Time moves quick with this one

X-Men: Days of Future Past
English (U) ¬¬¬¬
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, Ian Mckellen, James McAvoy

With every movie from the X-Men series doing better in the box-office than the previous, what would make the seventh film, Days of Future Past, any different?This movie dives right into the action. War is upon the mutants.

 Though the mutants are more evolved than Homo sapiens with their superpowers, they are threatened by a technology driven by the genes of the Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), which imitates her capability of being able to take the form of whoever she pleases. These “sentinels” are capable of magnifying and imitating the powers of the very mutant it wishes to destroy, making the X-Men’s destruction inevitable.

Prof Charles Xavier (James McAvoy in the past), who we believed to be killed by Gene in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, seems to be alive, in line with the cliffhanger post-credit scene the film left us with. Magneto (Ian Mckellen in the present and Michael Fassbender in the past), whom Charles has had a love-hate relationship with given their contradicting stands on protecting mutants, seems to have befriended the professor in a time when the species faces an imminent extinction.

Together they decide to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) into the past with the help of Shadowcat (Ellen Page). Wolverine’s mission is to try and prevent scientist Bolivar Trask, the man behind the sentinel project, from getting hold of Mystique’s genes after reviving the friendship between Magneto and Prof XavierDays of Future Past may have centralised its plot on the complicated concept of time travel, a first in the X-Men series; but the movie has successfully managed to make the intricacies of going back in time comprehensible, sticking to a logic that is plain and simple. 

Bryan Singer, the director of only the first two and probably least profitable movies in the series, got back on board with Days of Future Past, only for the better. Two thumbs up for this film’s cinematography, with screen transitions and action sequences that will make one forget to blink. The plot incorporates several mutants from the X-Men comic books, much to the happiness of Marvel geeks everywhere. 

With Wolverine, Prof Charles Xavier, Magneto and Beast getting the most amount of screen time; Storm, Quicksilver, Blink, Sunspot and other mutants make enough appearances in the film, doing away with any possible monotony in terms of characters.

What is most commendable about this movie, as well as the entire series, is how all the pieces of the puzzle from the previous X-Men films fit together. However, those who aren’t followers of the series needn’t be disheartened. There is a lot about this movie that can be enjoyed by people oblivious to the franchise too.

It wouldn’t hurt if you had an X-Men movie marathon beforehand though; it would better your experience to understand the movie’s subtleties. Oh and wait for the post-credits!