Director Bryan Singer's new X-Men sequel takes story back to the '70s, starring Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart and Halle Berry
Time travel can heal all wounds. But it also can be a real killer. Skipping between eras, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” fights a war on two fronts.
The movie finds a lot of success, largely due to solid work from a lot of extraordinary actors. They maneuver around a jam-packed plot that, in lesser hands, could have left you looking at your watch.
This seventh X-Men adventure, the previous being the successful “X-Men: First Class” (2011), does have an overly cerebral story. The fact that it engages an audience is in itself an accomplishment.
Things start in the year 2023, in an apocalyptic future world in which amazingly powered mutants are being hunted down and exterminated by giant robots called Sentinels. Things don’t look good for those who can flick their tongues like a toad.
In a remote stronghold, aging Prof. Xavier (Patrick Stewart), his foe-turned-ally Erik, aka Magneto (Ian McKellan), Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Storm (Halle Berry) have sought out Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) for a dangerous, untested last-ditch effort. Kitty, a telepath, must send someone’s consciousness back into the past to stop the Sentinels from being created. Logan volunteers, since his healing power will help his brain regenerate while it’s being messed with.
Logan’s 2023 mind wakes up in 1973. Now in his Nixon-era physical self, Logan has to find the thirtysomething Xavier (James McAvoy), free the young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) from prison and stop Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing a scientist named Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). Trask is the inventor of the Sentinels, and after Raven shoots him, her shape-shifting DNA will be harvested and injected into the Sentinels to make them indestructible.
They’re joined by Hank (Nicolas Hoult), who becomes the furry blue Beast, and Peter (Evan Peters), a kid who can move fast as quicksilver. But for all the transplanting of football stadiums and theorizing about “the immutability of time,” what ultimately can change the future is a single moment of individual decision.
That’s a powerful concept. And the talents behind “Days of Future Past” know it. Previously this franchise relied on the mutants as metaphor. Indeed, their stories begged us to overcome the fear and distrust we have of anyone different. Here, that’s all just part of the fabric of the tale. The “one act can change the world” notion is the driving force.
It’s also a roadblock. The movie sometimes has the feel of an Olympic sprinter running in place. There’s so much energy expended to get to one spot. Constant searches beget more searches. It all gets exhausting.
Still, the strength of the “X-Men” movies has always been in the actors, and the way they and the filmmakers effortlessly ease us into a world where some people are born with superpowers. (It helps that there’s never the burden of telling any one character’s origin story.)
The central quartet — playing two characters, young and old — is McAvoy, Stewart, Fassbender and McKellan. This is about as strong a team as you could want. The dissolute ’70s Xavier — able to walk again thanks to a drug that heals his spine but numbs his powers — must hint at the gravitas of his older self, and McAvoy is up to the job. Stewart, meanwhile, fine-tunes his persona as the cinematic avatar of humane intelligence and leadership. Fassbender makes sure we never really know where Magneto’s motives and madness lie.
Lawrence is able to maintain dignity while running around naked and painted blue. She’s a gorgeous, kick-throwing Manchurian Candidate. Dinklage adds nuance where it’s least expected. And Jackman, who has made the clawed, ageless Logan into a Hamlet for moviegoing millennials, makes a welcome return.
Their efforts here are never for naught. But the biggest villain “Days of Future Past” fights — and never really vanquishes — is our collective memory of all their yesterdays.
