X-Men: Days of Future Past

Cast: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Laurence, Halle Berry, Nicolas Hoult, Ellen Page and Even Peters.

Director: Brian Singer

Release Date: 2014

Genre: Action

Running Time: 2hrs 28 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Format: Blu-Ray


Synopsis:

Charles Xavier sends Wolverine into the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent and event that puts the end to all humans and mutants.

Days of future past is the seventh film in the X-Men franchise. The movie begins in the future, a murder of mutants is led by Charles Xavier and Eric, they conspire to save both humans and mutants from robot Sentinels. In order to prevent the robots from becoming government weapons, Xavier and Eric must send Wolverine back to 1973, to stop Mystique, from murdering their creator Dr Trask, in the midst of all things, he must also find a much younger Xavier, Eric and Beast, to help track her down. Although X-Men falls into the Marvel Comic category it sadly doesn't live up to the same standards of "Deadpool" or "The Avengers" the storyline is awfully confusing and it takes several characters to explain what is going on, sadly by this point as a member of the audience, we're already bored. It takes a mere forty-five minutes, before we are shown any action and even then the character only makes a brief appearance on screen.

We're very nicely introduced to Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who is tracked down at his home by Wolverine, Charles and Beast. Peters delivers a fantastic performance, he's charming and quirky and oozes with characterization unlike the other actors. Unfortunately it isn't until we're introduced to Quicksilver that the movie really gets going and we start to see some action, shockingly forty-five minutes in to be exact. We're shown a wonderful sequence in which Quicksilver must brake into the Pentagon to release Eric, with the use of some pretty snazzy effects the audience are shown a very fun and clever scene, involving Quicksilver running around a kitchen at high speed, dodging bullets, and guards in the process. The tone and use of dialogue from Quicksilver matches his personality beautifully along with his silver hair, goggles and leather jacket.

Sadly Simon Kindberg hasn't delivered the best screenplay, some of the dialogue is awfully boring and really drags the movie down. The friendship between Xavier and Eric isn't particularly convincing, although it is stated by Wolverine "So you've always been an asshole" sends signals that perhaps they haven't been that close all along, however the film is still lacking in something, although Jackman delivers a good performance and steals most of the show, even his character is lacking in something, personality maybe? The personality's of young Xavier and Eric, just do not match the standards of their characters in the present day. There are a few funny moments, but sadly the film is lacking in a lot of humor. Nicolas Hoult practically delivers next to no characterization as Beast, apart from the fact that he turns blue and runs around on all fours.

The movie is well organised, however it jumps from scene to scene awfully quick, perhaps it's simply because they are going back in time? The scenes between Charles and Logan are actually very good, the two work wonderfully together on screen and have really good dialogue however scenes between Mistique and Dr Trask, just don't bide well together, in the way in which it's shot, you'd have every right to believe they were potentially two different movies. Several characters aren't even on screen long enough to explain their characters to the audience. The movie is sadly lacking in action. when we finally do see some action, it's in the last forty five minutes of the movie. Up until this point the movie is very boring, which for an X-Men movie is very disappointing. Wolverine and Quicksilver are the only good characters in the film. Very dissapointed.

2/5 stars