X-Men: Days of Future Past

Bryan Singer's return to the Gifted Youngsters was eagerly awaited by the whole film world, and the feeling you get when the universes of X:Men: First Class and the classic adventures intermingle onscreen is relatively unmatched when it comes to sending chills down your spine. There's no denying that this mouthful was a truly enormous one, and thanks to the participation of virtually all surviving mutants, the X-Men: Days of Future Past grows into a truly epic event. Therefore, a running time of just over two hours is actually pitifully little for such a fateful combination. There is a heap of important events, heartbreaking speeches, and moments that will have a solid place in the entire saga, but precisely because of everything that needs to happen, there is no room for a proper break. It either requires another screening or, if possible, a more sprawling director's cut, which would have a real chance of becoming the best mutant spectacle. So far, it stands at hesitant 90%, which mainly saddens me because young Magneto has a somewhat conflicting role and behavioral shifts (not consistent with his character, for example, in X-Men 2), and I still don't know if Trask was even a villain. On the other hand, the emphasis on the development of Mystique is a pleasant surprise, as is the fact that Charles Xavier's rock bottom feels perfectly natural. And why does it still end up getting five stars in the end? The ending. For a person who has seen most of the installments several times and still worships the first X-Men as one of the best comic book movie franchises ever, the feeling of (semi)closure of one chapter is so poignant that I would forgive much more than just a few loose ends. (02/06/2014)

Do not be fooled by the high rating of the X-Men enthusiasts. They would give it 5 stars even if Fassbender and McAvoy competed to see who could eat more oysters in an hour, with Jackman as the referee. Everyone foolishly thought that Bryan Singer's return would be a return of the king, but the opposite is true. He destroyed the fantastically polished retro First Class, which was sharp, smart, and expertly handled with subtly effective action. This sequel tries to utilize this inventive style and build upon it, but it fails miserably in the dramatic sequences (boring, devoid of emotions), as well as in the action scenes, where it can only manage a slow-motion scene like in The Matrix and a flashy destruction scene with Magneto, which is a complete copycat from the previous installment and is quite obvious at that. The plot twists and turns are uninteresting and convoluted just to fit everything together. Essentially, the film has nothing to offer. It's not completely boring, visually it fits well, and there is an attempt at mythology. And in the end, I was much more afraid of the time jumping. (24/05/2014)

I have to say for the first hour I was completely screwed and had no idea what was going on in the movie. This lasted till the end of the movie, just so I could, with a twist from the future to the past with a stop in the alternative present (which is all this instalment is about), understand that this film cancelled everything the X-Men encountered in the previous movies. Suddenly, the dead from the previous instalments were alive, the bastards were made more human and Bryan Singer created a brand new world he would happily draw from in the future. As for the fans, this movie was quite a mindfuck. (24/05/2015)

I admit that there are some shortcomings when it comes to the profiling of the characters and their interactions, where the reasons someone is doing what they are doing are not always convincingly explained. However, the film manages to be sufficiently entertaining, tense and riveting that I didn’t start thinking about those issues until I left the theatre. In the cinema it was excellent, uninterrupted fun. In short, a very pleasant time spent with old (and new) friends. I liked Evan Peters as Quicksilver, there could have been more of him, his scenes are interesting and fun. Overall, I had more fun than with the (IMHO) overrated First Class. (30/05/2014)

In the case of this film, The Rogue Cut is absolutely crucial, or if Anna Paquin is not in it, then I’m not interested. The result of this change is a distinctly compact work that will engage and not offend even comic book readers. It almost seemed that this old (by today's standards) franchise was over, but now it has gained a second wind and is boldly competing with The Avengers. Rogue nostalgia and the return of characters like Phoenix made me feel better. Of the new characters, Quicksilver got to everyone, while the one in The Avengers was downright lukewarm (even though he had his sister by his side). Well, I'm going to have to watch it again soon. (31/07/2015)