X-Men :Days of Future Past

For a second, I want you to think about just how much damage Brett Ratner did to the X-Men franchise. He almost single handedly destroyed it forever; so much so that it took them two Wolverine movies and now two X-Men reboots to overcome his hack job! It only took Batman one attempt to overcome Joel Schumaker's mess of a movie in Batman and Robin; and the same goes for the Spiderman franchise, although they look like they are headed back down the wrong path again themselves. My buddy and I came to the conclusion that the studio didn't really know which direction to go in with the X-Men movies after the second one, so they purposely brought in Ratner to destroy it; this way they would have an excuse to reboot it. This is similar to what Heath Ledger did when he wasn't getting the roles that he wanted. Much to their chagrin, he more than exceeded their expectations!

X-Men: First Class set the stage by taking us all the way back to the beginning of  Professor X and Magneto's friendship which eventually turned sour and this second installment continues the effort to erase any memory of Ratner's Last Stand. We start off in the future with a scene that is a straight rip from the opening of The Terminator. You see a dark and war torn land that has been destroyed by blood thirsty Sentinels, whose sole purpose is to not only hunt down and destroy mutants but also any humans that may carry the mutant gene to pass down to future generations. The Sentinels break into the hiding place of the few remaining mutants which include Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), and it is here that you see their ability to adapt to the mutants' powers and to use them against them. But thankfully Kitty has the ability to take them back in time to a few minutes before they actually arrive so that they can leave the area and avoid any confrontation. Professor X and Magneto get the idea to use this power to send Wolverine back to the past so that he can try and stop the development of the Sentinels in the first place, in hopes to avoid a war altogether.

In order for him to do so, he must find both Charles and Erik and convince them to work together again so they can find Raven/Mystique and stop her from assassinating Dr. Bolivar Trask. This is important because the assassination acted as the catalyst for the Sentinel program once they were able to capture Mystique for her crime. This gave them access to her DNA which was the key to what made them so deadly!

What I liked so much about First Class was the raw emotion that both Fassbender and McAvoy brought to the story. Both are unbelievably talented actors and the intensity that Fassbender brought to Erik's character instantly made you get on board with whatever his cause was; which made Raven leaving Charles for him so believable. Well his intensity and determination were on full display again here as you can see his passion and love for his fellow mutants boiling over to the point that he would destroy anyone or anything that got in his way. There is an unforgettable scene where he destroys RFK Stadium to help him in his effort. It is unlike anything I can remember seeing in a film before and seeing as how I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan I loved it when that awful stadium was left in ruins!

Seeing a dejected and vulnerable Charles was cool too because all we've ever known of Professor X is the always calm and level headed Patrick Stewart. For the first time ever, I almost put X on the same level of coolness as Magneto. Almost. I can also watch Jennifer Lawrence in a painted body suit all day long; its almost as if she was born to play this role.

Bryan Singer does an excellent job of balancing both the complexity of the story and the CGI heavy action scenes. Sometimes movies can get too bogged down in trying to explain the science behind time travel and it simply leaves you bored and confused by all of the plot holes that appear as a result of it. Instead he gives you a quick 5 minute breakdown of it and spends the rest of the time showcasing the powers of the X-Men. In fact, one of the movie's highlights is definitely when he slows down the action and lets you see what life is like for the young Peter/Quicksilver as he takes out a room full of soldiers in the Pentagon.

I don't want to ramble too long about the awesomeness of this movie but just know that the action scenes are top notch, the dialogue and the story are actually pretty decent, and the acting for the most part is stellar. I rate this movie as TIGHT and suggest you pop in before Singer and the rest of Hollywood is in jail due to the underage boys controversy; leaving Ratner and McG to rule Hollywood forever!

*note* the only reason why McG wasn't involved is because he's too scared to fly to Hawaii