By Pat French
X-Men: Days of Future Past is the most sequel movie that has ever sequeled. The Franchise has split into three sub-franchises: the original films, the Wolverine films, and First Class. Days of Future Past attempts to tie these disparate plot threads together into one cohesive X-Quilt. It brings together cast-members and characters from all 6 movies that preceded it, adds more, and brings the long-awaited Sentinels to the screen. Brian Singer, who directed the first film, fell into this unenviable task after Matthew Vaughn dropped out. I’m happy to report, that this flick does not dissapoint.
The X-Men movies have, appropriately, become an educational time capsule of the past decade and a half of super-hero cinema. 2000’s X-Men, although a launching point for one of Hollywood’s most lucrative film genres, is almost unrecognizable as a comic book adaptation. The costumes, lighting and mood evoke the blockbusters of the late 90’s (primarily the Matrix). The tone and script are derisive of the entire idea of a super-hero and focus more on traditional anti-hero/societal outsider perspectives. This isn’t such a bad thing, these concepts are true to the essence of the X-Men. However, the cascading growth of the genre through films like Spider-Man, The Dark Knight, Iron Man and the subsequent Marvel Cinematic Universe, have proven that staying true to the colorful and fantastic nature of comics can produce films with greater artistic merit, and make better money.
After a decade of artistic growth, the initial X-trilogy feel dated and embarrassed of their own nature. By the time Fox got X-Men: The Last Stand into theaters, the costumes alone made if feel out of place amongst its competition (tip of the iceberg, but let’s not dwell too much on this one). That atrocity was followed by the abysmal X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009, a year after Iron Man and The Dark Knight had changed the scene completely. At this point fans of the genre were far more interested in seeing Marvel control their own characters than in settling for Fox’s lackluster versions. Origins illustrated a complete lack of faith in the concepts that brought these films an audience to begin with. The Studio had built a cinematic movement with the first X-Men and, ironically, refused to evolve with it.
Two pretty awful films in a row used to be enough to kill a franchise for at least a decade. Not so much anymore. Nowadays that just means we can expect a reboot, or a reimagining, or a rewind, or perhaps even a relapse within a few years. With X-Men: First Class, we got all of these things at once. Fox decided, instead of rebooting the series to be more like their competition, to move backwards and tell the story of how their dreary X-Universe came to be. Despite being full of all the tropes that Fox has relied on since X2 (an overabundance of characters, a lack of faith in comic-booky concepts, a nonsensical timeline, etc.) First Class is actually a really good film. The casting is excellent, Matthew Vaughn is a wonderful director, and it tonally captures the 60’s. Also, Kevin Bacon’s portrays Sebastion Shaw as an over-the-top Bond Villain (not quite a Super-Villain, but it’s at least getting there).
First Class was followed by another Wolverine flick, this time just called “The Wolverine.” The primary flaw of this sequel is that Darren Aranofsky (The Wrestler, Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream) didn’t direct it. He was signed on for a couple weeks then, I assume, remembered that he had better movies to make. It’s not something that should reflect or inform how good a film is, but when an auteur like Aranofsky pulls out of a project like that, it’s hard to not be disappointed (just look at how the blogosphere has turned on Ant-Man). The Wolverine is a pretty great flick anyway. It evokes the Ronin aspect of Logan’s personality and delivers a very satisfying action film. Hugh Jackman is definitely one of the best parts of this franchise, so it’s nice that they gave him at least ONE good solo film. If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a try.
And that brings us to the present. Or rather, it brings us to the future, then the past, then the future again. It only took me 5 paragraphs to get here, but now let’s talk about this new X-Flick.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this movie is as telling of modern film as the original was. This is mainly expressed through what the doctors are calling Marvel Envy. Ya’see, ever since the Avengers broke box office records, every Super-Hero studio has been shuffling to put together a similar cohesive film universe. This is why Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels like a big commercial for another film. This is why Batfleck is in the Man of Steel Sequel. 20th Century Fox, in an uncharacteristic moment of self-awareness, realized that they were already ahead of the curve, and made an Avengers clone out of their contradicting X-franchises.
Which is actually, in it’s way, kind of fucking brilliant.
I see blog posts daily decrying for the X-Men to be returned to Marvel Studios so that “the characters can be done right.” I’m certainly one of the people in that camp most of the time, but as a film fan I have to appreciate the ballsiness of Fox paving ahead this mess of a franchise and adding the elements they’ve been criticized for not including before. I compare it to the way Fast Five redefined and reinvigorated the Fast & Furious series. Fox (or at least Brian Singer) took a good hard look at what they had to work with, What they needed to add, what needed to go, and how to get there.
That’s right, “How to get there.” I just described intelligent screenwriting in relation to an X-Film. Remain calm. Don’t Panic. There will be cookies and orange juice when the procedure is complete.
Before I get too entrenched in my praises for the movie, I should point out that it still contains all those tropes I mentioned earlier. The cast is enormous and unwieldy (at least for the future scenes). There are changes made to characters with no regard to the source material, or even the preceding films. While it does succeed in bringing the franchise together, there are certainly continuity plotholes that the avid cinephile will notice (these are spoilery, so I won’t go in depth on them here. There is a big one in regards to The Wolverine). There is at least one character who has been played by 4 different actors over the course of this series (a timelord perhaps…)
The film starts off in a post-apocalyptic future. Both humans and mutants have been pushed to the edge of extinction by monstrous robots called Sentinels. The remaining X-Men have banded together for a final desperate mission to send Wolverine to the past and stop the Sentinels from ever gaining power. Wolverine’s mind is sent from the future into his swingin’ 70’s bod (that’s right ladies, you get some Jackman butt in this flick) and he sets out to reunite the young Charles Xavier and Magneto. Shenanigans ensue, Robot fights occur, Time-travel tomfoolery, etcetera etecetera etcetera.
This movie has a lot of good stuff going for it. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are both sublime as young Magneto and Xavier respectively. Jennifer Lawrence brings such a relatable humanity (mutanity?) to the role of Mystique that you forget she was once just a glorified special effect. Once the plot really gets rolling, there are a plethora of strong and meaningful moments. Even the much-lambasted inclusion of Quicksilver is pretty good. His superspeed scene is fun and whimsical, something I never expected in these films.
Also Peter Dinklage.
‘Nuff said.
Hugh Jackman is, as always, great as Wolverine. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really know what to do with him. Aside from a tussle with Beast, Wolverine doesn’t participate all that much in the action of this movie. Instead he has the unexpected job of moving the plot forward and holding the fragile X-team together. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I doubt that I’m wrong in assuming this may rub some fans the wrong way. Thankfully, if you feel like you didn’t get your recommended dosage of Logan Being the best he is at what he does, you can always rent The Wolverine (Did I mention That I really like The Wolverine?).
I honestly can’t get over the meta-analytics of this flick. The future is dark and bleak and tonally consistent with the original X-Trilogy. It has entirely too many characters, and very little explanation as to who and what they are. It does have some excellent action however (Fans of Portal: your new favorite mutant is in this movie). The past, by contrast, is bright and exciting. It has a smaller, more intimate cast. The characters all have depth and meaningful motivation. And, best of all, the driving point of the plot is to get rid of this bleak future so that future X-Films can be like First Class. That’s some Charlie Kaufman level shit right there.
Even the Sentinels inform this comparison. In the future they are amorphous special effects, lacking definition or detail. They plow into action with all the grace of a drunk Stegosaurus. Sure, they’re cool and the action is tight, but they lack substance. I’m even struggling to remember what they look like, other than ambiguous titans with glowing eyes. In the past they have a defined retro-style, and their every action has a sense of majesty to it. They move slower, and their bodies aren’t composed of shape-shifting nannites, but when they take to the air there is a palpable sense of terror. The scene where they are unveiled creates a moment for us to reflect on humanity’s obsession with weapons of mass destruction. These scenes illustrate how the Sentinels are powerful metaphors for our destructive and fearful nature.
Days of Future Past has already made more money than any of its precursors, and this is well-deserved. It certainly possesses many of the flaws inherent to this series, but it intelligently, and successfully embraces them. This is more than just a good action movie, this is a film junkie’s dream. It has a self-awareness and humility that one would never expect from a studio like 20th Century Fox and makes the viewer (well, made me at least) feel like the property has an optimistic future.
I would like to see Wolverine in an Avengers movie some day though…
