Time in a Bottle

by Kevin Powers

Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto and Evan Peters as 
Quicksilver in "X-Men: Days of Future Past."

The most striking thing about “X-Men: Days of Future Past” is that it has somehow figured out how to seamlessly put all the pieces together taking elements from the original trilogy, the “Wolverine” origin movies, and 2011’s reboot, “X-Men: First Class.” All of the characters we’ve come to really love through this series are here.

In the near future, man and mutant have been destroyed by an army of robots called “Sentinels,” created originally to protect humans by replicating the abilities of the mutants. The world is a dark, deathly place in the future. Under the guidance of perennial frenemies Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) uses her transformative powers to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to 1973. There he is to convince the younger versions of Professor X and Magneto, a drunk, downtrodden Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and a Pentagon-incarcerated Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), to stop the shape-shifting Raven a.k.a. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing the man responsible for designing the life destroying “Sentinels.”

Along the way, a new X-Man (if you will) is introduced and thus begins the funniest, most entertaining half-hour of movie I’ve experienced all year. The character is Quicksilver (Evan Peters), a teenaged, kleptomaniac with supersonic speed, so much so that he can slow down time. His performance alone is worth the price of admission, and I missed him when his screen time was up.

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” is of the best superhero movies ever made (see “Spider-man 2,” “The Dark Knight,” the original “X-Men”). It is an absolute blast that I would recommend to anyone even if you haven’t seen the others. And as a time-travel movie, it only makes your head spin in a good way. 

Directed by Bryan Singer

Screenplay by Simon Kinberg; Story by Jane Goldman & Simon Kinberg & Matthew Vaughn

Starring Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence







Note: This is a review written for The Courier News, Clinton, TN.