DVD review: X-Men: Days of Future Past, directed by Bryan Singer
The smart move here was bringing director Bryan Singer back into the game. The American filmmaker had walked away after setting a high standard for the X-Men franchise with opener (2000) and (2003).
Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender
Bryan Singer
The smart move here was bringing director Bryan Singer back into the game. The American filmmaker had walked away after setting a high standard for the X-Men franchise with opener (2000) and (2003).
Singer is a dab hand at making the impossible seem possible and that's a good skill to have when you're dealing with matters such as time travel. The concept probably makes more sense to the layman here under the American's guidance than under anyone else who's had a crack at it in cinema history.
He doesn't try to blind the audience with science, instead just sending Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to the 1970s for reasons that are quickly explained. It's believable because we've all seen the hairy one survive whatever the world has thrown at him in previous episodes of this series and the character's own films.
Confusion avoided, we are left to enjoy a double dose of interplay between Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, and - playing the younger versions of Charles Xavier and Magneto - James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. And they all band together across the ages to ensure the world's survival in the face of a threat from a bunch of robots built to destroy the mutants.
Time travel allows both old and new members of the X-Men to join in the action and Singer seems to take delight in giving his audience snippets of every character to feature in the franchise so far - although rumour has it that Anna Paquin's efforts as Rogue were mostly left on the editing suite floor. Mostly likely they'll one day be picked up and re-edited into a future director's cut.
If you fancy furrowing your brow and getting all serious as the battles rage, there are themes of discrimination and other ills of modern society in the way the characters treat each other. Or you can play it just for fun.
: , , , sneak peek of featurettes; Gag Reel; Gallery: Trask Industries; deleted scenes; theatrical trailers.
