The X-Men series gets a new start while remembering the places it’s been

Sean Hobbs Staff Writer

In the trailer for ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, Professor X tells his younger self that in order to save the future, he has to hope again. Finally, for the first time since the original X-Men film, that’s exactly what audiences can do.

In 2000, the first X-Men film showed the cinema world that superhero films could not only succeed, but could be some of the highest grossing films in cinematic history.

Eleven years later, ‘X-Men: First Class’ reinvigorated the X-Men series after a number of shaky sequels. It was able to seamlessly mix action and emotion, in a way that few superhero films had done before. Simultaneously, it introduced a method to replace actors in future sequels that doesn’t come at the cost of viewer confusion.

Continuing the trend, ‘Days’ focuses first on characters and plot, and second on various and exciting mutant abilities, without getting too caught up in its own morality.

The film gets it’s confusing set up out of the way quickly: Giant robots called sentinels are killing or imprisoning all mutants; the last surviving few are going to use Kitty Pryde’s (Ellen Page) mutant ability to send Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman) consciousness back in time to prevent the sentinels from ever being launched.

To accomplish this, Wolverine must track down Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) in 1973 and stop her from killing the sentinel’s inventor, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) whose death proves to the world that mutants are dangerous.

In an intelligent move, the writer’s don’t reveal how this is supposed to work, or how the X-Men survived for this long. ‘Days’ establishes the plan and puts it into action right away. Unlike its predecessors, this movie forgoes needless exposition and simply entertains.

Wolverine wakes up in 1973 on a waterbed next to a lava lamp, driving home the fact that he’s in the 70s. His first action is to go to the now overgrown and dingy mansion shared by Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy).

After Wolverine sort-of convinces him to help, the team goes to the Pentagon to get Magneto (Michael Fassbender) out of prison, who has been implicated in killing JFK. The film ignores this clear alteration of history, which is likely for the best.

The prison breakout introduces the most interesting and worst-dressed mutant in the movie, Quicksilver (Evan Peters). Quicksilver can move at impossibly fast speeds, using his ability to steal and create impressive action scenes. He embodies childhood superhero fantasies, which makes his brief appearance one of the best moments in the film.

A tense plane ride later, the mutants catch up to Mystique and stop her from killing Trask. Inevitably, however, complications arise. The rest of the film is a race against time to stop Magneto and Mystique from killing Trask and the entire presidential cabinet. What follows is a series of scenes with novel mutant powers and heartfelt emotional pleas.

One of the most surprising aspects of the film is how little it relies on Wolverine’s star power, and how good it is because of it. Although Jackman is perfect for the role, Wolverine’s track record is spotty at best and ‘X-Men Origins’ at worst. ‘Days’ uses him wisely: a catalyst instead of a main character. The film relies much more on the rest of its star-studded cast.

All in all, ‘Days’ is a continuation of the quality that ‘First Class’ brought to the franchise. The film is less clichéd, less simplistic, and more colorful than previous entries, creating real anticipation for the newly announced ‘X-Men Apocalypse’.