Best X-Men Movie?
As usual, if you're reading one of my reviews you know I don't like to avoid spoilers. I don't review things so you can decide if you want to see it, I review it to share my opinions of it and that will require going into various amounts of detail. I'm not going to lay out the plot, point by point, but I'm not going to dance around things either.
Lets get the bad stuff out of the way. Its always good to end on a positive note and this section is going to be short anyway. Ready?
Nothing.
Yes. I said it. There is no one aspect of this film that has any glaring weakness. Sure there are some minor things to be annoyed at here and there (and what film DOESN'T have those?) but overall the film is completely solid in every aspect. Even the time travel - something I was highly skeptical of - worked very well. The viewer will have to take some leaps of faith and suspend their total sense of realism a bit (but honestly, you have to do this for all these films anyway) but it still works. The time travel story and duality of both timelines in the film was completely engrossing.
Some people might have issue with the vast amount of characters here and there, but frankly I think they were all used well enough. No we don't get into deep character studios for most of them, but still - we get pretty good action scenes with nearly all of them and its enjoyable.
No, not all of the continuity problems are solved. But you know what? Who the hell cares? Comic canon is hardly shining clean. Just enjoy the damn movie and stop thinking so much.
So if I have no negatives about the movie, then everything must be positive right? Basically - yes.
Lets start with Quicksilver. Everyone started drinking the haterade immediately when we saw his picture come out a few months ago. Quite frankly he looks ridiculous.
And it just goes to show you, context is everything. Not only does it completely work for his character, but his character (like many others have said) was a shining spot in the film. His powers and his action scenes were absolutely awesome to watch and the actor brought an insane amount of charm and mischief to the character. It was soooooo much fun.
And yes. It is confirmed in the movie (and Fassbender himself confirmed via the press) that Pietro is Magneto's child - for those worried about it.
Speaking of Magneto...can I just say how FUCKING awesome the character and both these actors are? Ian McKellon has given us 15 years of unbelievable performances of Erik...and Fassbender continues to add more to it. These character and these actors do it a all. The action scenes are amazing - I was nerdgasming during the whole baseball park sequence. The character himself is absolutely terrifying and vicious...and yes completely sympathetic. He is such an amazing character and we are blessed to have two amazing actors portray him.
Wolverine fanboys be warned. Erik completely hands Logan his ass in this movie...and Logan doesn't even have adamantium.
Moving on to Logan. I know myself personally I was getting tired of the constant Wolverine over-importance in every single film. Its not that I don't understand why, I just don't care anymore. The X-Men are a group of character and we need to see more of them. This film doesn't disappoint in this regard. Sure, Logan is the main characters, but Charles, Erik, Raven and to a bit of a lesser extent Beast all get significant time in the movie.
And while the whole slew of the rest of the X-Men who appear in this movie don't necessarily get the character focus or attention you'd like - they're still all handled in a very positive way - unlike what happened with X-3.
Speaking of which (this is the part where I emphasize spoilers) - Rogue and Cyclops both have cameos in this movie. It was like on/off again that Rogue was going to be in it and I don't think Cyclops was expected to be in it either. Again, mostly just cameos for both characters but a nice nod to the fans of them nevertheless.
Charles and Mystique and specifically their relationship play a huge part of this film - its nearly the main focus. It comes off a little weird when we're dealing with old Charles simply because we never saw that relationship with their age counterparts, but the young versions completely sell it. Its heartfelt, well performed and fairly enjoying to watch.
Big shout out to the Sentinels too - especially the future versions. They're completely badass.
Also more spoilers. Please for the love of god stay until the end of the credits. I don't know what Fox is smoking lately but they have absolutely killed it now a couple of times with their end credit scenes. This one is even better than the end credit scene in The Wolverine. I don't know how any fan isn't going to be freaking out (though most of the audience didn't seem to get it - noobs).
All I have left to say is
ALL HAIL EN SABAH NUR
5/5 Stars. Great film. Perhaps the best X-Men film ever, though I haven't seen X-2 in a long time to given an apt comparison.
