Preview: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Fox, quite appropriately, looks to the future while changing the past with the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past. In a decade where comic book adaptations reign supreme, the X-Men franchise has been all but dismissed in the wake of Brett Ratner’s disastrous X-Men: The Last Stand, a film which managed to not only do great injustice to several characters and multiple, fan favourite story arcs, but tarnish the reputation of the X-Men films overall.  Now, 7 years later, Bryan Singer, director of the critically acclaimed The Usual Suspects and the first two X-Men films, is back – with an adaptation of Chris Claremont’s famous story, Days of Future Past.

The arc is a short one, and basically non-canonical due to the time hopping nature of the plot, but there’s no denying the impact of the entirely hopeless future dystopia which the X-Men have found themselves in. The inevitable reset, often dreaded in comics, is one that is entirely welcome here on more than one level: in the comics, it allows for a fantastic ‘what if?’ scenario where the X-Men are entirely wiped out, with a cover proudly proclaims that “this issue: EVERYBODY DIES!” – based on the preview clips and trailers, it seems that Bryan Singer is not shying away from this aspect of the two-comic arc. This is a promising sign for the comic book film franchise that has previously rejected the source material, shunning the more flamboyant costumes of their comic book counter-parts in favour of leather costumes, which, really, were only cool in 2002. Now, the source material is key, as the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the reaction to Andrew Garfield’s ‘more faithful’ take on Spider-Man has indicated.

Arguably, the most important part about the time travel in Days of Future Past is the grand opportunity that it presents for the X-Men franchise: a reboot, a retcon, and a re-launch of the film franchise, rolled up neatly into one convenient summer blockbuster – not only can they write the reviled story of The Last Stand and probably X-Men Origins: Wolverine into oblivion, at the same time as laying the groundwork for X-Men: Apocalypse, but the use of the old cast is a great way to give the new start for the X-Men to have a fresh start without having to awkwardly tip-toe around the lore of the previous films, such as in The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel.

For a while I was concerned that the sheer size of the cast might dilute focus on the characters and lead to a parade of bland caricatures with mutant powers, but recent trailers suggest an emotional arc for the young, angry and broken Xavier, and the deaths of a lot of our favourite mutants in the future. Call me sadistic, but I personally can’t wait.

In fact, the film is promising to be the biggest X-Men film ever made: boasting the largest Fox budget this side of Avatar and some huge set pieces, as well as the return of most of the cast from the first three films (including Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, and to nobody’s surprise, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine), the mutants introduced in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class; featuring as a younger Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), and the timid but brilliant Hank McCoy, also known as the Beast (Nicholas Hoult); and some new – particularly Evan Peter’s Quicksilver, the object of much controversy and confusion, as the character is also appearing in the Avengers sequel Age of Ultron, and is rocking a questionable outfit. The bridge between the two casts will come in the form of a (sort of)  time travelling Wolverine, who will need to guide the young Xavier to unite the X-Men and prevent the apocalyptic doom that the mechanical Sentinels bring upon mutants and humans alike, before it ever happens.  For a while I was concerned that the sheer size of the cast might dilute focus on the characters and lead to a parade of bland caricatures with mutant powers, but recent trailers suggest an emotional arc for the young, angry and broken Xavier, and the deaths of a lot of our favourite mutants in the future. Call me sadistic, but I personally can’t wait.

For a film that has been plagued by troubling legal issues, questionable marketing and character design, as well as a continued obsession with Hugh Jackman, X-Men: Days of Future Past is promising to be the greatest film showcase yet for Marvel’s most dysfunctional, persecuted species.

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