X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director: Bryan Singer
With: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry

X-Men: Days of Future Past is an awesome, history-bending superhero film that mixes a great and balanced amount of drama, comedy, camp and pure heroic badassery.

This probably ranks as one of the X-men franchise's best. With the bloated cast of mutants, one would think that others would be ignored but impressively, it managed to make each of the ensemble shine. Every main character had their own moments that's why it's also quite surprising how each of them (Prof. X, Magneto, Wolverine, Mystique) have great stories to tell and told so well in a fast-paced fashion without sacrificing the quality of their stories.

The complexity of the stories blew X-Men: First Class away. As usual, they included heavy bromantic scenes of Prof. X and Magneto but they're done masterfully and they're much more vital to the story. Add Wolverine and Beast to the mix as the neutralizer of these two and Mystique who also had her own agenda made this movie way more complex than it already was. But it didn't rest there as the humans, mainly military scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) joined the party in amplifying the layers of the stories, as the person I consider as the real villain of the film.

While these entities fight for the safety of their corresponding races (mutants and humans), and the mutants having the same thing in mind,  the difficulty of their situation made more intense as they also have different plan of executing their aim. It's unbelievable how effectively Bryan Singer attacked these numerous layers of stories rolled into an amazing harmonic and uncluttered piece of an X-men movie.

Then there's the supporting characters that also didn't fail to leave a mark as they fought the Sentinels who aimed to diminish the mutant race. Personal favorite is Blink and how they utilized her power. She's amazing! The cameos of other mutants are also favored well and in their 30-seconds of fame, they added flavor to the completion of each of the leads' storyline.

It's also not devoid of subtleties. In the beginning of the film, Ellen Page as Shadowcat pays homage to Inception as she does her own version of inception to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. It also contains several shades of Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence's real life love story. I don't know if it's just me but it sure did seem like they included some Beast/Mystique back-to-back facial reactions in some scenes that I can't help but think that they're done intentionally.

As we all know, the cast is undeniably brimming with stars that no one faded into the sidelines and all of them embraced their own character with the exact amount of drama and tenacity. Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique just can't do no wrong. First she's just so SEXY in this with her costume and all. Who said Mystique is ugly? Heck I'd rather see Mystique as Mystique than shifting into a different person or her human version. And who knew the Vietnamese language can sound so cute, sexy and flirty? Only JLaw can do that. I enjoyed her so thoroughly in this. Evan Peters as Quicksilver is another showstealer. He served as the camp provider/comic relief of this film and the Time in a Bottle scene will probably create a polarizing reception by the casual and superfans of the X-men franchise. Personally, I like what he brought to the movie. The best in show, however, is certainly James McAavoy which is quite strange because this film, an X-Men film, is actually the flick that reminded me again of how great of an actor he is. He truly is one of the best actors of his generation and now I can't wait for The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby because his presence needs to be seen again in critically acclaimed films as he's been kind of MIA for the past few years, or perhaps he's just choosing the wrong projects. Either way, he promoted his talent well in this.

See, I'm not the biggest X-Men fan. I know it solely because of the cartoon series and the past X-Men films but not the comics. But I gotta say that Bryan Singer did his best in showcasing the franchise to the mainstream movie lovers and the die hard fans of the saga. 

Also, this is a superhero movie and it's sort of becoming a trend that every superhero movie has an extra scene in the end. This one is no different so stay until the last words of the end credit and watch the weird additional scene. Great movie!