Dustin: The latest X-Man film has the Wolverine’s consciousness sent back to his 1973 self to prevent a catastrophic war in which mutant robots destroy the world while wiping out mutant humans. The Wolverine must rally the forces of two enemies, Professor Xavier (James McAvoy/Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender/Ian McKellen), so their future selves can become BFFs (see Image 1).
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| Image 1. Actual screenshot from X-Men: Days of Future Past. Source: twitter.com/SirPatStew |
Nick: A little disappointed, but overall satisfied. Since there are so many characters in the past and future, little is seen of each. While Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) appears the most, it wouldn't be surprising to find out he has the least amount of dialogue of any character. The same could be said of Mystique. We see her a lot, but not too much comes out of her mouth. Or maybe it just feels that way since she is always in a different face.
Dustin: That somewhat sums up my criticism of the entire X-Men universe. There are so many characters, some with multiple powers that sometimes feel made up on the spot, none of them can be more than a plot device, and newbies might feel lost. The reason I never got into the cartoon as a kid was because I gave it a couple attempts and just couldn’t understand the characters or what was going on.
This film, however, does a decent job balancing the characters with the plot. Some characters will probably confuse those who’ve never seen an X-Men film (like the Asian X-(Wo)Man who can apparently open portals in thin air). But most of the screen time is devoted to X-Men who don’t require an explanation, like Wolverine or the Beast.
Nick: While your argument is mostly correct, I would prop up X2 as a shining example of a film that has a plethora a characters, but all follow the same path and it’s ultimately the first Wolverine film. That film follows Wolverine trying to find his “creator.” The rest of the cast is trying to stop the same guy because he threatens all mutants. This is actually brought up in this film quite a lot and makes the secondary bad guy Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). Every X-Men film should be about one of the many character’s stories with the others going in and out.
Did you notice the actors’ names? The Asian X-Woman you speak of is Blink. Her real name is Bingbing Fan, and Warpath is played by Booboo Stewart. Love the latter’s name!
Dustin: I noticed that when I looked at the cast on IMDb to get the spelling of their names right. I liked that Bingbing and Booboo were an effective pair in the film.
I think this film was emotionally satisfying in the arcs of the main characters, especially Professor X and Mystique (America’s Sweetheart, Jennifer Lawrence). I thought they also did interesting things with young Magneto (Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave). You never know whether he will commit to the good side.
Nick: Really?! I think you can always know he will do the bad thing. Though, I read the comics, watched many different cartoons, seen all the movies, and even had a Where’s Waldo version of X-Men (which I need to find). The only reason it may seem as if Magneto will do the good thing is because of how much belief (albeit false) Xavier has in him. He obviously only realizes the errors of his ways too late. This film sometimes felt like the James Bond story arc I talked about during World War Z. They kept traveling from one exotic location to fuck some shit up. I’ve read many interviews where directors admit to doing this because they like to travel and go places they have never been. Sometimes during Days of Future Past it seems like that.
Dustin: That’s one of the things I actually liked about this film: the variety of shots. You have the bleak future shots, the 1970s New York locations, ‘Nam, Paris, Washington, D.C. I can imagine the director likes to travel, but somehow I doubt they actually visited all those places. The Chinese future sets could have been CGI, you didn’t see enough of ‘Nam to believe it wasn’t filmed on a California backlot.
Nick: I’m not talking about the bleak future setting or the ‘Nam setting, but when Magneto tried to kill Mystique in Paris and Trask is there and the scene cuts through televised images that go to the White House where Nixon (Mark Camacho) is watching. All of sudden Trask is in that room! So Nixon waited like a week to be like what are we going to do about this? Trask was also in Paris to try to give his weapons to the Russians and the Vietnamese, so why did it need to take place in France? The crew actually didn’t fly to many places. From my research I could only find information that most of, if not all, the film was shot in Canada. I was commenting on the feeling of the pointlessness of saying you are in France selling weapons to Russians and the Vietnamese and then segue shot to the same character selling the same weapons to Nixon. How many scenes were of Trask selling his Sentinels (mutant robots)?
Dustin: I think this film did a good job balancing the light and dark elements, especially after the recent Marvel comic book movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The comedy scenes were very well done (Quicksilver breaking into the Pentagon was easily my favorite sequence, Evan Peters stole the show for the few scenes he was in, which is saying a lot). The humorous scenes added variety to the experience of the film, rather than clashing horribly in tone like the new Spider-Man 2.
Nick: Certainly the funniest film I have had the pleasure of seeing in 2014. Quicksilver did steal the show, and when he asked about their flight plans, I almost thought he was going to go with them, but sadly he didn’t. DOFP did balance humor with darkness wonderfully. So many scenes were funny, but then some major characters (while in CGI mode) were torn in half, burned alive or beheaded. The film never lost momentum nor felt disjointed. Bryan Singer is a welcome relief in the director’s chair. Singer directed the first two X-men films, and now he returns for DOFP. One of my favorite sequences was Magneto calmly walking down a corridor in stylish ‘70s garb while playing with two magnetized floating balls. The scene was shot with humor and mystery. The camera was low, which made him seem like such a large presence. The outfits were immense, especially whenever young Xavier looked like a pornographer with his ‘70s threads, long hair, drugged-out face and dirty facial hair.
Dustin: I think young Xavier might have actually been Lt. Dan.
Nick: The drug-addled Xavier was a bit much for a film already spending so much time on other “important” quests. While I liked the idea, the fact that he is supposed to be addicted, but quits because Wolverine emphatically for the fifth time tells Xavier he needs his powers (which he loses if he’s using). They could have had more fun with it like after he says he is going to quit and he uses his powers some, but later when needing his powers he says he is not able again. It felt forced into the film for what addiction is and how it's portrayed.
Dustin: My main criticism of the film is perhaps the epilogue. The only other X-Men films I’ve seen are the first one and The Wolverine (which I made a point of seeing because it stars my sister-in-law--look for her in the background during the scene in Ueno Station). I wanted to go back and watch the rest of the films, but this one, without getting too deep into spoiler territory, seemingly undid the outcomes of previous films during the epilogue. This will definitely take away my suspense if I go back to watch them.
Nick: You should definitely watch X2 (it is still my favorite) and X-Men: First Class. If anything they will give you more appreciation for the subtle comedy and shock throughout this movie.
Dustin: I’d recommend this film to general audiences. It was funny, exciting and pleasing; and you don’t have to be a fanboy to enjoy this film.
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