Days of Future Past is the first film of the franchise to combine the cast from the original trilogy and those from First Class, and actually does the seemingly difficult job in a simple and effective way.
Days of Future Past acts as a sequel to both 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011's X-Men: First Class. The original cast - Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine) Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier), Ian McKellen (Magneto) and Halle Berry (Storm) - act as the supporting cast to the First Class cast of James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Raven/Mystique) and Nicholas Hoult (Beast), with Jackman's Wolverine ushering the newer cast through their side of the story.
The story revolves around a future in which Trask Industries have developed a series of weapons (Sentinels) that can absorb the power of and defeat mutants, and have wiped out almost all mutants apart from a select few of our favourites. The original Xavier (Stewart) and Magneto (McKellen) work together on a plan to have Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) send Wolverine back in time to alter history, and prevent Bolivar Trask (the outstanding Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame) develop the first Sentinels. His mission is to bring the younger Xavier (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) together when their relationship was at their worst.
I cannot fault this film at all.
Bryan Singer returns to X-Men's director's chair after leading X-Men, X2 and X-Men: First Class, and again proves why he is the man who should head up all X-Men films. He knows how to tell the stories in a way the layman or non-comic book reader can follow, similar as to how J.J. Abrams' effort on Star Trek and Jon Favreau's Iron Man. And with Days of Future Past, proves he can get the best out of this franchise.
The Sentinels are some seriously awesome machines, and the action sequences of which they're involved are seamless, inventive and downright amazing. The main driver of this film is the First Class cast, and the powerful Fassbender and McAvoy deliver. They steal every scene they are in, and you can seriously believe the McAvoy's anguish as he fights the darkest of battles within himself. Jackman is in the purple patch of his career, delivering top-notch performance after performance. His turn as Wolverine in Days of Future Past is no different, in fact I'm glad there isn't a "younger" Wolverine as I find it impossible to imagine anybody else in the role.
Days of Future Past is seriously the best entry in the X-Men franchise, but you don't have to have seen the others to follow the story. The only thing you may miss is a few character references (William Stryker for one, whose character appears in First Class and X-Men Origins: Wolverine), but a tiny bit of research after the film can fill in the gaps. The post-credits sequence has me even more excited for X-Men: Apocalypse, which is due to hit screens in 2016 - and with Singer in the director's chair again.
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