Stars Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Josh Helman, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Fan Bing Bing, Daniel Cudmore with Halle Berry, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart Directed by Bryan Singer And welcome back to the director’s chair, Bryan Singer! Along with the overt references to minority repression, flashbacks of WWII prisons et al. Well, to be fair, there’s not really a lot of it, but it’s still there. Singer even brought back the Cerebro door opening bit that kicks off the story proper. There is also a different ‘flavour’ to the proceedings that does mark the departure of X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn, although some of Vaughn’s influences do remain. Probably thanks to his and Jane Goldman’s contributions to the script. I just needed to get over the somewhat single-mindedness motivations of certain characters. The movie is based on one of the more beloved stories in the X-Men comics lore, with some obvious deviations that will not be discussed here. The core idea is a time travel story, starting with a dark and bleak future, and the attempt to prevent a certain event in the past from happening. A simple reasoning leads to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) being the obvious choice to be the one sent back in time. (See secondary spoiler-laden article on the time travel dynamics). In effect, this is very much a sequel to X-Men: First Class, even if it also features cast and characters from the original trilogy that kicked off in 2000. So, yeah, there are a lot of characters, old and new running about here, and despite that, the handful that do matter deliver solid performances. The old guard is lead by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen along with a handful of familiar faces. Most don’t have many lines and their appearances are regulated to action beats, emphasising the brutality of the future they now occupy. How they got there is of some debate, particularly how far into the future they exist in the first place - especially given the coda in The Wolverine. Fans of the original X-Men may be disappointed with the lack of participation these characters have here. The majority of the movie is carried by the current cast, led by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, who continue their chemistry from the previous entry. McAvoy’s Charles is in a very different place here giving the actor the opportunity to play the same character but from a different perspective. Fassbender’s Erik has lost some of the swagger he carried earlier, but there is an added weariness of the (ten?) years being in prison. Jennifer Lawrence continues to show why she’s the hottest young star around while Evan Peters’ brash Peter steals every scene he’s in - more thanks to some choice story and filming decisions involving his character. There is a complexity to the structure of the story that might have a casual movie viewer scratching his head although the action beats do drive the pacing more that the necessary heavy exposition. Then there’s the character motivations, that single-mindedness I mentioned earlier. It’s not just Logan’s desperate mission from the future, but that of Mystique. having the mindset of a fanatical revolutionary on a mission; or that of Boliver Trask (Peter Dinklage) whose own motivations aren’t really explained. In spite of all that, Singer delivers a fairly tight and driven movie with high stakes, even if we do have a predictable outcome. Even with that, there are a few surprises thrown into that ending; one that might split a few fans on this whole movie. For the comic book fans, this is nothing we haven’t seen or read before, but to do it in a movie series, it’s a bold move that will either elicit cheers or jeers. And that post credits tag? For the movie fans, it’s not going to mean anything beyond being a tease for what’s coming next. For the comic fans, it’s a whole other thing because we know who this character is and what it means to the X-Men. In all, the solid score, impressive effects, some spectacular action set-pieces, one heck of an impressive jail-break sequence and some solid performances make up for the slightly complex plotting and story. Chances are you’d be better off just going with the flow and enjoy the proceedings. Rating: ****
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