The X-Men franchise has had a rough history since kicking off way back in 2000. After a stellar sequel in 2003, the series immediately took a nosedive with the slap in the face that was X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006 and the embarrassing X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. In 2011, the series found its footing again by going in a new direction with X-Men: First Class and, after the serviceable The Wolverine last year, Days of Future Past arrived to tie together the old and new casts, wipe away many of the massive continuity issues plaguing the series and give it the chance to start anew, beginning with 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse. Fueled by a number of great performances, awesome effects and stakes worth getting invested in, Days of Future Past has a number of fantastic moments to choose from, including Quicksilver's big scene, Magneto's arrival at the White House and the final stand in the future against the Sentinels. But perhaps the film's greatest, crowd-pleasing moment occurs near the end of the film, when Wolverine awakens from his mission at the mansion, seeing familiar faces like Rogue, Iceman, Beast, Storm and, most importantly, Jean Grey and Cyclops alive and well. Not only is it a great victory for the tormented, post-The Last Stand Wolverine, but it's a moment that drew cheers and applause in theaters the world over and gave the film one hell of a payoff. If this happens to be the last time we get to see the original cast together again, there's something comforting in the fact that they're all alive and kicking and that the disappointing choices made in The Last Stand are finally behind us.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
