REVIEW: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" Gives "Avengers" a Run for Its Money

[iceman]

Saw the movie last night. It was very, very good, although a lot more talk than action (except for the future clips, and those were just of the X-men getting their asses kicked). It was no Avengers, though; not even close. The best part of the movie was the reboot to the xmen movie universe, where everything is new again and the only two movies that actually "happened" were First Class and DoFP. Bring on young Scott and Jean in AoA!!!

[Sundowhn]

Have you watched Avengers recently? That movie is still the best superhero movie. Ever.

I'd disagree. I found it too action-y and BIG BIG BIG oriented without enough solid character moments or a compelling story.

huh, I wanted to see it largely because it had no cyclops.

Basically. The XM franchise has been a Cyke love fest for a decade.

I haven't seen this yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I hope it's up there with X2.

[Cyke]

Add to that Singer's obsession with making Wolverine the lead roll of what are supposed to be team movies

After 5 Wolverine-centric movies, I had the exact same fears (hell, my user name should be a clue to that). But although his role is crucial here, it's actually not central -- Young Charles, Erik, and Mystique are the focus this time around, which was a pleasant surprise. Logan's role is merely to link the two eras -- a purely functional role -- and to continually get his butt kicked by almost everyone, which is a refreshing change of pace from 5 movies of him demolishing everyone. Indeed, even though he gets star billing, he gets incapacitated out of the fight pretty early in the climax, and the conflict is resolved without him in action.

Eliminating the past. So now the only movies that exist in the x-men cinamatic universe are First Class and DOFP. Clean slate, freedom to do whatever you want with X-men movies going forward.

Agreed on the clean slate, but I think at least part of the first film still exists in some way, since we know Logan and Rogue are at the school (the major plot of the first movie). As well, one could argue that those movies still happened, it's just that they happened to Logan; in a sense, he's like the Psycho-Pirate of Post-Crisis DC.

[ekrolo2]

I think this is the best team comic book movie by far, Avengers was really great in the first couple of viewings but after that the jokes lost their luster and once the humor was gone, nothing was left to keep me from noticing all the glaring issues with it (a problem Iron Man 3 had to even more severe degree). But this movie had it all, fantastic action, genuinely heartfelt moments, correcting the mistakes of the past and some very hilarious jokes but didn't use the humor as a crutch.

It easily could've been a HUGE disaster of epic proportion but its easily one of my top 5 CBMs of all time.

[LeonardEugenius]

Days of Future Past > Any Marvel Studios movie EVER

You know what I remember about the Winter Soldier? Punching
The Avengers? Punching+awful jokes
There's substance in Days of Future Past. And whoever says there's no action or mutant fighting, clearly wasn't paying attention.

[TOTALITY]

Avengers was great, and probably the epitome of what a comic book movie can be. But this was just a better movie period. At least IMO.

Interesting, I was thinking sort of the opposite- DOFP is largely successful on terms within the X-Men franchise. I don't mean it's the epitome of what an X-Men movie can be, but with regards to this franchise, it definitely draws upon even the non-Singer films and uses their various quirks, tropes and (more or less) plot points to great effect, with the added result of retroactively crystallizing the previous films into a more coherent whole. And I don't mean the continuity stuff, I mean as movies.

The only problem I guess is that a lot of the movie was dedicated to moving chess pieces around and a lot of those chess pieces may as well have been Chitauri soldiers or mind controlled Hawkeyes.

So yes, both movies have their share of characters who at times are barely characters, but I find it more forgivable in Avengers since nearly every inch of film is executed with wit and style and character, and when the character isn't present at least they're shooting an arrow into a helicarrier or something. And it's a little less forgivable when one of the walking plot points is played by Peter Dinklage, who does a great job with what he's given, but unfortunately what he's given is lots of screen time with no arc and hardly any interaction with other actual characters. Just a lot of exposition, which I feel like Whedon would have delivered more efficiently in half the time via characters who are actually getting to interact and act like characters in the process. Mystique is a bit more of a character here, but not as much as she could have been, and a lot of the movie hinges on her simply being a stubborn idiot for the sake of the plot.

Avengers was just executed so much more efficiently- I actually found myself thinking while watching DOFP about how many lines were wasted. Like, maybe a conversation ended with something utilitarian instead of something that offers insight into the characters or segues into the next scene. Also, the X-Men who get basically glorified cameos in DOFP, especially the future scenes, there's not really an excuse for not using them better. I mean, a lot of them were still awesome, but as long as they had lines and actions in the screenplay, which they did, their relatively brief screen time isn't really an excuse for not saying more with the real estate they were allotted. I'm not saying everyone's one line should have been an awesome one liner, but you know a Whedon movie would have had each of these characters totally justifying their specific inclusion with whatever screen time they got. I say that confidently because it's not like it would even take some kind of genius level talent that I'm ascribing to anyone, all it would take is someone asking "ok, how can this scene or this line of dialog be more about the characters?" They did a great job in DOFP, just stopped frustratingly short too often.

[Dman_3145]

Avengers what, That was the best superhero movie evaar. AMAZING

[The Kid]

This is definitely one of the best comic book movies I've ever seen. Might have passed Cap:TWS on my personal list.

[greenish lantern]

Far better than Avengers. Insanely entertaining, original and clever use of action, several main characters (mystique is just... Wow. So glad to see my favorite mutant doing so many kick ass things). Loved every minute of it.

[greenish lantern]

In my opinion this rival TDK, but, it's also incredibly fun. I don't know, I'm a huge Batman/DC fan (almost don't read any marvel comics), so I'm really not biased when I say that this was seriously on the same level (or even better) than TDK. Spectacular.

[ScottSummers]

F*** Avengers. This had a plot, subtext, character development and it worked really well as a commentary on racism. Seriously awesome movie. Give Avengers a run for it's money? No, it gave The Dark Knight a run for it's money. It'll be interesting to see where it lands after a few viewings, but it felt like the Godfather of comic based movies (maybe unless you include A History of Violence). The characters were just so deep and complicated and conflicted. The future was bleak and grim, and every scene was just so powerful, and it had great wit.

It just had every thing. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

And it felt like a comic.

[HsssH]

Mystique is a bit more of a character here, but not as much as she could have been, and a lot of the movie hinges on her simply being a stubborn idiot for the sake of the plot.

I think I too might be stubborn if most of my friends were killed in horrific experiments.

[ScottSummers]

I think I too might be stubborn if most of my friends were killed in horrific experiments.

I'm not sure the term "stubborn idiot" applies when all her friends were killed, she subjected herself to looking at their dismembered corpses and the best argument against her killing the guy responsible is "well this weird sketchy guy from the future is telling us you shouldn't do that". If anything you could say her turn at the end was the least realistic part about it (although technically she remains a villain of sorts).

[AcesX1X]

F*** Avengers. This had a plot, subtext, character development and it worked really well as a commentary on racism. Seriously awesome movie. Give Avengers a run for it's money? No, it gave The Dark Knight a run for it's money. It'll be interesting to see where it lands after a few viewings, but it felt like the Godfather of comic based movies (maybe unless you include A History of Violence). The characters were just so deep and complicated and conflicted. The future was bleak and grim, and every scene was just so powerful, and it had great wit.

It just had every thing. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

And it felt like a comic.

preach it my mutant brother.

[Sacred Knight]

I spoiled myself since currently I have no clue when I'd get to the theater. Sounds pretty damn good, and really a great way to move forward with a "reboot" so to speak without actually rebooting at all.