X-men: Days of Future Past

Time for another X-men movie.  I recently posted (here) about X-men: First Class, the 2011 origin tale (and reboot of sorts) of the X-men franchise.  The latest offering, out now in theaters and subject of today's post, is Days of Future Past.

Days of Future Past takes place in two time periods concurrently: the present, and 1973.  In the present, mutant-killing robots called Sentinels (with the ability to adapt to destroy mutants of differing powers) have nearly wiped out mutant-kind and turned on some humans.  In a last-gasp effort to destroy these robots, the mutants send Wolverine's consciousness back in time* to 1973, when the assassination of Boliver Trask (the scientist responsible for creating the Sentinel schematic) by a mutant enraged the public and hastened development of the very robots responsible for destruction in the present (in fact, they captured the assassin and used that specific mutant's abilities to make the sentinels unstoppable).  Wolverine's mission is simple: gather the mutants of 1973 (the cast of First Class) and prevent the one from assassinating Trask.  If they can do so, they may get public feeling on their side as well as prevent the mutant from falling into enemy hands. The former would cancel the Sentinel program before it starts; the latter would prevent them from becoming indestructible.  He has to be quick about it- in the present, the Sentinels are closing in on the last remaining group of mutants (the cast from the first three X-men movies).  Can they succeed in time?  I dare not spoil it for you!

Most time-travel movies are complicated, and this one is no different.  They deal with the complexities well, however, and this is an enjoyable film.  There's action, suspense, and humor, not to mention tons of first-rate actors.  The effects are better this time around, too (compared to First Class).  They tie together many previous X-men movies- in fact, to get maximum enjoyment out of this, you have to be familiar with 3-4 movies: X-men, X2, The Last Stand, and First Class.  So if you haven't seen them, watch them now.  Or before you go see this- which you should.

Rating: A-

*the mutant Kitty Pryde's ability is to send one specific person's consciousness back in time to his/her younger self.  She has to maintain a link with that person for them to remain in the past; that's why they couldn't all go.