X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Overall: B+
Cast: A+
Plot: B
Special Effects/Stunts: B+
Similarity to Comic: C
Director: Bryan Singer
Comic Company: Marvel
Stars: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackmon 
Rating: PG-13
See the IMDB page
See the Rotten Tomatoes page

After the major success of X-Men: First Class, the franchise needed another strong film to solidify continued interest and excitement for future movies.  X-Men: Days of Future Past is exactly the kind of movie they needed.  Not only was it a solid movie utilizing the new X-Men cast, but it also integrated the old cast members and successfully linked the past movies to the modern ones.

The Good: I can't say enough about about the cast of this film.  Every actor and actress was consistent in their performance and character.  I thought the film would be very crowded with the added addition of the old cast, but it all flowed very well.  Having the old cast developed definitely helped as the viewers had already watched the previous movies to get to know them, so no time was wasted on their development in this movie.

The biggest problem I've ever had with the X-Men movies is that the old ones didn't sync up with the new ones.  After two or three reboot attempts it makes sense that they wouldn't, except each reboot uses the same actors as the original films, making it confusing for the viewers.  This movie finally addresses that issue and does a fantastic job tying up loose ends and finally linking all the films together.  I am glad to see that the producers and writers are finally all on the same page.

The Bad: The plot, although very well done, was a bit hard to follow.  I enjoyed the film for many reasons, but I have to admit that I didn't quite understand the plot until after the second or third time I saw the movie.  There was simply too much going on to focus on the plot line, which is both a good and a bad thing.

The other thing to mention with this movie is that it doesn't really follow the comic books.  As good of a job as the movie did linking the old movie to the new, it was very obvious that the movies entire plot line was only there to serve that purpose.  There was not much new character development, no new villains besides the sentinels, and the hero's actually lost every major fight scene in the movie.  These are all things that haven't really been done in superhero movies, and although they were done relatively well it was still a very unorthodox way to make a superhero movie.

The Interesting: I'm not sure how I feel about Professor Xavier being paralyzed in the last movie and then walking in this one.  It almost felt like the writers had to take an unexpected step back in order to accommodate the new plot line and direction of the films.  I feel the same way about the school being shut down "as soon as the Vietnam war started", it really felt like the last movie was setting up another plot line, then this movie tore that idea to shreds and decided to go with the "let's link the old movies with the new ones" idea.  Not that I disagree with that decision, but it could have been done smoother.

Many of the devices and machines that were shown in the 1973 scenes of the film were not actually available or in use in 1973.  This includes the use of a taser, as well as many of the cars, advertisements, and music played.  You'd think in a multi-million dollar Hollywood movie they could afford to hire somebody to check for these kinds of continuity errors.

Conclusion: The movie did a great job of blending the old and the new and mixing in some pretty good effects and fight scenes.  All in all it's another interesting and thought provoking X-Men classic.