Sunday, June 1, 2014

X-Men Days of Future Past

Lets be honest, this was actually a great movie, and worth the money in the theater. I was skeptical, as most of the X-men movies throughout the years have left me saying, "Meh." But all time travel and mutant power plot holes aside, this movie delivered. Great action, great acting, awesome use of powers, cool plot line, and best of all, it virtually negated X3, and made it so it didn't even happen! (That movie was the worst).

Now to those time travel and mutant power plot holes! SPOILER ALERT!

First of all, in time travel movies, they never send the person far back enough. Why not send Wolverine back a few years earlier when Professor X and Magneto were friends? That would have solved a lot of problems. 

Second, why was Wolverine not fighting in the Vietnam War when he was sent back in time like we saw him doing in Wolverine: X-men Origins. Remember? He wakes up screaming? The girl he is with asks him which war it was this time? He says all of them? Yeah, he should be in Vietnam. Also, Stryker was a full grown man in his forties at that point in time.

Third, when Wolverine comes back to the future in the end, he faces the same problem as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. Things are nice and fine for everybody else, but everything is different. He has no memories of his new life at all. What happened? How is everyone alive? What conversations has he had with everyone? What are his relationships like? He would literally be saying things all day that didn't make sense to anybody for the rest of his life. His life is totally screwed up now. Either that, or his memory of being in the past should be totally gone and replaced by all his new memories. It should have been one or the other.

Now on to their powers. Honestly, when there are powers involved, it becomes plot hole nation. What are they capable of and not capable of?

We have seen Charles Xavier control people's minds countless times in almost every X-men movie there is. He even did it in this movie! Why not simply control Trask's mind into dumping the Sentinel project completely, and decide to not take Mystique? Seems like that would have been easier...Or why not have him just freeze everybody like he does in the other movies until he can figure things out? He could even do this from home in his pajamas!

Quicksilver can move so fast that it is as though people are at a standstill. (That scene in the kitchen is a classic). Why not bring him everywhere the entire movie? Why not have him go kidnap Mystique from the meeting before she kills Trask? Why not have him run up and grab Magneto's helmet off? Why not have him put magneto right back down in the prison after the job is done? In fact, why isn't Quicksilver just solving all of their problems single handedly. This is almost worse than letting the eagles or the dead army leave before the battle is won in the Lord of the Rings.

Why doesn't the girl who can throw out teleporting dimensions just always stand behind one at all times? In fact, if she just threw one up surrounding all of the mutants sitting close together around Wolverine, those Sentinels could never get them. 

How did Magneto use the rail lines to fill the Sentinels full of metal? He couldn't even see into the train cars, as he was standing on the back of the train. He can't see through the train cars. Also, how does he turn them on electrically when he wants to use them later? He doesn't control electricity.  Also, what is the range of his powers? They are always putting him in plastic and glass prisons that are only a few hundred feet from metal. Then later, he lifts up an entire baseball stadium that is arguably further than that. And really? A plastic and glass prison with no metal? Whatever. There is a metal elevator 10 feet from his bed.

Also, don't you think there would be some type of elitist hierarchy amongst the X-men? I mean, if I was as powerful as Professor X, would I find myself spending time with the likes of that guy who is trying to fight the Sentinels with a couple of swords? Or how about that kid in the other movie whose power is to change TV channels with his mind? There are always mutants who have powers I am jealous of, and others that are very average. I'm just saying, not all mutants are created equal. Remember that guy in the third X-men who has one inch spikes come out of him? That guy literally has to hug an enemy to kill them. That guy just needs to carry a gun like the rest of us.

To me the biggest plot hole of all was seeing Magneto bring a baseball stadium to the middle of Washington D.C., and virtually destroy the whole city including the White House, kill tons of innocent people, turn the military's weapons on themselves, try to kill the President, and then when Mystique saves the president and lets Magneto go, suddenly mutants are heroes. I'm just saying, if I was a citizen and watched Magneto do that, I might support the Sentinel program, and be terrified that I just watched a "good" mutant control the "bad" one with his mind. Why are we locking Magneto up in the first place? Can't we all agree it would be safer if he were just dead? I mean look at what he did to Wolverine. Geez. That was just plain mean.

Overall, I give X-Men Days of Future Past an 85%.