Wolverine, played so effortlessly by our own Hugh Jackman leads the story. In the near off future, humanity is on the brink of extinction, lorded over by evil robot Sentinels. The vast majority of people are horded in prison camps, but a few brave mutants survive, fighting the good fight. Professor Xavier (wise Patrick Stewart) and old friend/foe Magneto (sombre Ian McKellan) devise a last ditch plan, where Wolverine travels back in time via Shadowcat (underutilised Ellen Page) to stop the war before it ever begins. This will mean getting the band together. Wolverine has to convince the young, disenfranchised Professor X (brilliant James McAvoy) and imprisoned, militant Magneto (Michael Fassbender, our generation’s Brando) to team up to stop a somewhat little seen Jennifer Lawrence’s shape-shifting Mystique who in the past assassinated anti-mutant crusader and scientist, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage, our generation’s Peter Dinklage). This act indirectly led to the creation of the Sentinels who were at first designed to protect humans from mutants… then just started killing everyone.

If you’re confused, don’t be worried. I know more about X-Men than your average moviegoer and I had trouble keeping up. The plot gets a bit heavy at times, especially with two timelines, and like most X-Men films, there are just a few too many characters. As the star of the franchise, Wolverine gets a lot of screentime, which is probably fair enough as Hugh Jackman really owns the role (he should – he’s played it eight times now). James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are just brilliant and any scene with them together really sparks with electricity. Jennifer Lawrence is an Oscar winning superstar now so she gets her fair share of the limelight but it didn’t feel like her character was given quite enough to do, or enough with the rest of the cast to really make Mystique’s arc work. If you haven’t seen the previous film, you’ll barely care for her character at all, which is unfortunate since the film’s main struggle is over her.

A few of the other supporting characters are somewhat neglected too. Iceman, Sunspot, Blink, Bishop, Colossus and Storm mainly just fight off Sentinels in their future scenes, which is admittedly breath-taking, but light on character development (if you’re looking for that; action movies don’t always need it). Similarly, Dinklage’s Trask is a main villain, yet I felt he was a scene or two short of really getting to know him. Likewise the future Magneto doesn’t get a lot to do, but what he does, he does well. And I just love Beast, so even though Nicholas Hoult’s performance is fine, until he’s the main character and everyone loves him as much as me, I’ll probably never be happy.

These few gripes are really the only thing that troubled the film for me. A second viewing where I can better keep up with the plot machinations and enjoy the narrative will definitely do me well. The 1970s period setting is executed very well, mainly in that it is underplayed. The action scenes are some of the best you’ll ever see, including the one scene everyone will be talking about involving the superfast, super cheeky Quicksilver (Evan Peters). The film’s conclusion (and post credits teaser), which I won’t spoil here, is a treat for the long time fans, and will most likely dominate most of the post film discussion.

Having said all these things I really liked about the movie, I still feel like it lacked something, though I can’t quite figure out what. Maybe it was just trying to make the time travel plot threads make sense, or I was too worked up, anticipating every move. X-Men: Days of Future Past isn’t trying to be your best friend like the Avengers or brood over the city skyline, contemplating morality like The Dark Knight. Much like the X-Men team itself, it gets the job done, is pretty cool about it and in the end, is quite comfortable doing its own thing.

All in all, X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the best entries in the X-Men franchise. It’s a lot more serious than most action movies, let alone superhero flicks, but that’s not always a bad thing. In this case, it’s a great. 4/5