After the mistakes made in both X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, fans were rightly excited for the return of Bryan Singer to the franchise, and with Days of Future Past, he again proves that he knows these characters better than any other filmmaker. Smartly using the famed comic book arc to create a soft reboot for the X-Men franchise, the unsavoury elements from previous films are promptly flushed down the toilet, allowing Singer to forge his own continuity in a way that seems natural to the story. Sure, the time travel gimmick itself could have been executed a little better, but given the overall strength of the film, it's easy to let slide. Easily the best X-Men film since Singer's last effort, X2, Days of Future Past admirably crams in dozens of mutants without feeling too overstuffed, and girds itself on a number of well-executed set-pieces (the Quicksilver sequence is an all-timer). Still, it's the character work which really gives the movie its bite: James McAvoy's young Charles Xavier is especially brilliant, and of course, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is as fantastically grizzled as ever. With a stirring post-credit tease for 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse, we can't wait to see what Singer serves up next...
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
