X-Men: Days of Future Past Review: Singer Finally Rights Course of Franchise

The X-Men franchise has been on a bit of an upswing recently. After the dismal abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fox gave the franchise a breath of fresh air with 2011's X-Men: First Class, which explores the origins of how Professor X and Magneto met and formed a friendship while trying to avert a nuclear war with Cuba in the 1960s. The film came as a rather huge surprise to me, as the marketing for the film made it look....well, awful. But the film came as a bit of a surprise, as it finally breathed new life in the franchise. The film was a fun, entertaining film powered by some great performances from Michael Fassbender, James MacAvoy, and Kevin Bacon as the villain. So, now we come to this latest installment, with Bryan Singer (X-Men and X2) returning to the directing chair.

In the not too distant future, mutants are being hunted to the point of near extinction by a race of robots known as Sentinels, robots whose at first begin to exterminate and/or enslave mutants, but soon, they also begin targeting humans who will eventually pass on the mutant gene to future generations (some may not have it now, but their children or grandchildren will pass it on). In order to stop the Sentinels, a resistance movement of mutants, made up of the remnants of the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants and led by Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) come up with a plan: Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) has the ability to send someone's consciousness back in time to a previous version of their body. Magneto and Xavier plan to go back to 1973, a key moment in which Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) assasinates the creator of the Sentinels, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). However, neither of them can survive the journey, as making a trip that far back could rip apart their consciousness. Gee, if only they had someone who could heal quickly, someone who could be able to regenerate their consciousness after traveling.....oh wait, they do! Enter Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who now has to go back to 1973 to convince the younger versions of Xavier (James MacAvoy)and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to team up and stop Mystique before it is too late.

Phew that's a lot to take in. If that sounds like a really complicated plot, it seems like that at first. But Bryan Singer makes the film completely engaging almost immediately, making this quite possibly the best X-Men film to date and the first truly great film of the summer.

The cast here is fantastic. Both casts from the original trilogy AND First Class show up here, with the main focus being on Jackman, MacAvoy, Fassbender, and Lawrence. At this point, Jackman IS Wolverine. He completely embraces the role and knows exactly what makes Wolverine tick yet still make the character fresh. It's really interesting to see Wolverine not only be the fish out of water in a different time, but also be the mentor and guide to Xavier, rather than the other way around (there's also a rather clever callback to his cameo from First Class).

Speaking of younger Xavier (and in turn, younger Magneto), MacAvoy and Fassbender are absolutely fantastic this time around. What I loved about the two of them is that rather than have everything be "I forgive you let's be buds again," their relationship was actually developed further. Xavier is a VERY different person than we saw him in First Class, as he is broken, physically and spiritually. MacAvoy pulls this off brilliantly showing the dark, tortured side of Magneto. Fassbender also once again does an excellent job, showing how he is becoming more and more like his older counterpart in terms of cunning. The scenes that these two have together are excellent, with one particulalr standout scene taking place on an airplane.

Jennifer Lawrence is another standout in the film with her portrayal of Mystique. Rather than have her be a one note villain in the original trilogy, Lawrence gives the character more layers, making her conflicted over what her true mission should be: kill Trask and let the impending future happen, or restrain herself, and change the course of history, as well as reconcile with her "brother" Charles? It was great to see this different side of Mystique and Lawrence pull it off brilliantly.

It was great to see the original cast return to their respective roles after so long away, especially Stewart and McKellan, who fit the roles like a glove at this point. It was nice to see other returning and new characters, even if they are only in the film for maybe all of....10 minutes (the most screentime besides Stewart, McKellan, and Page, along with Jackman, is Shawn Ashmore as Iceman......it was nice to see Halle Berry as Storm again, as well as Colossus and new additions Bishop, Blink, Sunspot, and Warpath....but don't get too attached to them, as they mainly serve to fight the Sentinels).

But the scene stealer is Evan Peters as Quicksilver. When I first saw the promotional image for him, followed by that God-awful Carl Jr.'s commercial, I thought, "Oh great....he's going to be the worst part." Whoever did the marketing for Quicksilver did a poor job because he was the best part of the whole film. Peters embellished the character as a bit eccentric, never really staying in one place and having his thoughts and words bounce around all over the place. The highlight is an action scene taking place beneath the Pentagon, where the film slows down in order to display how Quicksilver views the world. The scene was fun and highly inventive, showing how Quicksilver's powers and mind works.

As a whole, the film is directed extremely well. Singer knows this franchise, and he welcomed once more with this installment. Singer manages to perfectly blend humor, drama, and action into a neat combination. In fact, when watching this movie, the best word I can sum up this film is hopefulness. There's a sense of hope that each of the characters have: Charles wanting to find hope in his dire situation, Mystique trying to find hope that killing Trask will bring peace. It's evident once you watch the film, and it's a beautiful message to get across. Credit to screenwriter Simon Kinberg for helping come up with an excellent story, one crackling with energy. Singer also does an excellent job with the action set pieces, with the standouts being Quicksilver's scene mentioned earlier and one last scene taking place at the White House.

What interests me the most is where the X-Men franchise will go from here. Not going to spoil anything, but all I will say is the last 5-10 minutes of this movie makes me very curious as to which direction this franchise will take. It makes things very interesting. Also, I'd highly recommend staying to the end credits....if you're a comic book fan like me, you have plenty of reason to get excited for this scene.

X-Men Days of Future Past is the X-Men film I have long been clamoring for. The film is bolstered by strong performances coupled with excellent action and compelling drama.  The time travel gets confusing at first, but Singer handles it with ease. He is a welcome return to the directing chair and it is the first truly great movie of the summer.

Grade: A-


Godzilla Review: Return of a Legend

As hard as it may seem to be, it has almost been 20 years since we last saw an American Godzilla film in American theaters. Of course there were numerous films done by Toho in Japan in the years after 1998 (my particular favorite from that era is Godzilla: Final Wars, which is just a gleefully ridiculous monster movie...favorite Godzilla movie of all time next to the original is Godzilla vs. Mothra), but American audiences haven't really gotten a new Godzilla movie in theaters since 1998. The last one we got was Roland Emmerich's iguana-looking, chicken leg running, "that's a lotta fish" quoting disaster of a film. Luckily, director Gareth Edwards comes in hoping to finally deliver a truly great American Godzilla film with this reboot, simply titled Godzilla.

The story takes place over the span of a couple of time periods. Godzilla's origin is explained, as he was originally first sighted in 1954 due to nuclear fallout. In 1999, two scientists (Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins) discover two eggs at the ocean, with one of them already hatched. At the same time, at the Janjira plant in Japan, plant supervisor Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) discovers unusual seismic activity at the power plant. Soon, Brody and nearly the entire plant are evacuated, due to something destroying the power plant, killing Brody's wife inside. Fifteen years later, Brody's son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a bomb specialist in the Army and is returning home from duty. He is then called back to Japan due to his father being arrested for trespassing in the old plant. It is then discovered that the thing birthed from the first egg is a creature known as a "MUTO." Seeing as how the military can not stop the creature, they let a familiar figure rise up from the depths of the ocean to take it down: Godzilla.

I actually saw this film back on Friday but I wanted to wait a few days before typing this review and let my thoughts simmer. The reason for this being is that this movie has had audiences split right down the middle. You either loved it or hated it, there is no middle ground. Usually, when I see a movie, my thoughts that I have when I walk out are the thoughts I type on this blog. However, with this film, I was unsure how I felt. I had remembered walking out of the movie enjoying it, but I couldn't think of detailed reasons why. I wanted to gather my thoughts before I began typing the review.

After contemplating my thoughts on the film, I come to this: Godzilla is an excellent reboot of the King of the Monsters, but I will admit that the film may not be for everyone.

The acting in this movie was pretty good, with the standout being Bryan Cranston. Cranston acts his butt off in this movie, brilliantly pulling off the bitterness and torture that his character has gone through since losing his wife to something he can not explain. Cranston steals every scene he's in and is easily the best part of the film.

The rest of the actors' performances in the film range greatly. Some are good, but most seem to be rather underused. Aaron Taylor-Johnson made for a decent leading man, but there were times where his performance seemed to be rather flat at times for me. Elizabeth Olsen seemed to be incredibly underused in the movie, as she really only seems to be in the movie when the destruction comes to San Francisco. Same with David Strathairn as the Army General:  he seems to be incredibly underused, only giving us info on what the plan of attack is. Ken Watanabe does a good job with filling in the backstory, but he has this expression on his face throughout the film that looks like he just got a whiff of Godzilla's.... monstrous droppings.

On a technical aspect, the film looks amazing. This may be one of the most beautifully shot films I have ever seen. Director Gareth Edwards (who went from his 2010 indie film Monsters to this) and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey beautifully handle the scenery as well the action scenes with deft ease (there is one scene in the film that was shown in the trailer that is absolutely jaw dropping). The creatures themselves look amazing. Godzilla himself looks the best he's been in a long time. He is monstrous and his design is an updated version of his 1954 original, which I'm so glad they went with and paying homage to the original, rather than....well old "Chicken Legs" from 1998.

The MUTOs themselves had a neat design as well. To me, they looked like a cross between the Cloverfield monster and the winged creatures seen in Avatar, which I thought was a rather interesting mix.

The other thing that I loved about the movie is the build up to Godzilla. He's only in the film for maybe....45-50 minutes total in the entire two hour running time, but the build up leading to his big reveal is fantastic. Edwards knows to build the right amount of tension and anticipation for Godzilla's reveal and when Godzilla finally does come on screen to fight the MUTOs, he does not disappoint, with his scenes being some of the best in the movie (the final 20 minutes blows Emmerich's entire film out of the water). In a way, the build up is reminiscent of the 1954 original, in which Godzilla took a full half hour to show up.

However, I will say this as a word of warning: do not go into this film if you are expecting Godzilla to be on screen almost right from the get-go. It is not like last year's Pacific Rim, in which there were kaiju fights left and right. The film does take a while to get into, but once it gets going, it gets going. This point seems to split viewers right down the middle. All I will say is: If you are expecting Godzilla fighting monsters left and right on screen, be prepared to only get a few, albeit excellent, monster fights.

Overall, Godzilla is an excellent reboot of the King of the Monsters, although there are flaws particularly in the acting department (minus Cranston) and some may find the lack of Godzilla in a movie called Godzilla to be frustrating. However, the film is beautifully shot, and when Godzilla does show up on screen, he delivers. If you get a chance, see it in IMAX, because it is worth hearing Godzilla's roar on that big of a screen.

Grade: B+