Offering very little in the way of narrative accessibility, this may be the most comic-booky comic-book movie I've ever seen. It's assumed you already know everything that's happened within the cinematic universe, and that you're fully aware of every character's bio up until now. Professor X is alive again. Shadowcat can transport a person's mind through time. Wolverine has bone claws instead of adamantium in the '70s. All of these things go completely unexplained if you're not entering the film with prior knowledge. If you're not a fan of the comics or just a casual fan of the flicks, you're in the dark. And honestly, I really appreciate that. The Amazing Spider-Man was heavily bogged down in its first hour because it was telling a story we already knew. X-Men eschews that in favour of respect to its fan-base first and foremost. The uninitiated may have appreciated an opening montage chronicling the history of the flicks up to this point, but doing so would have cut time from the three storylines it's balancing. The film begins far in the future, where unstoppable robots called Sentinels have either enslaved or exterminated most of the mutants. Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, Storm and others have holed up in Shanghai for their last ditch effort at saving the world. Their plan is to go back in time and alter the course of history so that the Sentinels never came to be. This kicks in the second storyline, in which Wolverine travels back to 1973 to hurriedly reconcile the differences between Professor X and Magneto so that they may work together in preventing Mystique from assassinating the inventor of the Sentinels, which is the event pinpointed as the catalyst for this turn of events. And on top of all this, the film regularly calls back upon the past that has already...passed. In the future. The fucking first three movies, alright? This is already a hugely complicated narrative to communicate in 130 minutes, and pausing for constant explanation of prior history would have resulted in an experience not too dissimilar from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Mercifully, they made the right decision. That's not to say you can't enjoy Days of Future Past without a marathon of the prior six films. You'll just miss out on a lot of quiet, little moments.
For me though, it's these little moments that ultimately made the movie. The action scenes are perfectly serviceable, and showcase the various mutant's powers quite well. Blink in particular is a welcome addition, with her ability to create portals at any location resulting in some physics-bending fun times. Quicksilver as well proves you can't judge a book by it's cover. The reveal of his costume kicked fan's premature vitriol into gear, and granted, it's pretty horrible. But he's a teenager in the '70s with the ability to move at the speed of light. Of course he's going to dress like a fucking dork. Any judgemental idiot who swears off the movie because they don't like his silver goggles is going to miss out on a show-stealer, in which he saves Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine and Beast from a hail of bullets to the tune of Jim Croce's 'Time in a Bottle'. But it's within here that my previous point is made. It's the little things that make me love this movie. Quicksilver's dress code. A couple of subtle hints at his familial ties to another of the X-Men. Wolverine getting confused when he doesn't set off a metal detector. Magneto using his hands to have a drink while his powers sew a wound and create a projector with a light bulb and a glass. Wolverine unconsciously lifting his middle finger when he reunites with an old friend. These slight touches create a universe that shows love for its characters, and for their fans. There's some solid character drama on show as well. Xavier and Magneto share some intense scenes after the fallout of First Class, with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender meeting the acting abilities of Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen, leaving me at a loss for which of the two pairs I prefer. There's a rather moving reversal of roles between Xavier and Wolverine as well, with Logan now the one guiding and rehabilitating the Professor, who has taken such emotional damage that he is willing to see a future of his kind extinct if it means an end to his pain. This leads to an even more moving scene between him and his future self, in which Charles explains to Charles it's this pain that gives them the strength to bear everyone else's. Scenes like this are important to a series like X-Men, even if nobody's getting punched. When an entire universe is built around the notion that these mutations don't make them any less human, it's crucial to see moments of relatable humanity.
Now we come to my one gripe with the flick, and it's a doozy. I mentioned before that I usually check out emotionally in a time travel storyline, and Days of Future Past is no different. Seeing beloved characters perish did nothing to me, because I knew there was no way a big budget studio would allow the heroes to fail. Of course the reset switch will be hit, of course none of these characters are actually dead. There's a slight exception to this: watching a battle-wounded Magneto and Xavier shake hands and express their regrets in the face of death wrought a tear, but it was only the idea of these two characters sharing such a moment, not the moment itself. Days of Future Past goes one further, though. Mystique doesn't assassinate her target, and in doing so, the entire future is reset, including every X-Men flick up until First Class. You sly fox, Singer, you went and pulled a sneaky reboot! It doesn't matter if all of the same actors stuck around, or that technically it's all part of the same story. That doesn't change the fact that you've just nullified almost every film in the franchise. I can't help but feel a little bit like the last 14 years have been wasted...but hang on, kids! I spot a silver lining. That's right, The Last Stand, drunken uncle of the X-Men family, is well and truly included in that list, and in the film's final scene, Wolverine walks down the stairs of Charles Xavier's Schools of Gifted Youngsters. He's attempting to process the fact that he's the only person with the knowledge of the grim future that is no more when a familiar face stops him dead in his tracks. I'd be lying if I said that didn't hit me hard. X-Men: Days of Future Past stumbles under the weight of its premise, but for all of the gears turning beneath the surface, it does a well enough job pulling the wool over your eyes through its clear adoration of its characters and desire to get X-Men back to the glory it once had. As a fan, I can't ask for much more.
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