Days of Future Past

With X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer essentially plays a cinematic game of Jenga: carefully pulling out characters from one reality and stacking them precariously upon another. When it works, it’s a thrilling bit of gamesmanship. But it does leave an awful lot of holes!

One supposed that the extra scenes included in the new Rogue Cut, which re-inserts a subplot involving Anna Paquin’s character, would fill some of the gaps and makes the entire structure a bit more stable. It doesn’t. But it does add some worthwhile moments that strengthen the relationships between the film’s characters, which, after all, is at the core of what the X-Men films are all about.

Despite all the narrative razzle-dazzle, DOFP has a relatively clear-cut agenda for viewers to follow: Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back in time to prevent a future apocalypse in which all mutants are hunted by shape-shifting machines called Sentinels. In 1973, the man most directly responsible for the genocide, Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), is targeted by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). But her assassination attempt only incites the government to give the Sentinel project a green light. So the plan is essentially this: save the man who inventions will destroy the world.

Singer’s film manages to incorporate both the young and old cast members with surprising dexterity while introducing a gaggle of new mutants who, while never fully developed, light up the screen like expensive eye candy. The love-hate relationship between Charles (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender) continues while Wolverine serves as a sort of mutant elder statesman, mentoring the man who would be his own mentor 50 years later. Unlike many of the films in the current Marvel Universe, action has always taken a backseat to drama in the X-Men films…and the franchise has been all the better for it.

It’s not all wine and roses, though. The future segments of the film are a confusing rush of action and exposition, giving short shrift to almost every character involved, including the new Rogue subplot which still an unnecessary distraction. Poor Peter Dinklage is tasked with doing nothing more than making speeches in one oval office after another. And every conversation is weighed down with enough angst to qualify as a Mexican soap opera.

Yet DOFP is nimble when it has to be, the highlight being the prison breakout led by Quicksilver (Evan Peters) which features the best use of the “bullet-time” effect since the original Matrix movie. Singer balances the effects with some more tangible visual trickery – including a body-swapping airport scene where Charles carries on a conversation from several different perspectives at once – that shows the director can still get inspired about all this comic book stuff when he wants to.

The Rogue Cut’s most obvious addition is a full-on mutant makeout session between real-life (ex) lovers Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult. Even in the minutes don’t add up to much, the new release adds over 90-minutes of new extras and includes the theatrical cut as well. Think of it as the next step in the evolution of Blu-ray.