Saturday, May 24, 2014

Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

IMDb

Title:
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Director: Bryan Singer
Writer(s):  Simon Kinberg (screenplay), Jane Goldman (story), Simon Kinberg (story), Matthew Vaughn(story) 
Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Evan Peters, Daniel Cudmore, Bingbing Fan, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till, and Evan Jonigkeit
MPAA Rating: Rated PG- 13 for sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language.
Running Time: 131 min
Synopsis: The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.


What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 90% "Fresh", Top Critics: 98% "Fresh", Audience: 95% "Like It"

Metacritic: Critics: 74 out of 100, Users: 9.1 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 74 out of 100
My Review

Source Material: Based on characters and story-arcs from X-men comic created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby . 

Entertaining Value:

  • Action Elements: This film had a lot different type of action scenes that worked very well.   
  • Comedy Elements: The comedy breaks the tension at the perfect moments.       
  • Dramatic Elements:  Some of the best dramatic scenes in comic book movie.        
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: This film has comic book fantasy elements, but it sprinkles in some good time travel elements as well.       
Cinematic Value:
  • Acting and Dialogue: 9: Looking at this cast list one of your first thoughts might be, "Damn there are a lot of characters in this film" You would be mistaken. I believe they had a perfect balanced between the old guys (Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, ect.) the new guys (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, ect.) and the even newer guys ( Evan Peters, Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, ect) Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen have great chemistry as longtime friends, there off screen friendship may have helped with that. James McAvoy could very well get a nomination for his acting in this role. It was nice seeing Xavier, who is well known as being very hopeful, be at his all time low. Xavier at the beginning of this film is more or less a drug addict. Evan Peters was the biggest scene stealer ever. Peter Dinklage is great. I like the fact that the filmmakers filled the parts with good actors. Bolivar Trask isn't traditionally a "dwarf" but who cares Dinklage does a great job, and they don't mention he's a "dwarf" at all in the film.       
  • Art Direction: 9: Before you start barking up the wrong tree, saying things like, "Quicksliver costume is garbage" Even though I would have agreed with before seeing the film. In the film the costume makes sense. Yes its not your typical Green/ Blue with white lightning bolt but it makes  sense in the film trust me on this one. This film takes place primarily in the 70's so a lot of the art and costumes have that vibe except when the film shifts to the future.          
  • Cinematography: 8: I think it was well shot. There were a good amount of dramatic scenes that just took the cake.            
  • Direction: 9: I'm glad to have Bryan Singer back on this film. I believe the X-men franchises is his baby. It was good to bring back Singer's style from the old X-man film while at the same time respecting Matthew Vaughn's work on X-Men: First Class. Singer did a nice job "fixing" all of the continuity problems from X3, Origins, and First Class.   
  • Editing: 8: I think they did a great job handling the time traveling aspects in this film. It was nice seeing a compare and contrast element in the film.  
  • Screenplay: 9: Where to start. I really liked the story. Do I have issues with the adaptation from the comic books, yes, but the story we got on screen was great. I mentioned the compare and contrast elements briefly above, I believe the story expands on that even more so. Xavier and Magneto are enemies, primarily because they have different views on how to handle mutants. There's a really awesome scene that showcase that very conflict between them. Compared that to their future versions, they are old friends that are willing to sacrifice each others lives to save their kind, mutants. It's kind of inserting as well that Trask is a guy who is a "dwarf." From a larger scope that makes him a "mutant" He's not a mutant as defined in the X-Men universe but he's not "normal" either. Compared to the guy, okay with the idea of eliminating the "mutant issue," even though he admires them.                
  • Sound and Music: 8: Mixture of the old and new I like it. Some of the music brings the humor out.  
  • VFX: 9: Not as par as Godzilla, but it was very well done.           
Overall: 9: I think die hard comic book fan might be a lit fussy on how they handled some things but I think they can get over it. Movies and Books are two different things. I had a really good time in this film and I think you will too.

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