X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) ***½ /5: Very entertaining film but there is not much surprising or distinctive. The story left a lot of gaps in the franchise that need explaining. The ending is reminiscent of Inception in some respects.

This new X-Men film is very entertaining although very reliant on hackneyed plot devices to tell its story. While I watched it I was impressed by the direction in which the film moved and understood it for the most part. However they put all their eggs in one basket and so the film becomes predictable to a large extent. There is not much diversity to the tale and it seems to bring back lost characters and rebalances the series that ended with X-Men: The Last Stand. X-Men: First Class was/is a prequel to the original series and so it can only be compared when you bridge the gap because Wolverine has to go back in time in this film. Other than that there is a lot missing that still needs to be explained. The ending also reminded me a lot of Inception. This was another indicator that there is no original premise in the film apart from its message of hope.

This film centres on Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and an important action of hers in 1973 that has doomed the mutant race to annihilation by the sentinel program of developed by Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). In order to  correct it Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) is sent back in time from the distant dystopian future to convince a younger Charles Xavier (James McAvoy ) and a younger Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to unite and reverse the actions of Mystique/Raven in order to preserve a future for the mutant race.

Positives

The primary positive of this film is its entertainment value. While I was watching the film I cannot say that I was confused or bored. The film tries to provide some level of suspense that will keep some people guessing until it actually ends. It is likely to generate some form of discussion about the plot’s premise on social media. This sort of discussion will be strictly limited to the fans of the series. The entertainment value however will go beyond just being a fan of the series even if you don’t understand the various plot strands or the characters involved. The introduction of a young Quicksilver (Evan Peters) is a hit and hopefully there will be more of him i.e. the character Quicksilver in future films. There are some comedic moments involving the bitter Wolverine and there are also some interesting if not groundbreaking action set pieces.  They also try and create some air of tension on the other side as the X-Men of the future try and thwart an impending sentinel attack that could jeopardize Logan’s mission. The main difficulty for Logan trying to alter the course of history is that the laws of time are supposed to be immutable and after a couple ripples it corrects itself. Will Logan and co. positively change the future by instilling some form of hope in Raven or are the laws of time immutable?

I liked the attention to historical detail particularly as Wolverine is sent back to 1973. You have the issues surrounding the end of the Vietnam War especially a conference at Paris. There is also the presence of President Richard Nixon and the presence of characters that have some bearing on events in the X-Men trilogy that ends with X-Men: the Last Stand. As this film corrects a lot that went wrong in the first series of films people should expect the return of familiar, endearing characters.

I also liked that time travel in this film was not simply a machine that sends the actual bodies back. It is the consciousness of the person that is sent back to a younger or more previous self. There is therefore no conflict with a future self and a past self colliding. The person being sent back will be the only one to remember that actual changes were made to the past.  This makes it more believable from the perspective of the comic book world although I am not sure how Kitty (Ellen Page) calculates how far to send him back with her mystical, and not scientific, measurements. Comic book logic = anything goes and so for people to question the logic of the premise need to hold on a bit.

Logan/Wolverine is clearly the star of the series and he conveniently has all the healing requirements to undertake all the arduous physical challenges necessary to provide a positive outcome for the team. This film, again, highlights the appeal of Wolverine above the rest apart from Mystique (because of Jennifer Lawrence) Magneto and Charles Xavier. He still remains the man who gets to the underlying secrets through discovery however and becomes a vital link in the chain. There are other X-Men who are more powerful but Logan is the key to this series. Quicksilver can also become a major star and it will be interesting to see how he is featured in The Avengers: Age of Ultron considering that here is not usually a cross over between the two in the film although the characters are a part of the same marvel universe. There are a lot of issues relating to the rights of various companies to certain characters. In any case Whedon has a lot to live up to with Singer making Quicksilver into a hit long before 2015. It remains to be seen how he will improve on the character.

Lastly, I like the contrasts developed between Magneto and Xavier. These two characters have demonstrated through the series of films why they are who they are and their difference in approach to the mutant problem is brought to the fore yet again in this film. It is still effective and they represent the ideological basis for the film’s momentum. 

The ending of the film does open the door for many more installments. Is that necessarily a good thing? Probably until the series runs out of gas and one of the many films finally tanks at the box office. We seem to be moving into an era where superhero movies are more or less extended series instead of being definitive from the perspective of a particular story. It is just that one episode in these series still requires a high production budget when compared to a regular TV series. This film does not shake the episodic tag.

Negatives

The primary negative about this film is the lack of originality. Oh we are facing a problem let’s send someone back in time to correct it like those other time travel films. There is nothing distinctive about what this film is trying to say that would make it differ from previous films in the series. They had a good premise here but why could we not see an actual war with the sentinels instead of time travel. Why not present us with a future which could only be based in the world of the X-Men. Why not embed the hope in the current situation as opposed to resorting to desperation in order to link past selves with future selves. The time travel scenario is not as complicated as people are making it out to be. It is actually quite simple and predictable. It becomes predictable because they put all their eggs in one basket. No success in the past means annihilation for the last resistance.  Since they speak so much about hope in this film you know the outcome must be favourable. There is not much going for the film story wise although the actors and production crew do their part by allowing yourself to get lost in this world. The first two X-Men films had something distinctive to say about mutants and so on.  None of that is present here as characters who were never mentioned before are brought to the fore and are supposed to have played a pivotal role in the history of this franchise. Whatever happened to the sentinel program in the first  three films? How did the war come about? The film just does not create sufficient linkages to make it stand on its own and seems to be correcting the outcome of the final film in the trilogy so that everyone can be on board for the next film. The casting of Ellen page is no fluke because the ending of this film is similar in many respects to Inception even a situation where Kitty seems to be bleeding out which could impair progress in some form.  Nothing resonated with me thematically after the film ended although it was entertaining while I watched it.

There still remain a lot of gaps in the story. Why did the sentinels have to be this powerful or almost invincible?  I find that unbelievable in the world of the X-Men. The issue about the adaptation of the sentinels does not make much sense considering that there is no means of showing how they actually generate their powers through adaptation particularly from the perspective of being machines. Why is the actual development of the sentinel program not developed? one would imagine that there should be a film that speaks about the war with the sentinels.  The X-Men characters are more or less powerless regardless of how many powers they have.  They talk about hope in this film but in the future the situation is actually hopeless. Why is that? They literally go out of their way to make the situation hopeless for the future characters. All of a sudden Kitty has the power to send someone back in time. This is something never suggested in the previous films. Why not travel back in time from the onset of the war with the sentinels. Why wait?  I was not sold on the premise of this film and I hope this time travel bit does not alter the story of the first 3 films. Well we shall see when Xavier explains everything to Wolverine. You wouldn't want it to be like the trilogy was all for nothing. I am looking forward to the moment when all the effects of Logan’s trip in time are revealed.

The film goes for a lot of dramatic heft in this film but ultimately falls short because you would have to be really naïve to not guess the outcome particularly as they have all their eggs in one basket. All the crying and the moralizing and the talk about hope won’t affect the outcome in anyway. The story is more or less fatalistic for all its talk about freewill and choice. There are some scenes where  some X-Men are brutally killed in order to emphasize some sense of urgency; for past events to take hold and influence for the better but this does not resonate because of the very predictable elements. You will know deep down that everything is alright regardless of all this drama.

The resolution at the end of the film is too straightforward and cozy for my comfort. There is hardly any  sense of the bittersweet or the possibility of things to come although the next film is entitled X-Men: Apocalypse. The ending is too rosy. This time travel experiment opens the door for an invincible X-Men team. Have problems in the next film? Go back in time. This is why I liked the comic book versions better where cable and bishop were the time travelers from a distant future while the X-Men had to deal with their own problems in the present. I doubt Bishop even said a word of importance in this film. It would have been  a much better film if Cable or Bishop were the stars of this film because at least they would be able to play true to form. Also they could provide a more objective historical assessment of the X-Men and the position they found themselves. They would also  be better representatives of  the distant future even while keeping alive the activity of the X-Men in an underground fashion. Why? Because in this film it is only after the mutants are almost wiped out do the protagonists seem to understand why they need to go back. Very strange and that is more illogical than time travel. The first two Terminator films did a much better job in explaining the elements of the distant future coming back to the present to preserve or alter it. It is the present that should come alive and the representatives of the future should be true representatives.   The over reliance on particular stars to play certain characters will undermine the series eventually. If you’re going to have a film about the distant future why not encourage the younger stars to make it happen. Let them be the hope when they return to convince the legends of Xavier and Magneto of the perils associated with the future. The dependency on Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan will not go down well in future installments especially if this series goes well into the future.