Soul at the Center of Labyrinthine Days of Future Past
Of course, once our hero is sent back, things become even more tangled and complicated, which provides the film with its most entertaining and intriguing moments. The younger version of Professor X (James McAvoy) is a disillusioned sot who Logan must rally if he’s to do any good, while Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is far more impulsive and dangerous, making it even more difficult to recruit him for the cause.
While the film‘s intent is a serious one – to remind us once more to cherish individuality, to encourage us to look past our worse selves and strive to be better – Singer doesn’t forget that this is also a movie of big moments. He delivers with one big set piece after another in which all of the heroes are allowed to stretch their abilities. Scenes depicting Magneto lifting the shell of Washington D.C.’s old RFK stadium and transporting it above the city or the Sentinels assaulting the heroes stronghold in China demonstrate that Singer is effectively using every modern effects tool at his disposal to create a grand spectacle. However the highlight of the movie – and perhaps what will be the greatest action sequence of the year – involves the new recruit Quicksilver (Evan Peters), a blindingly fast speedster, breaking Magneto out of his Pentagon prison cell. Slowing all the action to a crawl, we’re able to see him move about at a heightened rate, altering the paths of bullets as well as changing the direction of their pursuers so that they end up harming themselves. Not only is it one of the funniest moments of the movie year but one of the most inventive.
Singer has the ability to render these and other moments inventively and with humor, giving his entries in the series a sense of assuredness that others lack. With the exception of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies, the X-Men films are consistently the smartest of the superhero entertainments, delivering not just grand spectacle, but lofty ideas as well. There’s meat to these comic book capers and in setting and maintaining a high standard, Singer should be commended for continuing to push himself as well as challenging his audience.
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