Grand slam for Singer – “Days of Future Past” is a truly great film that rectifies past X-Men failures

This isn’t just a movie about the X-Men, this is a movie about a director taking back the reigns of his beloved franchise.

Andrew Jenson | Argonaut

Andrew Jenson | Argonaut

Bryan Singer (“X-Men”,”X2: X-Men United”) returned to helm in the newest installment of X-Men.

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” combines the cast of “X-Men: First Class” with the cast of the original trilogy in a truly thrilling time-travel story. Things are not going well for our heroes in the future. Large, powerful and destructive machines called Sentinels have wiped out all but a few mutants. Only a handful remains, including Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, Storm and Iceman. With little time left before their own inevitable destruction, the remaining mutants decide to send Wolverine to the past to stop the creation of the Sentinels and save the world from utter destruction.

It’s great to see the cast in their roles again, even if some of them were under-utilized. And the Sentinels made for fantastic villains. They are nearly indestructible, and quite terrifying.

I still do have qualms with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Xavier and Magneto. I never could see them growing into Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. And while Stewart and McKellen have such natural chemistry together, it felt like McAvoy and Fassbender were forced into their relationship.

Despite this, the film’s premise works well. Typically, I don’t like it when films go with the time-travel-to-the-past-to-make-things-better angle. But I can give it a pass with this film because it’s used in a way that quite literally rectifies the franchise and puts everything right. This film is essentially making up for the sins of previous X-Men films.

Here’s what I mean. Look at how the plot of the film mirrors the plight of the franchise. Since Singer left the X-Men after “X2: X-Men United,” the films following it have been largely disappointing and rightly despised by fans and critics. Filmically speaking, things have not been good for anyone since “X2.” And it’s thanks to Singer’s return to the past in this latest movie that saves the future of the franchise.

Similarly, the film has our favorite mutants — or, the ones from previous films — pitted against an enemy that will ultimately destroy them in the end. Of course, the enemy is machines who can imitate the X-Men and use their powers against them with deadly results — much like director Brett Ratner. And it takes our heroes going into the past and changing it to save the future. See where this is going?

This film is not just about the X-Men. It’s about a director reclaiming his beloved franchise. And he uses the opportunity to go into the past and thwart the “bad guys” who nearly destroyed the X-Men film legacy with their dangerous ability to imitate it.

This makes “X-Men: Days of Future Past” a great film on an entirely new level. And it is a must-see for any X-Men fan, especially if you found “The Last Stand” distasteful.

Andrew Jenson can be reached at [email protected]

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