I have a love/hate relationship with this franchise. I am a sucker for any X-Men film and still consider X2 to be one of the greatest comic book films of all time. However, I have been let down by a few as well, most notably X-Men: The Last Stand, where Brett Ratner took my second favorite comic storyline (The Dark Phoenix Saga) and made it an abomination of epic proportions. However, Bryan Singer is back at the helm of this film and the results are amazing.
This film starts with an epic battle sequence between a few mutants from the future including series newcomers, yet fan favorites Blink and Bishop. Also back are Iceman, Kitty Pride, Storm, Magneto, and Xavier amongst others. They are fighting a war against the Sentinels, mutant killers who have the power to adapt to different situations using different mutant powers. The mutants are losing terribly so Kitty Pride sends Wolverine's consciousness back to the 70s to stop the war before it starts. He has to get Xavier and Magneto together to stop Mystique from murdering Dr. Bolivar Trask, the inventor of the sentinels and in doing so, stop the war before it begins. A convoluted seeming plot to be sure but it makes sense as you watch the film.
I was impressed with a few overall film aspects of this movie. The acting in this movie, particularly from James McAvoy as the younger Xavier is particularly impressive. If this movie was released in October or later, we would be talking about McAvoy as an Oscar contender, and rightfully so. My favorite performance was from Evan Peters who plays Quicksilver. He fully steals the few scenes he is in, including one in particular that is just so much fun to watch. Also giving a great performance is Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. In First Class, I don't feel that she owned the role like she could have but in this movie she embodies the role to perfection. I loved it.
I also love the direction of this movie. Bryan Singer leaves no shot unwashed and no dialogue unused. Every second is necessary and there is no fat to trim. The film has a 2 hour 11 minute runtime and it's used perfectly. I normally find movies like this to have some fat and slow in parts but this never dragged once. To top it off, Bryan Singer uses this film to correct any plot inconsistencies created by other films (*cough* Brett Ratner) in the ending. I won't give anything away but that is done perfectly as well.
Overall this movie is entertaining and I loved experiencing it. It is my favorite film of the year so far, and possibly the best comic book film of all time. I give it an A+
