Review: X-Men Days of Future Past

I have always been a fan of the X-Men movie franchise, and this was by far the best of the lot. I'm not saying it just because it combines elements of the trilogy that started it all and what was intended to become a prequel of sorts to the whole thing. Rather, it emphasizes on the probable impacts of time travel (one of my favorite storytelling devices), and that the future is never set in stone if you can do anything about it.

As we're still in the phases of opening weekend, I won't want to give too much away, save perhaps this one quip that only people who've watched the film already will understand completely:

X-Men: The Last Stand never happened. This is what it should have been.

Marvel comics, by-and-by, hardly make any chronological sense with mutant superpowers. Bending reality - time and space included - only serves to their purpose that things can go in any direction possible. And I like those twists and turns as a fellow pseudo-established fiction writer myself. You take Logan who's been through each of the films either center stage or cameo and put him in a situation to alter the desolate future ahead, then you know the task won't be a walk in the park. A guy with anger issues despite being their only hope wouldn't be your best candidate after all.

But what the movie does capture is that you somehow see the richness and diversity in the characters themselves, especially now when you have younger versions of Professor Xavier and Magneto who were much more (or less) different than their older, wiser selves. The dynamics was interesting to watch, and the overall outcome, rewarding.

Though the film itself doesn't give a complete closure on everyone, it does give you the closure you felt unresolved by the end of The Last Stand. At the same time, it opens up a world of possibilities moving forward, which I think is something to look forward to.