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patentdragonThursday was May 22nd, the day I annually celebrate as Spiritwalk, and I usually try to do something (semi-)special for it, such as buy myself a special present, or go to the movies. The plan was to do both this time around, but the former simply didn't happen. The latter, however, was set in stone - a viewing on a decent-sized screen for the latest X-Men offering: ...Days Of Future Past.
Here's what I thought of it...
An undetermined number of years after the highly-criticised X-Men - The Last Stand *spits*, mutantkind is on the edge of extinction at the armoured hands of humanity's mutant-hunting, super-adaptive robot Sentinels. The last of our mutant heroes have a desperate last-ditch plan to prevent this nightmare future, by changing the past - and only one mutant stands a chance of being able to withstand going back half a century. Logan, buckle up, buddy.
In 1973, something happened that turned the tide of opinion against mutants once and for all - the assassination of cyberneticist Bolivar Trask by one Raven Darkholme a.k.a. Mystique. If Wolverine can make contact with that era's Professor Xavier, maybe they can prevent the killing, and retrospectively put an end to the Sentinel menace...
This is how director and previous X-Men chronicler (X-Men, X2) Bryan Singer attempts to bring together his series and the very successful "reboot", X-Men First Class - and it works! It's a brave thing to attempt, especially when the original "trilogy" ended so badly, in the hands of a different director who totally screwed up the whole Phoenix thing, and soured the opinions of a great swathe of the X-men audience, myself included, but this movie, incorporating a highly-acclaimed storyline from the comics, does all that - and more.
You'd think that so many mutants in one movie, plus a time-travel plot, was a recipe for disaster along the lines of Spider-Man 3, but you'd be wrong, for each group, with the exception of Wolverine, and briefly 70s Xavier, remain firmly in their own time-lines, and the majority of the action is in the past. There are several mutant factions involved - Mystique-to-be, Magneto, Wolverine and Xavier - but each has their part to tell in the story, and gets their time to shine, just when it's needed. Wolverine/Xavier/Beast - and special recruit Quicksilver - perform a daring Magneto break-out at the Pentagon, featuring a stunning 3-D enhanced spotlight for the silver-haired speedster; Magneto uproots the Redskins' then home-field RFK Stadium... but the real heart-punch comes when Raven infiltrates Trask's office, and learns the full scope of his research, seeing for herself the autopsy reports on several of her former allies from Magneto's ranks...
Angel...! Noooooooooooooooo!
Yeah, go-go dancer with wings Angel Espinosa, my favourite character from ...First Class, is depicted on the mortuary slab with a Y-cut - and it's a work of genius, as it makes you think that just maybe Raven has a point. Maybe Trask has to die - but then that just proves his case for going ahead with his sentinel program, and we've already seen where THAT leads. Cruel, yes, but necessary - grrrrr, damn you Singer...!
A little aside here: I don't usually talk about actor performances, but big respect to James McAvoy as the almost-broken 70s Xavier. He delivers some profanities with such venom, and he really makes you believe that here is a man who has quite literally lost everything, except for the one thing he got back, and which gains him no joy. Brilliant work.
And so, the story unfolds, as an unlikely alliance is formed - can former friends set aside their differences, for the greater good? At first, Magneto seems to be on board with the whole plan, seeing that such a future confrontation is best avoided, but he soon sees a way to turn things to HIS advantage, signalled by his return to The Pentagon to recover his trademark helmet from a glass case in a vault, which also contains...
...one of Angel's wings.
Angel...! Noooooooooooooooo!
So, our heroes have multiple problems: they've averted Trask's murder, but somehow, that changes nothing. Trask needs Raven's genetic structure to create the Sentinels that are on the verge of winning in the future. Raven still wants revenge. Magneto is about to pounce...
Unfortunately, the conclusion of all this is a little weak, perhaps a victim of its own extended build-up. Magneto uses his enslaved Sentinels to challenge our heroes, but maybe there's too few of them to make a decent fight of it. That's happening in the future, but it's hard to care about those who die, as the movie makers are hardly going to let that dark future stand. There is, however, a pay-off for all this, and anyone who objected to the destruction of characters in ...Last Stand... well, let's just say you'll like what you see (I hope).
Put simply, Bryan Singer has saved the X-Men franchise from itself, and done it in style. Overall, the movie stands as one of the better Marvel movies, and certainly one of the best from outside Marvel Studios. Unlike Godzilla, the 3D is clearly in evidence here, and is used well, particularly in Quicksilver's sequence, which is a joy to behold - it'll be interesting to see what Joss Whedon can do with another version of the character next year, in Avengers - Age of Ultron.
It's still not quite the best X-Men movie, but only just. Do go and see for yourself, Dear Reader. You should not be disappointed - and you owe it to yourself to stay to the very end of the credits, for a glimpse of what's to come...
Oh, and thanks Mr Singer, for the little Spiritwalk present. Wolverine wakes up in 1973 sharing a bed with a young lady - for whom he's supposed to be bodyguard - and as she gets out of bed, she gets her priorities right. First things first, girl - pull your boots on... ;-)
The Final Verdict... It could have been an awful train-wreck, but Bryan Singer delivers a worthy successor to both his two X-movies, and X-Men First Class. The future, I hope, is in his hands - or at least the 80s. 8.25/10
This Just In... And finally - Doctor Who returns in August! Yes! Now, if only the weather was to be as goooooood...
Here's what I thought of it...
An undetermined number of years after the highly-criticised X-Men - The Last Stand *spits*, mutantkind is on the edge of extinction at the armoured hands of humanity's mutant-hunting, super-adaptive robot Sentinels. The last of our mutant heroes have a desperate last-ditch plan to prevent this nightmare future, by changing the past - and only one mutant stands a chance of being able to withstand going back half a century. Logan, buckle up, buddy.
In 1973, something happened that turned the tide of opinion against mutants once and for all - the assassination of cyberneticist Bolivar Trask by one Raven Darkholme a.k.a. Mystique. If Wolverine can make contact with that era's Professor Xavier, maybe they can prevent the killing, and retrospectively put an end to the Sentinel menace...
This is how director and previous X-Men chronicler (X-Men, X2) Bryan Singer attempts to bring together his series and the very successful "reboot", X-Men First Class - and it works! It's a brave thing to attempt, especially when the original "trilogy" ended so badly, in the hands of a different director who totally screwed up the whole Phoenix thing, and soured the opinions of a great swathe of the X-men audience, myself included, but this movie, incorporating a highly-acclaimed storyline from the comics, does all that - and more.
You'd think that so many mutants in one movie, plus a time-travel plot, was a recipe for disaster along the lines of Spider-Man 3, but you'd be wrong, for each group, with the exception of Wolverine, and briefly 70s Xavier, remain firmly in their own time-lines, and the majority of the action is in the past. There are several mutant factions involved - Mystique-to-be, Magneto, Wolverine and Xavier - but each has their part to tell in the story, and gets their time to shine, just when it's needed. Wolverine/Xavier/Beast - and special recruit Quicksilver - perform a daring Magneto break-out at the Pentagon, featuring a stunning 3-D enhanced spotlight for the silver-haired speedster; Magneto uproots the Redskins' then home-field RFK Stadium... but the real heart-punch comes when Raven infiltrates Trask's office, and learns the full scope of his research, seeing for herself the autopsy reports on several of her former allies from Magneto's ranks...
Angel...! Noooooooooooooooo!
Yeah, go-go dancer with wings Angel Espinosa, my favourite character from ...First Class, is depicted on the mortuary slab with a Y-cut - and it's a work of genius, as it makes you think that just maybe Raven has a point. Maybe Trask has to die - but then that just proves his case for going ahead with his sentinel program, and we've already seen where THAT leads. Cruel, yes, but necessary - grrrrr, damn you Singer...!
A little aside here: I don't usually talk about actor performances, but big respect to James McAvoy as the almost-broken 70s Xavier. He delivers some profanities with such venom, and he really makes you believe that here is a man who has quite literally lost everything, except for the one thing he got back, and which gains him no joy. Brilliant work.
And so, the story unfolds, as an unlikely alliance is formed - can former friends set aside their differences, for the greater good? At first, Magneto seems to be on board with the whole plan, seeing that such a future confrontation is best avoided, but he soon sees a way to turn things to HIS advantage, signalled by his return to The Pentagon to recover his trademark helmet from a glass case in a vault, which also contains...
...one of Angel's wings.
Angel...! Noooooooooooooooo!
So, our heroes have multiple problems: they've averted Trask's murder, but somehow, that changes nothing. Trask needs Raven's genetic structure to create the Sentinels that are on the verge of winning in the future. Raven still wants revenge. Magneto is about to pounce...
Unfortunately, the conclusion of all this is a little weak, perhaps a victim of its own extended build-up. Magneto uses his enslaved Sentinels to challenge our heroes, but maybe there's too few of them to make a decent fight of it. That's happening in the future, but it's hard to care about those who die, as the movie makers are hardly going to let that dark future stand. There is, however, a pay-off for all this, and anyone who objected to the destruction of characters in ...Last Stand... well, let's just say you'll like what you see (I hope).
Put simply, Bryan Singer has saved the X-Men franchise from itself, and done it in style. Overall, the movie stands as one of the better Marvel movies, and certainly one of the best from outside Marvel Studios. Unlike Godzilla, the 3D is clearly in evidence here, and is used well, particularly in Quicksilver's sequence, which is a joy to behold - it'll be interesting to see what Joss Whedon can do with another version of the character next year, in Avengers - Age of Ultron.
It's still not quite the best X-Men movie, but only just. Do go and see for yourself, Dear Reader. You should not be disappointed - and you owe it to yourself to stay to the very end of the credits, for a glimpse of what's to come...
Oh, and thanks Mr Singer, for the little Spiritwalk present. Wolverine wakes up in 1973 sharing a bed with a young lady - for whom he's supposed to be bodyguard - and as she gets out of bed, she gets her priorities right. First things first, girl - pull your boots on... ;-)
The Final Verdict... It could have been an awful train-wreck, but Bryan Singer delivers a worthy successor to both his two X-movies, and X-Men First Class. The future, I hope, is in his hands - or at least the 80s. 8.25/10
This Just In... And finally - Doctor Who returns in August! Yes! Now, if only the weather was to be as goooooood...
