X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Writers: Simon Kinberg, Jane Goldman, and Matthew Vaughn.
Cast: Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr), Jennifer lawrence (Raven/Mystique), Halle Barry (Storm), Nicholas Hoult (Hank/Beast), Anna Pacquin (Rogue), Ellen Page (Kitty Pride), Peter Dinklage (Dr. Boliver Trask), Shawn Ashmore (Bobby/Iceman), Omar Sy (Bishop), Evan Peters (Quicksilver/Peter), Josh Helman (Maj. Bill Stryker), Daniel Cudmore (Colossus), Bingbing fan (Blink), Adan Canto (Sunspot), Booboo Stewart (Warpath), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), James Marsden (Scott Summers), Lucas Till (Havok), Evan Joningkeit (Toad), and Mark Camacho (President Nixon).
The film starts off with Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewert) recounting how humans created the sentinels to hunt and kill mutants. The beginning the sentinel project was to only hunt mutants, but later the machines targeted humans. The war between mutants and the sentinels has begun, the age of the future and it's possible extinction has arrived.
A large airship drops the sentinels close enough to their targets, the machines scan for possible mutant activity. The targets, have been acknowledged," commencing targeting sequence."
WarPath (Booboo Stewert), Blink (Bingbing Fan), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Sunspot (Adan Canto), Bishop (Omar Sy), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), and Kitty Pride (Ellen Page). Bishop with the help of Sunspot channels the strong energy emitting from Sunspot to his rifle, Bishop runs off with Kitty Pryde as the others stand there ground, forming a circle, against the invading sentinels.
The sentinels drill the mutant base, their bodies can take different forms, shapes. "Targeting multiple mutants," the battle begins, the mutants are down for the count as two die in the heat of the chaos. Colossus and Warpath have been killed by the sentinels. "Replication process complete," these machines are not just destructive, but now it can become, change into the mutant they target.
Somewhere inside the mutant stronghold, the remaining mutants, Storm (Halle Barry), Logan (Hugh Jackman), Professor X (Patrick Stewert), Magneto (Ian McKellen), they have plans to change the outcome of this war, but what? The mutant Kitty Pryde ability has evolved to allow her to send someone's mind back through time. Pryde had sent Bishop to his younger body to warn the others of the sentinels attack. The problem is that every time Kitty sends Bishop back, the same order of events occur. The sentinels have found a way to calculate every movement of mutant activity, each time they advance, it ends up to a dead end.
The professor exclaims that the only way to stop the loop is to find the order of events, before they even transpire. The year is 1973, Dr. Boliver Trask (Peter Dinklage) the creator of the sentinel project, and the sole reason behind the attacks, and war between mutants and sentinels. Mystique assassinated the Doctor which changed everything in the future, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) was later captured but, endured extensive study which changed the configuration of the way the sentinels target, attack, approach there prey. Kitty Pride (Ellen Page) warned that going back to long will cause extreme pain, or death. The mind can only be taken to that point in 1973, two weeks before the altercation, the assassination of Trask (Dinklage). Logan volunteered, his healing ability will allow him to endure the process, he must find the younger Xavier and Magneto, as well as stopping Mystique; only then will these events alter the future of mutant kind.
Rant: The film starts off with an explosive battle between the mutants and sentinels, the effects, and the look are dead on, but in comparison to the machines in the comic, well let's say the film version is less of a force. The machines in the comic are pretty deadly; making them number thirty eight in the villain rank, which is pretty good. The comic version the sentinels, only a handful are self aware, and with good reason, these machines packed a mighty punch. The film version, only flaw was the programming function, they still needed orders to proceed. Not, much but these machines were deadly constructs, and anyone, even the mightiest hero had major issues in dealing with the super bots.
The sentinels learn from the events around them, they will eventually learn from their prey, in order to perfect engagement. These machines will endure every situation, it will lure the target, eventually finding there weakness. The sentinels are number thirty eight in the villain list of bad guys, it makes me wonder who the number one is though. I will give you the top three bad guys in the marvel universe, that is comics, not the cinematic universe, here we go. 3) Magneto, 2) Loki, 1) Dr. Doom
Now i will give you the top ten bad guys of all time, because my curiosity is killing me right now. Here we go, 1) Dr. Doom, 2) Loki, 3) Magneto, 4) Thanos, 5) The Green Goblin, 6) Dr. Octopus, 7) Ultron, 8) Galactus, 9) The Red skull, 10) Dark Phoenix
The research on the top ten villains in this review is important to what I'm about to write. Hollywood loves to change things in what they might think might work on screen, but they're wrong on every change; big or small. In Days of Future past they decided to omit Rogue (Anna Paquin) for reasons, that really do not make sense. The character first of all was written badly, she is so different on film, you couldn't understand why? a character like her has to be changed. Still, even with the extreme changes, she's loved in the x-men films. The connection between Logan and her in the earlier films made me want to see her badly in this one, and as a fan, why not right? not having her in this film was a big mistake, they could've used her well, but that was all Bryan Singer, the director. bad call dude! that's like eating a hot dog without the bun, or a burger with the proper condiments. Sounds like I'm ranting away, and it should because this is a major flaw in the film. Why? even have her in the credits, let's move on, shall we.
Changes can be done on film if they're in the realm of making sense, not so much that the characters undergoes a revamp that the director might think is good, but in reality it sucks. The main issue i have with this film is very small, out of all the folks out there that review films, i happen to be a big Rogue fan, and a Paquin fan as well. She is a part of the X-men so why? pull her out of the equation. The answer Singer gave was pretty bad, at least he apologized to the actor. That's like saying Captain America went off looking for Bucky, and Ultron, not really a big deal, the avengers have enough people. Still, a major character, he is in all the films, so why, cut the character out. The story is the major part of any film, explain why? the character is missing, at least it's in the story. Funny how we as fans, audiences pay to see a beloved film, and the director, whoever it is makes cuts like this and we just take it in, because we are fans, and Hollywood knows that.
The special effects are really good, the story ark is well done. Days a Future Past is what it is, a really good film. Logan going to 1973, is somewhat funny, it makes his transition from the future to the past very likeable; the keep point here is the 1973 scenes were my favorite, didn't much care for the future scenes, but having the sentinels in 73 was pretty cool. Kitty Pryde played by Ellen Page did a really good job, she does remind me of the comic version, although Kitty and Wolverine had a close connection in the comics, one i would love to see on film, but we get "Rogue," the films version of two characters connecting with each other, in a big brother kinda way, was done well, but i can't talk because she wasn't in the movie.
Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Ian McKellen. All the actors did a wonderful job in their roles, hopefully while waiting for the next X-men film, pick this one up, or watch X-men: First Class (2011), another well done superhero movie.
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