Days of Future Past is in my Top 5 superhero films. Probably Top 2. Saw this movie on the 20th, IIRC. I honestly believe that the reason this movie is being slammed is because of how far is strays from the rest of the franchise. Which was the point. Apocalypse wasn't supposed to resemble the rest of the series. This is supposed to be campy, it's supposed to evoke a similair tone to the 90s Animated Cartoon. It's supposed to be irreverent.
That's not to say it's flawed - it is FAR from perfect. Just that I interpreted it differently then most others, and liked it much more because of that.
Probably because of the direction, to be honest. I'm a bit of a movie fan, and at multiple points in this movie, I forgot that I was watching a superhero movie. It felt cinematically directed. The best example of this is the forest that. That hit
hard. It was subtle, painful and unforgettable. Perhaps because of Fassbender's performance (masterful understand, you can witness the years of tortured past just by looking at his face), but also because of Singer's directing. Another great scene in the movie was Wolverine's cameo, which I wish wasn't spoiled for me. But it was still bonkers. Crazy. The opening scene was bombastic and enjoyable. Smaller scenes like Magneto's
X in the climax.
BUT, by far the best scene is Quicksilver's scene. People argue about it being a rehash of his Days of Future Past scene. It is what it is. And it was awesome. I liked the emotional pay-off to the movie, in particular, the ending, but also the way they tied a particular moment of the film
directly to X1's (and First Class's) opening. McVoy was marginalise, but as usual, performed greatly. His performance resembled that of Stewart in the OT, which I liked. Jennifer Lawrence's performance is being exaggerated. People are acting like she was
horrendous. She was fine. Nothing earth-shattering, but nothing remarkably awful too. Maybe it's just because I love J-Law, but I hope she returns for more X-Men films. She's a favourite of mine.
There are plot-holes in the film, but as I mentioned previously, this film is
irreverent and I personally tend to be kinder to irreverent films because they don't want to be taken as seriously. As opposed to Batman v. Superman. Asking to be taken seriously, so people will be harsher on plot-holes. The cinematography in this movie looked ugly in the trailers, but proved to be alluring in the final product. I appreciated the colour Singer used.
The new guys? IMO, Oscar Isaac's performance is being underrated. It is subtle, and in order to fully realise the extent of, and appreciate his performance, you need to look at his eyes. That's where a majority of the performance was at. Scott, Jean and Nightcrawler were some of the best parts of the film. I forgive Singer for what he did in the OT to the former too, because they were awesome here. Nightcrawler was an
MVP. Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler was admittedly cool, but the comic relief side of the character took a shaft, in favour of the self-harming, self mutilating side of the character.
Quicksilver stole every scene that he was in. It pained me to see them waste the set-up of Magneto being his father, which is potentially by biggest problem with the film, but the rest of the character was great. Larger role then DoFP, and I hope they expand his role further in the next X-Men (then again, less can be more). Every character had their moment to shine. Nearly every character
felt like individuals. Jean Grey realising her full-power, Mystique shaping up into a role model, Magneto redeeming himself (again, but I think I enjoyed it here more then ever, because of my emotional attachment), Apocalypse being fish out of water, Nightcrawler being comedic relief. Hell, Storm had an arc, which explained her reasoning of switching to the X-Men's side and betraying Apocalypse. Poor Jubilee, though. And poor Beast, and Psylocke.
My biggest problems with the film derive from the third act: which lost a lot of momentum which the film established in the first half. So, as someone that calls themselves a huge fan of Days of Future Past, I was slightly disappointed to see this film didn't reach there in quality, but as it's own thing, I loved it. It is in my Top 3 X-Men films.
I rate it a...
... I will refrain from rating it until I watch it again
