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(mild mild mild spoilers, nothing that would remotely ruin one's enjoyment)
It sometimes has the problems that all population-heavy superhero movies have-- a lot of screen time for a lot of characters that have nothing to do other than show their powers briefly. Nearly everyone in the future is given absolutely squat to do, save for fight Sentinels-- they look cool, but we don't care, even if we've seen them before. And the opening sequence is really clunky, with Stewart and McKellen having to deliver a shitload of exposition in rapid fire fashion.
The film's best quality is also a big flaw too: the Quicksilver shit is SO FUCKING AWESOME and so goddamn full of personality and originality that the rest of the movie, no matter how broad the scope, can't compare. Evan Peters fucking DESTROYS as Quicksilver, his big moment (you'll know it) is by far and away the best part of the film, one of the better parts of any summer blockbuster you'll see this year by a landslide... and then, his character boards a plane and goes home. And we're stuck wondering how awesome it'd be to spend a whole movie with this guy.
Fassbender is still by faaaaaar the best of the young mutants when we go back in time, but this time, he's not given any real sort of arc, he's mostly just "cold-hearted Magneto." The real emotional arc falls on McAvoy as Charles, who just doesn't carry the same sort of weight as many of the other actors on screen. Lawrence gets some fun stuff to do as Mystique, but I also don't really emotionally connect with her as much as I should-- I think the blue makeup hurts her ability to outwardly emote to the fullest, because she's one of the best young emoters in Hollywood, yet here she doesn't have the gravitas that she does in the Hunger Games films. Maybe it's the script. I'd have to see it again.
The Sentinels are scary as shit, and Dinklage nails his few moments as Trask, although again we're not really given a lot of time to develop any sort of story or arc with him. We get one or two monologue scenes, but that's about it.
The effects are mostly strong, especially the stadium stuff (you've seen the trailers) and most anything with Magneto in general. They still can't really make Colossus look tangible-- he still looks like a video game metal guy.
It's better than First Class, because while it doesn't have the emotional highs of the Magneto arc in First Class, it moves swiftly and keeps its eyes on advancing the narrative, and may get clunky and/or cluttered but never induces eye rolls the way some of First Class's awkward campy shit did (plus, it suffers from Prequel Syndrome in a big way). It's better than X3 because duh. It's not better than X2-- the finale of this one is notably bigger, but X2 does such a marvelous job of developing its core ten characters or so, giving each individual clearly defined story arcs that come together nicely (including Stryker!), along with more iconic imagery and more badass combat sequences. It has more time to breathe-- Days of Future Past has a ticking clock device that necessitates movement movement movement. Which makes it good for what it is, but it never provided me with a real connection to the characters.
Still, a solid three stars, maybe more. I'll probably see it again, just cuz I fucking love the X-Men.
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