The X-Men saga has been running for 14 years now and remains
notable, in my eyes, for being the only superhero franchise to actually care
about. It’s developed a solid bedrock of characters, it actually has an inner
core and message, there’s an appropriate level of subtext, and, crucially, the films
remember to be good fun. This was exemplified in the best of the lot, 2011’s “X-Men:
First Class”, a prequel which eschewed being a cheap cash-in and carried itself
along with a highly energetic tone, prestige acting, and a genuine sense of
wonder at these awesome mutants with their powers.
What a shame, then, that X-Men Days of Future Past foregoes all
that in favour of being, well, frankly dull. Don’t get me wrong, the components
are there, but the film seems too unsure of itself, and never strikes any note
of consistency. Characters are bought back, just to be recognised, and then dropped
again. The film blinkers its vision with too much plot, too much faff and
hassle, and not enough thought.
The core story is interesting enough, and takes its inspirations
from a comic of the same name written in the 1980’s, which I have read and
enjoyed. In the present day, mutants and their sympathisers are outlawed and
guarded by giant machines called “sentinels”, which were designed in 1973 by an
anti-mutant engineer called Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). Except in 1973,
Bolivar Trask was assassinated by shape-shifting mutant Rogue (Jennifer
Laurence), which only exacerbated the anti-mutant situation and brought about
the dystopia in the present day. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Erik
Lehnsherr (Ian McKellen), better known as Professor X and Magneto, enlist the invincible
mutant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who I’m sure you’re familiar with by now, to
go back in time to 1973 and stop Trask being assassinated, thus averting the
anti-mutant movement and preventing society from falling to ruins. You still
with me? In all fairness, the film does take its time over setting up the plot,
and the film is never as confusing as it could have been, given it’s a time
travel movie. So the film does have that.
You may have spotted certain parallels with discrimination
and prejudice, and it is worth saying that the films have never been coy about
their themes, which is something I’ve always admired about the franchise. The
mutants have always been a metaphor for the oppressed, in particular gay
teenagers (the mutantism always has a tendency to manifest itself along with
the first feelings of sexuality). The first film was about an anti-mutant
senator, the second film was about a general who experimented on Wolverine, and
the third one was about a “cure” for mutantism. This one, though, doesn’t
really go to many places with its subtext, despite it being placed at the
forefront. There’s also some misguided symbolism; note the heap of bodies at
the beginning of the film, which is designed to recall the Holocaust. Magneto
was even a young Jewish boy in the time of the war. The mutants of the future
have an “M” carved into their face, a shocking image, and there are some
gruesome pictures of mutant experiments, but these points never align themselves into
something overarching, or bigger. It just bumbles along, making plot points.
The acting, too, is hampered by the film itself. The film
combines Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Michael Fassbender (in my eyes, one of
the very best actors currently working), Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Laurence, Halle
Berry, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Ellen Page and Omar Sy. That is a talented
roster, and the film does not use them. Ian McKellen, for example, maybe gets
about five lines. Michael Fassbender is wasted and limited to a special effect, and any
attempts to plumb his character are shallow and vague. Hugh Jackman, who has
been the subject of two separate films, is given some wonky lines and the
occasional inspiring monologue. And so on, and so on. There’s always the risk
with ensemble casts that you end up drowning the audience with too many
characters; that’s what happens here. The films have always tended to pride
themselves on a family unit and relationships that are resolutely not
Mannichean, that could feasibly exist in the real world. Yet this film is all
surface, no depth.
This leads me on to my biggest issue with the film; it’s
simultaneously a baggy film which could have been a bit longer, and I hopefully
envisage a director’s cut out there in which all of these aspects are given
their dues. In an age where most films are half an hour too long, it seems odd
that I can view this film sitting comfortably as a TV miniseries, or a three
hour epic. It feels too compressed.
Finally, it also doesn’t distinguish itself visually. One sequence,
which had the power to awe, sees Magneto lifting an entire baseball stadium
into the air and carrying it across Washington, and it simply comes across as
flat and dull. The film has a pervasive grey look about it which disappoints. It’s
fresh from the school of clean and polished Hollywood cinematography, and it
looks like everything else that’s been released in the last ten years. We are
truly living in the time of Nolan now, and this film proves that.
It reeks of disappointment and unfulfilled promises. A
tighter focus, perhaps, or a longer running time, may have saved this film, but
as it is it seems stuck in limbo, unsure, timid, dull. The fact that one of the
highlights of the film is borrowed from the 2006 animated kid’s comedy “Over
The Hedge” says an awful lot.
The best since X2, as well as a proper sendoff to many characters, both new and old. Nice review.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to comment! It means a lot :)
DeleteWow, I could not disagree with you more on this film which I consider one of the best movies I've seen this year, I thought it was gripping and tension filled throughout, I was literally at the edge of my seat the entire run-time, I also thought the special effects were effective as well, I really think this movie has it all: loads of action, compelling story line, and also a ton of fun sprinkled throughout (that whole scene with Quicksilver and Wolverine's antics on the plane for example), I actually consider this installment to be the best out of the series!
ReplyDeleteHello again! This is actually one of my great disappointments of the year, I've grown up with the X-Men films, and I adored First Class, but I don't know... I just wasn't feeling this one. Clearly a minority vote, given how popular it's been, but you need to be honest with yourself! Maybe I'll catch it on TV at some point and fall in love with it later :) either way, thank you for commenting on my reviews, it means a lot that you took the time to do so :D
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