X-Men: Days of Future Past is the X-Men movie I keep coming back to. On paper, it should be a mess: two casts, two timelines, time travel, and a mountain of characters. Somehow, it all clicks.
In a bleak future, giant robots called Sentinels are hunting mutants to extinction. The last survivors send Wolverine’s mind back to 1973 to stop the event that started it all. To succeed, he needs young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr on the same side. The catch? They can barely share a room.
That broken friendship is the film’s real heart. James McAvoy plays Charles at rock bottom. He’s drinking, furious, and hooked on a serum that lets him walk but kills his powers, because he can’t stand hearing everyone’s pain. Michael Fassbender is magnetic as ever, and every look between them carries years of history. Hugh Jackman is great too. For once, Wolverine gets to be the calm, patient one, and it’s a treat.
Then there’s Quicksilver. The Pentagon kitchen scene, frozen in slow motion to Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle,” is one of the best moments in any superhero movie. This is a story about people running out of time, and for one perfect stretch, time stops. My whole theater was grinning.
Bryan Singer keeps it moving. The bright ’70s and the gray, hopeless future feel like two different worlds, so you never get lost jumping between them.
Is it perfect? No. The future team barely gets a line, and Storm is basically a cameo. I didn’t care one bit.
If you watch one X-Men movie, make it this one. That ending gets me every single time.
See X-Men: Days of Future Past on TMDB
