its battle to save the world, Singer is working with 6 movies, from 2 different timelines, and about 13 characters to integrate, and those are just the mutant major players. But Singer is the man for the job. He got things started with X-Men in 2000 and directed the underrated X-2 follow up a few years later. And that familiarity with the source material is the reason he succeeds in this movie as much if not more than even Whedon did with The Avengers. Of course he does have a lot of help from one of the most amazing casts ever assembled. Deep breath, ready? Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart are all here. And that’s before we even mention the incredible work of Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask, who plays the center role in trying to take down mutantkind. Plus somehow as confusing as time travel movies can be somehow they structure this plot and story to perfectly compel us along through some incredible action and meaning. Speaking of which the action in this is soooo good. The movie has a rhythm to it that is always satisfying and never boring. But again, and lets just call this the best thing, the expanse of this universe and all these mutants makes for the words best toy box, and Singer is having a blast playing with all the toys. I especially loved some of the Mutants that were introduced in this film, including “Blink” who is basically like a mutant portal gun, and Quicksilver, who speed is highlighted in one of the most brilliant slow motion sequences I’ve ever seen.
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Ironically though, all these mutants are also responsible for the worst thing about the movie. It needs too much exposition. Sometimes people will ask do I need to have seen the other movies to get this one. And the answer this time is, well, yeah, kinda. I mean I think the plot of the movie stands on its own, but if you haven’t seen the other 6 films you will be missing out on a lot. In fact, as a guy who hasn’t read the comic books, I felt lost at times, wondering who a certain mutant was or even what their mutant powers were, and it did become distracting to me at a couple points in the proceedings.
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Overall though, it’s hard to complain with a movie this good. Singer has been giving control of the biggest and deepest sandbox on the playground and he is creating some amazing work. Days of Future Past is a fast paced, thrilling combination of everything, and everyone, you love about this universe with a great story to boot. Even a tad bit of character overload can only bring it down to an A –
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Thanks for checking out this Your Movie Friend review, stay tuned for this review’s “Best Ever” challenge here in bit but first, I’m going to put up some stuff you can click over in this area. If you’d like to subscribe, which I would much appreciate, you can do so by clicking the big gray subscribe button. Want to see more? This week I also have reviews of the Adam Sandler comedy “Blended” and the war film “The Railway Man“. You can also Click the logo up here to go to yourmoviefriend.com where you can search by title for reviews. And finally this review’s “Best Ever” Challenge, where you name the best movie ever in a particular category and also try to identify my choice. Since this movie combines two versions of the same universe lets go with what is the “the best movie crossover ever”. Lots of leeway on this one, from cameos to full movie integration. Mine involves one of Spielberg’s greatest successes showing up in one of Lucas’s biggest disappointments. Drop your own answer and a guess at mine in the comments and first person to guess mine gets a point! Thanks and please subscribe!