Short Attention Span Review - X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). With Spoilers From The Future.

The really short version: this is a really good film with great acting and solid action. Go see it. Want some more? Keep reading.

The movie is set in two time periods. The first is is in the 2020s (although the future is never given a date, characters make reference to it being "50 years" from 1973), in a world controlled by Sentinels, mutant hunting robots. It resembles the future scenes in the Terminator movies, with dark, storm filled skies, ruined cities and fields of skulls. The remaining X-Men - including a number of new characters - are fighting a losing battle against the Sentinels. They come with a "Hail Mary" plan to send Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) consciousness into the past, to the year 1973, where the bulk of the movie takes place. Wolverine has to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) creator of the Sentinels. It is his assassination which prompts the US government to support the Sentinel program. Wolverine must also convince Professor X (James McAvoy) to "hope" again and re-embrace his dream of human-mutant integration. Finally, Wolverine also has to locate Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to assist Professor X in convincing Mystique to abandon her quest for vengeance. Wolverine succeeds...sort of. Once his consciousness returns to the future we see that many of the events of previous films (in particular X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine) did not take place and that the future is not a Sentinel-run dystopia. We also get a glimpse of what the next film in the series will be, with the post-credit introduction of Apocalypse (Brendan Pedder). The end.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film. The acting was good, although some characters, particularly Ellen Page's Kitty Pryde, were underutilized. Many of the "supporting mutants" - including, thankfully, Halle Berry's very bored looking Storm - were little more than action figures for the future fight sequences. However, since most of the film is set in 1973 and the entire cast in that storyline is excellent, this lack of characterization doesn't detract form the film. The time-travel aspect of the story works well enough. Yes, there are some holes in the plot; but I can't think of a time travel film (or book) that doesn't require significant suspension of disbelief. The important thing is that a story sets up rules for time travel and then sticks with them, which this does.

There are some plot/story issues, aside from those related to time travel. For example, it is unclear how much people know about mutants. While the impression is given that the government thinks they might not exist, it is a key plot element that Magneto is being kept in a cell in the Pentagon specially designed to negate his mutant powers and that the military has items (like Sebastian Shaw's telepathy blocking helmet) from the fighting in Cuba in the last film. It is also a plot-point that the military has mutants in Vietnam and knows what they are, although it is not clear if they are using their superpowers to fight the war. Later scenes where President Nixon ( Mark Camacho ) and his staff seem surprised by the existence of mutants don't work, given these other plot-points. There are a few other items like this that inconsistent or just don't make sense when you think about them; however, the movie has such a great, dramatic pace and the bulk of the story is well plotted and engaging. The problems aren't exactly nit-picking; but they are minor to the overall flow of the story.

Sentinels future and past.

Visually, the movie is impressive. The action sequences are great. A stand-out sequence is an amazing scene where we get to see how super-speedster Quicksilver (Evan Peters) sees the world (everyone is basically moving in super-slow motion), while he takes out a half-dozen security officers in the Pentagon. The only visual element I didn't like were the future Sentinels. While the '73 Sentinels are a nice mix of the comic book version and a more "real-world" vision of what 20 foot tall robots would look like, the future Sentinels look far too much like a cross between the T-1000 from Terminator 2 and the Destroyer from . It's a drab design, one that does not have the same unique look as the '73 Sentinels and one that does not 'pop' on the screen.

Since the film is based on a comic book, I should address that aspect briefly. Is it as good as the original Days of Future Past story? That's not an easy question to answer. The film takes elements from the comic, but creates its own story, one that works in the continuity of the films. The comic has a much more streamlined story and presents a believable, yet chilling look at a future America under the control of mutant hunting robots. When the comic was released (1981) it was shocking to see such things as heroes being killed (the future X-Men are decimated by the Sentinels), death camps and political assassinations, moreso because I was a child when I first read it. Writers Chris Claremont and John Byrne were at the top of their game, creating a great alternate future and a dramatic, compelling storyline, all in two issues (The Uncanny X-Men, Volume 1, #141 - 142). Overall, I think the comic is more satisfying and has a much more tightly written story, although some of my feelings about this are based on the impact the comic had on me when I first read it.

As both it's own movie, as a sequel to X-Men: First Class and as a series reboot, Days of Future Past succeeds. Check it out on the big screen.