Movie Review: X-Men Days of Future Past

   I finally got a chance to see X-Men: Days of Future Past, and I thought it was very, very good.

   The X-Men film continuity has been a bit of a muddle, especially if you try to make it all fit together (and especially when you throw the Wolverine movies into the mix) - but despite including lots of time-travel, duplicate characters and much of the movie being set in the '70s, this film actually manages to smooth out the glitches and bring it all together into a solid, cohesive story.

   The show follows the basic structure of the original comic story by John Byrne and Chris Claremont (hey, did they get proper credit for that? If so, I missed it). In the future, mutants are being hunted and killed by invincible robots known as Sentinels, so one of the X-Men is sent into the past to try to change the future.

    In the original story, Kitty Pride made the trip - but since Hugh Jackman is the star of the show, he does the temporal jump this time around.

   He must convince the younger and testier Professor X and Magneto to work together to stop Mystique from (inadvertently) dooming the mutants of the future. 

   Time travel stories can get a bit weedy, but this one manages to stay clear and understandable depute including a small army of heroes - and what fun to see those teams (both past and future) come to life!   

   The movie isn't perfect, of course - it's surprisingly adult, thanks to some strong language, one bare backside and lots of graphic deaths onscreen. It's really a bit too much for the young children who might otherwise flock to this film. 

  Still, a strong story, great visuals (I do wish the original Sentinels had been more along the lines of the Kirby design), good character moments, lots of X-Men on display, and some good surprises and a few good gags along the way. 

   This is definitely the best of the X-Men movies to date (edging past X-Men: First Class, which held the title up to now, just edging out X2).

   Future films face a challenge, because they now have two great X-teams to draw on: the team from the present / future and the one set in the past. Perhaps they could start running two separate film continuities?

   At any rate, no self-respecting comics fan will want to miss this film. 

   Highly recommended!

Grade: A

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