X-Men: Days of Future Past (Singer, 2014)

The X-Men are probably my favorite superhero team, and contain arguably my favorite Marvel characters. Their powers are exciting, them embers and villains are each fleshed out nicely, and the stories are usually much more interesting than other comics.

However, after re-watching the majority of the X-Men films leading up to this summer's Days of Future Past, one thing that really stuck out to me was the amazing allegories the film's make to oppression and accepting who you are- no matter how different from society you remain. Whether you read them as a gay parable, or simply a commentary on racism, the mutants offer something fresh and thought-provoking to the superhero genre. X-Men (2000) and X2: X-Men United (2003) were  each staggeringly well made superhero movies, and much of that can be attributed to both the stellar ensemble cast and sharp direction by Bryan Singer. Nevertheless, as the franchise continued and Singer distanced himself further and further from the franchise, much of that commentary was left to the wayside in favor of bigger spectacle and more unnecessary cameos. With Days of Future Past, however, Singer returns the franchise to invigorating form- all while adding a level of menace the likes of which superhero films have never seen. 

Bryan Singer, with X-Men: Days of Future Past, combines the best elements of the 2000's X-Men Trilogy with 2011's X-Men: First Class to create a smart epic based on a popular X-Men storyline. Using the amazing cast of both portions of the franchise, the director crafts an intricate tale that's probably the darkest superhero film since 2008's The Dark Knight. Days of Future Past is more than just a superhero movie- it's a dire warning to all who hate and fear those who aren't like them. 

It's impossible to give a plot synopsis of the film without clarifying something first: the movie jumps right into the middle of the action, and throughout the 131 minutes of screen time, never more than hints at the road to ruin. I strongly recommend reading through 20th Century Fox's 25 Moments That Shaped Mutant History before seeing the film, as it will allow the future portions to make more sense.  It doesn't spoil anything about the movie, and will only heighten the experience. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past is split into two settings: a dystopian future with the cast of the original X-Men movies, and a series of events in the past starring the cast of X-Men: First Class. The film begins in the future, where humanity is on the verge of extinction thanks to the arrival of the Sentinels- adaptive machines that originally hunted mutants. Now, all of mankind is in danger, as the Sentinels now attack those associated with the mutants in any fashion. Realizing the high probability of failure, once-enemies Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) are working together to save as many mutants as they can. With extinction awaiting them around every corner, the two come up with a plan to send the rapid-healing Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to prevent an event that leads to the devastating war. Using Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page)'s phasing ability, Wolverine has only a short window to change the timeline before the Sentinels find where the remaining X-Men are hiding. 

Most of the movie takes place during the 1970's, where Wolverine's consciousness is projected into his younger body. He has to convince the depressed Professor X (James McAvoy) and the protective Beast (Nicholas Hoult) to work with their enemy, Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to find Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) before she causes the events that lead to global war. Meanwhile, technological innovator and mutant-hater Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) tries to convince the US government to sponsor his Sentinel program, warning them of the potential danger of mutants. It's a race against time itself in the effort to save all of humanity- the biggest challenge the X-Men have ever faced. 

Now, a lot of the complaints about X-Men: The Last Stand were the overabundance of mutant characters. There was way too many to keep track of, so audiences had little emotional connection to any of them (while we're on the subject, Brett Ratner, why would you give Psylocke a total of two lines and none of her powers?!?). X-Men: Days of Future Past, on the other hand, despite having no less than 24 important characters in the movie, manages to balance their developments well, and works in correlation with the other X-Men movies to create a great ensemble gallery of characters.  

Jackman, Stewart, McKellen, McAvoy, Fassbender, Hoult, Dinklage, Page, and of course Lawrence are all fantastic in the final film, with some Oscar-caliber acting coming from these leading characters. In supporting roles, Shawn Ashmore, Daniel Cudmore, and Halle Berry reprise their roles as Iceman, Colossus, and Storm, respectively, and each seems like they never skipped a beat, despite last doing these roles over seven years ago. There's some great cameos from the previous movies, including Toad and Havok, and some fun new characters like teleport-creating Blink (Bingbing Fan) and energy-absorbing Bishop (Omar Sy). 

However, the biggest new character shout-out has to be Evan Peter's Quicksilver, the lightning-fast mutant from the '70's who helps to break Magneto out of his prison. He hams up the dialogue and action with pitch-perfect comedic effect; with so little screen time, we barely get to know him, but what a rush his character is in the picture. One scene in particular has had critics raving- probably because it is a gut-wrenchingly hilarious sequence that breaks the incredibly dark story up a bit. 

The visual effects alone make Days of Future Past worth seeing. Yes, we get some typically cool effects when the mutants use their power, and both actors playing Magneto do a great job at using the scenery around them. Mystique's makeup looks as real as ever, and there's some neat costuming and production design for the 1970's set pieces (though I thought First Class did a better job at capturing the 1960's). Plus, the Blink teleports look pretty sweet. But the biggest selling point for me were the Sentinels- they look astonishing, and interact with the actors in realistic and fascinating ways. We know they're CGI, but they're also so life-like that we forget they're not actually there. They're horrifying and highly-effective antagonists. 

Some of the time-travel stuff was far-fetched, and I take a bit of a problem with the fact that the future fight scenes, as cool as they are, would not happen once Wolverine goes into the past and changes things in even the slightest ways; him simply being in the past is enough to change history forever, no matter how successful he is in his mission. That being said, the editing and camerawork are done very carefully, so that there is a clear correlation between what is going on in either timeline.   This was aided greatly by John Ottman's beautiful score, which also hints at X2's powerful title song. 

In addition, there is some glaring continuity errors in the future segments. How did Wolverine get his adamantium claws back after losing them in The Wolverine? How did Professor X come back to life? And what about the "cure" they used on Magneto? Did it just not work on him, or was it ineffective in everyone? The First Class continuity is spot-on, but why couldn't Bryan Singer get his own work in the continuity correct? In the end, it really doesn't make that big of a difference in the grand scheme of things- Days of Future Past is still a pretty slick work of cinema, but as a die-hard X-Men fan, I would have appreciated some more answers than what the writers were giving me. 

If you go in expecting a sequel to First Class rather than an X-Men Trilogy follow-up, you won't be disappointed- the future segments are only used as a grim aid to the direness of the past's story. It's a ton of fun to see actors like Stewart, Berry, Ashmore, and McKellen in their original roles, but ultimately this is a story about the past. There's nothing wrong with that- the movie is still incredible- but don't go in expecting to see a whole of lot of the original cast. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a haunting superhero spectacle, one with several incredible action sequences and lots of well-developed characters. This is storytelling at its highest form, and Singer creates a parable for all who hate themselves because of what society says is "normal". He warns all who speak against those who are different that if we continue to fear one another, humanity will crumble under its own prejudices. It's a dark fantasy, filled with great filmmaking, but also with equally great metaphors and social lessons. The film asks if you want to be like one of the X-Men, and fight to defend all people, whether they are mutant or not; or, do you want to be like Bolivar Trask, and hate those who are different so much that you seek only to eradicate them from existence?

Personally, I'd like to side with the X-Men, and hope all who see this wonderful film agree. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Webb, 2014)

Who would have thought the reboot would be better than the original?

I was a fan of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy in the early 2000s, and it definitely had its cultural advantages: it proved that superhero films could be taken seriously, and allowed the Marvel franchise to flourish into the major blockbuster presence it is today. Without Raimi, who knows if Marvel could have made Iron Man financially feasibly. 

But have you tried to watch those films recently? Since Marvel has taken over the planet with grin-worthy action pictures, the original Spider-Man trilogy has not aged well. In fact, they're so slow that they're barely watchable: when you think about it, the casting is kind of awful, the action is second-rate, and the stories are bogged down by nonsensical excuses to throw in cameos and obvious discoveries. 

And in all its heavy themes, people often overlook a simple fact with Raimi's movies: Spider-Man is not the hero to be taken seriously. Sure, Peter Parker has as many social troubles as Bruce Wayne, but unlike the Batman, Spider-Man takes his superhero gig in a lot more stride. He jokes as he beats bad guys, and always manages to outsmart his rather cool rogues gallery of villains. Plus, no other superhero can talk on his phone while continuing to pound evildoers quite like Spider-Man. 

That's part of the reason I really enjoyed 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, because it was really a better introduction to the web-slinger than the other three films. This movie had a much more believable (age, intelligence, and awkwardness-wise) Peter Parker, and Andrew Garfield's portrayal of the hero just made more sense. I found myself much more inclined to sympathize with his character, and his emotional struggles were far more relatable, and, as far as I was concerned, far more interesting. Combine this with an awesome love interest and cool villain, and you get a movie that's fun, lighthearted, and overall more entertaining than the first set of pictures. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 lives up to the positive promise of The Amazing Spider-Man, and ups the game in almost every way. With a shockingly incredible cast and the visual splendor of the best superhero movies, it serves as a solid start to the summer blockbuster season, proving that Spider-Man doesn't need darkness and angst to become critically successful. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 chronicles the post-high school graduation days of Peter Parker and girlfriend Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone, who once again provides a bubbly and charming love interest. (To those of you confused and/or complaining about the lack of Mary Jane Watson, Stacy was Parker's original love interest. It took years for the redhead to come along.) Garfield and Stone have believable chemistry, and they bounce lines off each other with ease and hilarity. However, their love story has a much more constrained path in this picture: after promising her dead father he would keep her safe and away from Spider-Man, Parker faces a moral crisis of how he should proceed. Meanwhile, he struggles to discover the truth behind his parent's disappearance, and soon realizes that his Aunt May (Sally Field, wonderful as always) knows more than she's letting him believe. 

While The Amazing Spider-Man had Spidey facing off against his former mentor Lizard, this sequel has a more popular main antagonist in terms of audience familiarity and comic fandom- Electro, played with live-wire intensity by Jamie Foxx. An obsessed fan of Spider-Man, Foxx's Max Dillion becomes the victim of an experiment by Oscorp, the corrupt corporation led by the Osborne family.  Foxx chews the scenery around him, and makes his oftentimes corny puns not so cheesy by truly embodying a lonely man who just wants to make the world to see him. Electro is probably one of the more sympathetic villains in recent comic book history, because don't we all want a superhero to be our best friend? 

Also introduced in the film is Harry Osborn, Parker's childhood best friend who returns to New York City to help run Oscorp. Dane DeHaan is actually really good in this role, and takes his predecessor James Franco's work one step farther by making Harry incredibly creepy. Much like Electro, Osborn is a relatable character who merely longs for someone not to abandon him for once in his life. He has enormous pressures- and all he wants is someone he can truly trust. 

Now, this may seem like quite a lot going on, with an overabundance of characters and plot lines, but Marc Webb manages to carefully interweave each portion of the story into a cohesive and easy-to-follow web (pun intended). A lot of critics seem to point to this as a complaint, but I would argue just the opposite: Webb gives each character an interesting story and plenty of room to develop. The Spider-Man universe is rich with strong characters, so it was nice to see a director really take the time to introduce and give a wide assortment of characters their day. The only person that's really shafted in the picture is Paul Giamatti's Rhino, who makes more of a cameo appearance in two key scenes at the beginning and end. But even he is fun to watch, despite the fact that he receives so little screen time in this film.

Unlike the original trilogy, which favored an uninteresting and unromantic love story over super-villains and action sequences, The Amazing Spider-Man movies balance out the romance with the fights. Frankly, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst had zero chemistry, and their story was more whiny than anything else. However, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's story is not only fun to watch, but also serves as a nice break from the multitude of action sequences- they keep audiences entertained, but don't detract from the flow of the movie. Everything is related, and all the characters need each other to develop- there's no more of the slow, meandering dribble of the Raimi pictures. 

In addition, The Amazing Spider-Man 2's looks are awe-inspiring, with the IMAX 3-D version showcasing the hero's web-slinging through New York City. It puts a smile on your face just to see the protagonist swing through the city in death-defying stunts, and the advanced CGI makes it look believable and cool. If that was not enough, the Electro effects add a factor of menace to the battle sequences. Jamie Foxx looks pretty terrifying in full makeup, and its hard not to want to dodge the electric bolts that he hurls at Spider-Man. There's about one bullet-time effect too many, but after seeing the movie a second time, it actually does add gravitas to some of the later portions of the film. We get used to seeing them, so much so that seeing them towards the end helps us to focus on the plot instead of the effect. 

Fans of the comic will be pleased with the numerous references in the picture to future story-lines, characters, and cameo appearances. Audiences will gasp when they name-drop certain people, and there's enough going on both in front of and behind the camera for several more Spider-Man pictures. Friendly, spoiler-free hint: Sony Pictures has already announced a Sinister Six film, and the whole lineup is referenced individually at least once in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Can you find them all? (While there's no J. Jonah Jameson just yet, he is hilariously referenced twice. Here's hoping they cast J.K. Simmons from the original trilogy, as he represents one of the sole good qualities about those films.) 

There's a lot about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 that critics have complained about, but as far as entertaining superhero films go, I find their arguments mostly invalid. This is an amazing way to start the summer season, as it represents a faithful comic-book adaptation that takes a handful of really awesome characters and gives them ample time on the silver screen. The movie is well-cast in terms of great performances and similar looks to their inspirations, and we can sympathize on a deep emotional level with all characters, even the villains. 

If you want an angsty, non-entertaining superhero franchise that wastes its characters and stories, than stick to the Sam Raimi films. However, if you're like me, and want your superhero films to be fun, escapist adventures that put a smile on your face, then head to the movie theaters and see The Amazing Spider-Man 2. You won't regret it. 

(Looking for the stars?? Well, from this point forward, I will no longer be giving my film reviews a star ranking. I've heard a lot of complaints about the inconsistencies of the ratings, and find myself convinced by their arguments. As of right now, my best option is to not include a definitive value to my reviews, and have my writing stand on its own to give readers a sense of how I felt about a particular film. I'm open to comments and suggestions, and look forward to hearing what you think!)