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X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), PG-13, ★★★1/2

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor X (James McAvoy).
Besides the Spider-Man and Batman franchise, this is an on-going series that never ceases to take the movie franchise up a level. However, ever since The Avengers, producers and filmmakers aspire to craft the same movie with the most amount of superheroes and mutants to ever be put on screen. But, the test is to craft a great story or plot to attract the audience's attention. X-Men: Days of Future Past successfully does that.

The movie opens in the year 2023 where it shows a desolate New York City in rubble and a myriad of dead bodies scattered throughout the city. The movie follows an attack in Moscow where the mutants are fighting the Sentinels, a massive killing machine that consumes all of the mutants' powers to defeat every mutant in their way. After the attack, an X-jet carrying Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Storm (Halle Berry), Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen) descends to a monastery in China where all the remaining and alive mutants assemble.

Kitty (Ellen Page) explains that during the attack in Moscow that he sent Bishop's (Omar Sy) consciousness to the past to warn other mutants regarding the Sentinels' arrival. Xavier wants to use Kitty's power to go back to 1973 to prevent the Sentinels from being created. He explains that Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) created the Sentinel program to destroy the mutants, however, Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) murdered Trask in a summit in Paris. After she was captured, the murder influenced the government to use her DNA to give the Sentinels to adapt to the mutants' power. The plan is for Wolverine to go back in time since he can easily regenerate in the past and present and stop Mystique from killing Trask.

Using Kitty's link to his consciousness, Wolverine travels back to 1973 waking up naked next to a woman. Later, Wolverine arrives a vacant and derelict X-Mansion where Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicolas Hoult) greets him. He asks Hank for the professor, but he turns him away persuading Wolverine to use his strength to open the door. Hank and Wolverine start fighting and the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) descends down the stairs to ask what Logan is doing in his mansion. He replies to Charles that he was sent by Charles' older self from the future to prevent Raven from killing Trask and asks for his help and young Magneto's (Michael Fassbender) help. Unfortunately, he is locked away in a maximum security cell in the Pentagon for allegedly assassinating JFK.

Beast, Charles and Wolverine arrive at the home of Quicksilver (Evan Peters), a mutant with superpower speed to help them break out Erik/Magneto out of the Pentagon. He is a bit of trickster, but he accepts, while, Mystique is on the mission to infiltrate Trask Industries to research the Sentinels and what Trask is planning to do and she discovers the autopsy reports of mutants, including her former comrades. Time is of the essence in the past, present, and especially, the future.

Young Professor X and Old Professor X in a great scene.
This is a tremendously fantastic superhero movie that is capable to change the series a bit by alternating history. It is sort of a superhero version of Back to the Future and The Terminator. (I guess Wolverine waking up naked is a little nod to Schwarzenegger being sent back in time.) I was worried coming in that they will go a little over-the-top with this time travel and being a little convoluted. But, actually, it is more straight forward than I thought. Why can't we travel back in time and stop the Great Depression from happening or other tragic events from happening? Oh, well.

Everybody in this cast is great. It is more of a Wolverine movie than an a X-Men movie, but if it were a Wolverine movie, it's the best one. Hugh Jackman just fits his role like a glove. He is so comfortable in this role, no matter, the obstacles he has to go through physically and emotionally. McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, Stewart, McKellen, Page, Hoult, Berry, and others are really comfortable and magnetic in each of their roles. There are some surprise cameos, which I will not mention. But, you will be happy when you see them.

Without question, this is the most ambitious X-Men movie in the franchise and it is my favorite of the franchise. I would have given this movie 4 stars (since 2012's The Dark Knight Rises), but there were some quibbles and continuity errors which are miniscule. I had questions regarding Mystique that I cannot reveal because of spoilers and another mutant's powers that I cannot reveal because of spoilers. Nevertheless, this is an action-packed, suspenseful, occasionally funny superhero film that is thrilling and attentive from beginning to end. You cannot miss the best movie of the young summer season so far.

It's a Marvel movie, so stay after the end credits for a scene.

***1/2

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