Marvel May - X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

        Hey guys, Chuck here, and this is, quite arguably, the one X-Men movie I have most wanted to talk about. Seriously, this will probably be my personal favorite Marvel May review. So, here it is: X-Men: Days of Future Past. Serving as a sequel to both X-Men: First Class and X-Men: The Last Stand, this movie combines the casts of both eras of the X-Men franchise. So, we get the returns of Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Shawn Ashmore, Daniel Cudmore, and Elliot Page (credited as Ellen Page) from the original movies, and James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Lucas Till from First Class. Threading the two casts together is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and also featured in the movie are cast members Omar Sy, Booboo Stewart, Fan Bingbing, Adam Canto, Evan Peters, Josh Helman, and Peter Dinklage. Also, Anna Paquin returns as Rogue, either in a cameo (theatrical cut) or as a major player in the third act (Rogue Cut). Also making cameos are James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Kelsey Grammer. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's get into the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past.

       Okay, so, the movie is set in two different time periods. First, there's the post-apocalyptic future, where mutants are endangered and on the run, being systematically hunted down by mutant-killing robots called Sentinels. It's here where we see Kitty Pryde, Iceman, and Colossus are part of a group of mutants along with Bishop, Warpath, Sunspot, and Blink. Now, of course the Sentinels are a constant threat, and when they arrive, Kitty uses her phasing ability to project the consciousness of Bishop back in time a few days to warn everyone of the attack. Blink transports to a safer spot, and thus the attack never happens. We actually see this when this mutant group escapes a Sentinel attack in Moscow and end up in a monastery in China. 

       It's in this monastery where Professor Xavier, Magneto, Storm, and Logan meets up with the others, and the Professor reveals his plan and some history. According to him, the Sentinel program was developed back in the Seventies by Dr. Bolivar Trask, who was the top arms dealer for the U.S. Government, but was secretly experimenting on mutants. One mutant learned of him dissection of mutants, followed him to the Paris Peace Summit of 1973, and killed him with a bullet to the head. Which mutant? Raven/Mystique. Yes, Charles Xavier's adopted sister, who left him on the beach in 1962, and followed Erik/Magneto from that point on. And, apparently, Trask was her first kill, but it led the government to both approve of the Sentinel program, and eventually use Raven's DNA to advance it further than Trask had envisioned. Kitty realizes the Professor's plan: use her power to project back to 1973, reach Raven and prevent her from killing Trask, thus ending the war before it ever begins. Kitty warns that, unfortunately, to send someone that far back would rip the brain apart. Logan volunteers to go, instead, as his brain can put itself together as fast as it's ripped apart. 

        So, the Professor and Magneto give Logan instructions to find their younger selves. The Professor adds that he didn't have his telepathic powers in 1973, so Logan would need to become the teacher for the younger Xavier. Logan is sent back to his younger body, confused and having no idea where he is, and without the Adamantium skeleton. So, he heads to the Xavier Mansion and meets not only the younger Charles, but also Hank McCoy. After a tussle with Hank, and being recognized by Charles as someone he and Erik tried to recruit during First Class, Logan learns what's going on. Apparently, Hank developed a serum to suppress a mutant's mutation. Hank uses it to look normal. Charles, however, uses it too much, it suppresses his telepathy in favor of allowing him to walk again. And why? Well, the war in Vietnam got so bad that older students and teachers, including Alex Summers/Havok, were drafted to go fight overseas, and the school shut down. Combining that with losing both Erik and Raven, Charles was in too much pain, and couldn't handle the voices. 

      Luckily, Charles agrees to work with Logan to save Raven from killing Trask, thus preventing the terrible future. However, Erik is revealed to be locked in a non-metal cell deep beneath the Pentagon. Why? Well, it appears that Erik was locked up in connection for the Kennedy assassination. How to break him out? Well, Logan suggests a young mutant named Peter Maximoff, who is a speedster. Peter agrees to help, and we get one of the most fun sequences in the movie: breaking Erik out of his cell, and Peter moving so fast that time around him is so slow, and he's able to move the bullets away and take down the guards. And the use of the song "Time in a Bottle" in this scene is just awesome. Logan, Hank, Charles, and Erik take off in a private jet to Paris, where Raven is going to find and kill Trask. Also, Raven managed to save some mutants from being experimented on, including Havok, Ink, and Toad. On the plane, Erik lambasts Charles for hiding while mutants around the world, including the likes of Banshee, Angel Salvadore, Azazel, and Emma Frost, were all either killed or experimented on. Actually, as much as I hate characters being killed off screen between movies, I don't mind as much here, because it shows how much of a threat Trask is to mutants everywhere. 

       Trask, meanwhile, has been trying to sell his Sentinel program to the U.S. Government, as well as America's adversaries. It is here where we see Raven go after Trask, but Charles, Hank, Erik, and Logan arrive to stop her from killing him. Also, Logan spots a young Army Major who is familiar to him: William Stryker. This causes Logan to slip, and accidentally cut Kitty to the point where she begins bleeding badly. Erik, meanwhile, tries to kill Raven to save the future. Hank fights him off, and Trask and Stryker both get away. Logan gets back under control and heads back to the Mansion with Charles and Hank. 

        At the Mansion, Charles loses his walking ability, and regains his telepathy. Ultimately, opting not to inject himself with the serum, Charles reclaims his wheelchair and heads to the lower levels...to Cerebro. Unfortunately, Charles' first attempt at using Cerebro fails, and Logan reveals that he wasn't supposed to be there, but he was the only who could physically handle the journey. Logan then has Charles look into his mind, and we see flashbacks from X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and The Wolverine. Not wanting to see anymore, Charles is then told to look for HIS future in Logan's mind. And, here is where we get an excellent scene in which Charles meets his older self. And this exchange between James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as two versions of the same character is absolutely fantastic. Seeing a future version of Charles telling his younger self that his true power is to take pain without breaking through the most human power of all: hope. 

       Finally ready to try again, Charles uses Cerebro to find Raven, try to convince her to let go of her crusade to kill Trask and come home. Ultimately, this doesn't succeed, but at least Charles made the effort. Okay, so it's here where the two versions of the movie differ from each other, as the theatrical cut goes on to where Charles is able identify Raven's destination as Washington DC, Erik retrieves his helmet and infuses the prototype Sentinels with metal from railroad tracks, as they head to Trask's presentation in Washington. In the Rogue Cut, however, we get additional footage of Raven returning to the Mansion, having an intimate moment with Hank, and shattering the helmet Charles uses in Cerebro. Meanwhile, in the future, Bobby suggests finding Rogue and using her to copy Kitty's powers, as she can't hold on much longer due to the blood loss. And where is Rogue? Inside of Cerebro, and the Xavier Mansion is extremely guarded. Luckily, the Professor knows a secret way inside, guiding Bobby and Magneto to where they need to get, leading them to Cerebro. They rescue Rogue, but Bobby sacrifices himself so she can escape with Magneto and the Professor. Returning to the monastery, Rogue saps Kitty's powers and takes over keeping Logan in the past. And, of course, when Rogue takes Kitty's place, Logan notices it. 

        Anyway, so we get the epic climax in Washington, superimposed by the Sentinels attacking the monastery en masse. In the theatrical cut, it's ambiguous how the Sentinels found the monastery, but in the Rogue Cut, a piece of a Sentinel was caught on the X-Jet as it was getting away from the Mansion. Okay, so while the mutants in the future all start dying one by one, Charles is able to locate Raven just as President Nixon unveils the prototype Sentinels, which activate remotely by Erik, who lifts a local baseball stadium and drops it around the White House. Erik gets rid of Logan by impaling him with rebar and flinging him into the Potomac. The President, Stryker, Trask, and others are all in a bunker, where Raven attempts to kill Trask, but is stopped when Erik pulls the bunker out and opens one side of it. It's here where Erik issues a message to his fellow mutants: no more running. And, holding everyone at gunpoint, he looks to demonstrate his capabilities. Raven, under the guise of Nixon, decides to step up in a sacrifice, and takes advantage of a Sentinel attacking Erik to disarm him with a shot through the side of the neck. 

         And just as Raven is about to kill Trask, Charles reaches her, showing her she's already started off on a better path by saving Trask, Nixon, Stryker, and all of Nixon's men from Erik killing them, and she can show the humans that mutants don't have to be the enemy, and letting her make the choice. Raven, ultimately, chooses to spare Trask, and removes Erik's helmet, where Charles uses Erik to remove some heavy metal bars pinning him down. Erik and Raven both flee, and Charles tells Hank that he has hope for the best for them both. Logan, meanwhile, wakes up in the Mansion, now back to being a fully functional school, with teaching staff including Hank, Kitty, Colossus, Storm, Bobby, and Rogue. Also, Scott and Jean are both alive. Obviously, by Raven choosing not to kill Trask, the apocalyptic future was avoided, and the Sentinels were never activated by the government. Xavier welcomes Logan back, and helps get him caught up on the new timeline since 1973. 

        Back in '73, past Logan is fished out of the Potomac, where Stryker (really Raven in disguise) offers to take Logan from there. In a mid-credits scene (Rogue Cut only), we see Trask in the cell beneath the Pentagon, having been locked up for trading military secrets to America's adversaries. In a post-credits scene (both cuts), we see a mutant in Ancient Egypt constructing a pyramid, with four horsemen watching from afar, and locals bowing before the mutant and repeatedly chanting "En Sabah Nur." 

        So, as I said during my review of X-Men: First Class, Matthew Vaughn was initially attached to direct this film. However, he became more interested in another comic book adaptation, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and thus was unable to direct Days of Future Past. Luckily, Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men films, returned to the director's chair, and it was a welcome return. Honestly, this movie combines everything excellent about those original two movies with everything excellent about First Class. Oh, and with the return of Bryan Singer as director is the return of John Ottman as composer. Seriously, when I saw this movie on opening night, I probably cheered the hardest when I heard John Ottman's iconic X2 fanfare at the beginning of this movie. Seriously, it was like the return of an old friend you haven't seen in a while. 

         All of the cast members of the movie, especially the likes of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven, Nicholas Hoult as Hank, and Anna Paquin as Rogue, were fantastic in this movie. I thoroughly loved both James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as Xavier at two different points in his life. And again, seeing them speaking face to face was a truly chilling scene. Both Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender as Erik/Magneto were also fantastic, and Peter Dinklage was absolutely terrific as Trask. And, honestly, I thoroughly loved Evan Peters as Peter/Quicksilver. 

       The designs of the Sentinels vary based on which ones we're talking about. The future Sentinels, which can adapt to any mutant powers and alter their appearance to do so, are absolutely terrifying and a real threat. The prototype Sentinels, however, are neat in their design, clearly robotic and a fit for something made in the Seventies. And speaking of which, the setting of 1973 is definitely neat, as it allows for some truly amazing wardrobe choices. 

        Ultimately, in a year that gave us movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy, Bryan Singer would, in my opinion, deliver arguably the best superhero movie of 2014. Scratch that, he delivered the biggest event film in the history of superhero cinema at that point, and it wouldn't be topped until the release of Avengers: Endgame five years later. And the Rogue Cut definitely enhances what made the theatrical cut so much fun. I'm giving X-Men: Days of Future Past a rating of 5/5. 

        Alrighty guys, this is Chuck signing off. Marvel May will continue on Friday with my review of Bryan Singer's final directorial effort in the X-Men franchise: X-Men: Apocalypse.