X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray Movie Review

Logan does 'Dallas'.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 9, 2014

Patrick Stewart is no stranger to projects featuring time travel, having appeared in one of the most fondly remembered two-part episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Time’s Arrow,” which capped the fifth season with a cliffhanger and then found resolution in the premiere episode of the sixth season. That might automatically qualify him in his guise as X-Men’s mentor Charles Xavier as an expert, but he has a little competition from an unlikely source in X-Men: Days of Future Past: William Shatner. Whether due to the cheeky influence of scenarist Simon Kinberg or co- producer and director Bryan Singer, one Captain James Tiberius Kirk makes a cameo appearance of sorts on a video monitor in the background of a couple of quick scenes in X-Men: Days of Future Past, talking about—yep, time travel. Star Trek referents aside, X-Men: Days of Future Past presents a relatively straightforward time travel saga, one without many of the typical trappings of conundra and paradoxes that often inhabit such tales. Instead, this is a film with a mission, but figuratively and literally. While the X- Men franchise has been a cash cow for Marvel and Fox, reaction to the various films in the ever expanding X-Men universe has been somewhat spotty, and the recurrence of Singer at the helmsman seat (after similar duty on X-Men: First Class) was seen as a chance for the franchise to continue to reinvigorate itself. But within the film itself, there’s also a simple and easy to understand quest, a trip back to 1973 wherein Logan, AKA Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), attempts to unite a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr, better known as Magneto (Michael Fassbender), in a desperate gambit to prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from murdering a scheming scientist named Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), a man whose invention of mutant obliterating cyborgs known as Sentinels has wreaked havoc on the mutant population in “current” time.

In some indeterminate “now”, a ragtag group of surviving mutants is engaged in some kind of epic battle with looming robots that bear an eerie resemblance to a certain metal titan that was the titular character of Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant. The film pretty much plops the viewer down in media res, with something going on with Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and Bishop (Omar Sy), who remove themselves from the main field of battle to engage in some kind of activity that has Kitty cupping a blue energy field around Bishop’s head. While this opening sequence fairly clearly details the fact that the giant Sentinels (which are in fact not metal, and are thus impervious to Magneto’s “charms”) are able to adapt to various mutants’ abilities, offering near instant “antidotes” that allow them to keep the upper hand, the film can’t quite escape some clunky exposition after things finally settle down and the basic setup is detailed by Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart in this “current” timeframe). It turns out that back in 1973, Bolivar Trask had already built Sentinels with the express purpose of identifying and eliminating the then nascent mutants. Raven and/or Mystique (depending on what you want to call her) had infiltrated Trask’s inner circle to kill him, but the government was waiting for her and she was captured. With her shape shifting DNA now available, Trask was able to re-engineer the Sentinels to be able to instantly morph themselves, making them basically impervious to any attack by a mutant’s special powers. In other words, if Bobby Drake (Shawn Ashmore) uses his ice making capabilities to freeze a Sentinel, the robot can simply instantly heat up to melt the ice. What’s a mutant to do?

It’s at this point that the weird action with Kitty and Bishop is made clear—Kitty had been sending Bishop’s consciousness back in time a few days to a few weeks after any given attack to pre-warn the few surviving mutants about the upcoming skirmishes, to provide the mutants with enough time to take countermeasures. But with their resources dwindling, options are diminishing. The few remaining mutants take refuge in an isolated monastery, where former nemeses Charles and Magneto (Ian McKellen in this timeframe) are now on the same side in trying to figure out what to do, along with stalwarts like Wolverine and Storm (Halle Berry in what amounts to a glorified cameo). Since all of this started in 1973 with Mystique’s murder of Trask, it’s reasoned that traveling back to that time to prevent that action might change everything. Kitty is hesitant, since even sending a consciousness back a few days is stressful for the time traveler and she doesn’t think anyone could survive such an attempt. Logan of course has near magical healing capabilities and offers himself as a willing guinea pig, letting Kitty do her blue energy mojo thing around his cranium, allowing him to suddenly wake up in the era of Watergate, doubleknits and really boxy looking cars.

Logan’s first task is to find and unite Charles and Erik, both of whom are not exactly at their best back in the seventies. Charles has been injecting himself with a serum devised by Beast (Nicholas Hoult), a technique which has quieted the telepathic storm in his head while also revitalizing his spine, letting him walk normally. However, the injections have left him an addict of sorts, and he has withdrawn from society, leading a hermitic and somewhat squalid existence. Even more hermitic is Erik, who is being housed in a top secret facility beneath the Pentagon for having supposedly been the (literal) guiding force behind the “magic bullet” of the Kennedy Assassination. The first part of the 1973 sequences details Logan’s pitch to Charles to help, something that’s difficult since Charles is still nursing wounds of having lost Raven to Erik. There’s also a fun and quite funny sequence where Logan, Charles and Beast recruit a young mutant named Quicksilver (Evan Peters), whose lightning fast speed allows the group to penetrate Erik’s lair in the Pentagon and spring him to freedom (there’s a hilarious use of Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” in this very amusing sequence).

X-Men: Days of Future Past does its best to infuse these elements with some ostensible human (and/or mutant) interest, most having to do with the long simmering conflicts between Charles and Erik, especially with regard to Mystique, but the film actually is more successful as a kind of time traveling caper outing. While Logan and his troupe are attempting to put aside their differences, Mystique is on the prowl for Trask, who is both smarmy and deadly (especially for the mutants on whom he’s been experimenting like some 1970s version of Josef Mengele). When the day of the supposed Trask killing arrives (centered around the Paris Peace Accords at the close of the Vietnam conflict), the various parties converge, and while Logan’s group does keep Mystique from killing Trask, a number of unexpected developments seem to suggest that the “river of time” might be momentarily detoured, but cannot be significantly altered.

As fun as the time travel element is, especially with regard to the wonderful production design that brings the decidedly kitschy seventies back to life, Kinberg’s screenplay doesn’t really toy with mind games the way this genre tends to. The film is structured more traditionally as a pure and simple adrenaline rush, one whose excitement is built largely around an uncertainty as to what Magneto’s motives actually are, and whether or not Mystique will finally listen to reason (telepathically delivered by Charles). The film’s final set piece, which sees Magneto moving an entire football stadium, plunking it down to create a fortress around the White House where Nixon and Trask are sequestered, is hyperbolic and boisterous, but also surprisingly involving. The film probably glosses over conflicts too easily throughout its running time, as well as tying everything up in a perhaps overly tidy package by the end credits. Logan’s trip through time seems to ameliorate any number of traumas and tragedies that have befallen the X-Men in previous cinematic outings, to the point that some may wonder if, like that famous season on Dallas where Bobby returned from the grave, it’s all been a dream.

X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

X-Men: Days of Future Past is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Digitally shot with the Arri Alexa and for the first time in native 3D for its 3D version, X-Men: Days of Future Past is an invigorating viewing experience, though sharpness and clarity are often intentionally tweaked by any number of post-production bells and whistles at times. As with previous X-Men entries, there's quite a bit of aggressive color grading on display, from the slate grays and cool blues of the "contemporary" sequences to more of a honey golden ambience in the seventies timeframe. Nonetheless, detail and even fine detail remain surprisingly strong, to the point that even in dim, heavily graded sequences things like pores on skin are easily visible. In more normal lighting, fine detail is astounding at times (see some of the close-ups in the screenshots accompanying this review). CGI can tend to look just slightly soft at times, especially with regard to some of the "portals" the open in attack scenes which allow the mutants to travel through mini-wormholes to a new location. Contrast is strong, helping the film to overcome murkiness in the many darker sequences. There are no issues with image instability or compression artifacts.

X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

X-Men: Days of Future Past features a blisteringly effective DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that blasts off into the stratosphere from the opening attack scenes and rarely lets up for the next two hours or so. There's omnipresent LFE courtesy of not just the battle moments but more nuanced foley effects and general sound effects like a roaring high speed train or the thrust of the Sentinels' propulsion systems. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and is mixed nicely, even in some very busy sequences. A number of scenes feature large crowds, whose sounds spill through the surrounds creating a very lifelike a authentic sounding ambience. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range is incredibly wide in this problem free track.

X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:36) offer optional commentary by Bryan Singer.


• Kitchen Sequence (1080p; 6:28) is a grabbag of snippets including some audio of Singer explaining how he had to direct via texting for part of this sequence.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 5:40)


• Double Take: Xavier & Magneto (1080p; 11:51) focuses on the quartet playing these characters at different ages.


• X-Men: Reunited (1080p; 9:47) looks at the genesis of this project and how Singer wanted to reunite the original cast again.


• Classification: M (1080p; 11:54) profiles some of the other supporting mutants in the film.


• Sentinels: For a Secure Future (1080p; 9:19) focuses on (to cop a phrase from J.J. Abrams) bad robots.


• Gallery: Trask Industries includes:

  Mutant Experiments

  Blueprints

  Sentinel Construction

• Theatrical Trailers (1080p; 7:09)


• Second Screen App allows for additional content.


• Sneak Peak of Exodus: Gods and Kings (1080p; 1:26) is at least skippable, unlike the teaser for this film which starts automatically on the disc and cannot be skipped or chapter skipped through (only fast forward works).

X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Time travel may be the "McGuffin" of X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it's a fun device that allows for some gentle skewering of a bygone age while bringing together a coterie of X-Men young and old. The film is a bit too pat for its own good, offering up conflicts only to paper over them and move right along, but under Singer's assured direction and without any distracting time travel paradoxes to muck up the works, everything zooms along swimmingly to a satisfying if (again) perhaps too overly convenient finale. The set pieces here are wonderfully staged, and as is typical of the X-Men films, performances are surprisingly solid and un-cartoonish. Technical merits here are first rate, and X-Men: Days of Future Past comes Highly recommended.