This movie is based on one of my favorite story arcs in the X-Men comics. Hell, the TV series adapted this arc, and it was freaking awesome!
There certainly are changes that have been made, but the story is still great. In fact, I think it might have become one of my favorite movies.
I have no idea how it's supposed to tie into the end of The Wolverine, since they don't really explain why The Sentinals have managed to take over the world, or why Professor X is still alive, but considering that X3 wasn't a great film, I suppose it's a good thing that they just went ahead and made a good film. Maybe they'll explain what happened in the intervening decade or so between this film and the last, maybe they won't. Honestly, I don't care.
So, let's go over the cast. They've got the regulars from the first three movie, Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Halle Berry as Storm, Shawn Ashmore (Previously known as Jake from the Animorphs TV series) as Iceman, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, and Ian McKellen as Magneto. From First Class they've got Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique (Who looks amazing, as always), James McAvoy as Young Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
New cast members include Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, Omar Sy as Bishop, Daniel Cudmore as Colossus, Booboo Stewart as Warpath, Adan Canto as Sunspot, and Fan Bingbing as Blink.
Honestly, even being an X-Men fan, I didn't know any of the new people aside from Kitty and Colossus. When I saw Sunspot, I thought he was either Johnny Storm or Pyro. He certainly looks like The Human Torch.
Anyways, as far as great movies go, this is one hell of a film. And by the way, spoiler warning. This movie erases X-Men 3 from continuity by the end of it all.
Yes, it took them three good movies and one great movie to wipe one bad film out.
And I'm glad Fox has paid its dues for taking that awesome ending of X-Men 2 and wasting it on the plot of X-Men 3, because now they've managed to make the whole situation worthwhile.
The story is about time-travel. Pretty much everyone knows what Days of Future Past is about, but for those of you who don't know, it takes place in a dark future, with complete control over superhumans and mutants by the governments of the world. This is essentially the story that Heroes ripped off for at least its first and second seasons, if not more.
So anyways, the movie hops back and forth between the future, and the past. And finally, they solve the problem presented to them.
The strange thing is that a few things that were mentioned in the movie contradict certain events in the previous films. Magneto drops the names of a few people who died, who were alive during the events of X-Men 3. I believe that this means someone else has been messing with their timeline, but honestly, X-Men 3 wasn't too great a film anyways, so who cares.
Taken on its own, it's great. Taken as a part of the greater X-Men franchise, it's great. And taken as the movie that erases the events of one of my least-favorite movies of all time from existence, it's unmatched.
And you know something? They didn't have to pull a hard reboot, like Sony seems to be wanting to do with Spider-Man.
And it's just a shame that Jennifer Lawrence wants to leave after X-Men: Apocalypse. It would be amazing if she would stay on with the rest of the cast for a few more movies.
So, I totally recommend this movie. If you want to, you can go back and watch the rest of the series if you want, or you can just watch the first Wolverine movie, First Class, and The Wolverine, and then this movie. Honestly, I was surprised that this movie worked so well on its own, since it's been a really long time since I've seen the first three X-Men movies. I admittedly have a good memory, but the details were a little blurry.
So anyways, X-Men fan or not, check this out. It rocks.
All in all, amazing. I give it a 10.1* rating.
I'll see you next week with Transformers: Age of Extinction!
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