[Locke]

Days of Future Past. SPOILERS AHOY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

There is something very delicious about Days of Future Past, featuring a multiple timeline narrative full of what ifs and existential pandering, a meld of the best of both worlds of superhero film.

One future is painted like another dark and gritty DC comics interpretation, where the bodies literally come by the truck load and we see our characters fall one by one. Alongside this is the past which is painted as a very Marvelesque like romp full of big chuckles and high concept pulpiness as rules are created to be stretched and broken, where military decisions involve building giant robots, and where you can travel through time but only your conciousness can be projected.

There are of course crossovers of tone and thematics, but it's enjoyable to watch a superhero film which manages to largely find a way to have the angst and the laughs run alongside one another, without interrupting one another's momentum in any big way.

It is also not going to be for everyone, as Singer approaches this film seemingly with the mentality of "well we've done this franchise to death, let's just throw it all at the wall and start again" but for me the results were glorious.

About the only creative decision I didn't care for is the choice to focus so heavily on Wolverine. I know that is kinda the whole gig of this franchise, but unlike other films, Wolverine doesn't drive the narrative here, he's just sort of well...there. Honestly most of the time Singer doesn't seem to know what to do with him at all and has seemingly injected him into almost every scene because it's been mandated as such not because he actually needs to be there, or actually has anything to do.

In general though, the First Class cast come across much better than any of the returning X-Men who are all mostly reduced to cameos. Although it is much worse for the majority of the new characters, who only really exist to be killed off.

The wise and kind Xavier from the future, is painted in stark contrast to who he was in '73, which was a man hooked on a drug which gives him his ability to walk, but takes away his powers. He's a mess, wallowing in angst and self pity, bordering on pathetic but he's just on the precipice of becoming the wheelchair bound father figure we've come to adore. The gorgeous Fassbender is looking his most dapper, dressed to kill in some of the snappiest 70s fashion choice. I wish he kept the fedora, it is much cooler than that stupid helmet. Then there is Jennifer Lawrence, stunningly beautiful and spending the majority of the film killing people with ridiculous flips while being quasi-naked. My kind of woman.

Perhaps the most daring decision though is how little action they put in this film. The action is largely self contained to opening, and closing moments and even then most of the action is set in the future as they can do what they like there. That isn't to say that the action we get isn't great, though. Honestly I'm hard pressed to pick a favourite moment.

The gleeful carnage in the opening moments as the futuristic Sentinels battle against Cable and Shadowcat's merry band of mutants, taking them down one by one is an excellent introduction to the stakes of the narrative. Equally Erik's break out, in contrast to the brutal future playing out at the same time, is just pure entertainment. The utter silliness of Quicksilver's methods to help them break out, and the way his powers are captured, is just incredible. Likewise although having absolutely no narrative logic, Erik's "I'm going to move a football stadium to the white house lawn" approach to world domination is hilariously gratuitous.

The best comic book film of the year? No, sadly not - that still belongs to Amazing Spider-Man 2 and that crucial emotional resonance - and it's probably not the best of the franchise either. However if you've enjoyed the X-Men franchise from start to finish - well minus Origins, no one likes that movie - then Singer has found the perfect excuse to get the gang back together, and this is one reunion tour which really knows how to please the fans.

Some people claim that in the wake of Nolan and Whedon's domination of the genre that the X-Men are no longer relevant but this movie proves just how relevant they are, how relevant they always were and possibly still will be if that after credits sequence is anything to go on. And it isn't a little worrying that such an on the sleeve parable is still relevant after doing the same dance so many times?

As an aside, I watched this in 3D and...save your money. I'm actually much more on board with 3D than I was a few years ago - probably ever since Dredd showed me the potential of the medium - but Days of Future Past adds nothing with it's 3D conversion other than a little greater sense of depth in some shots but what it does do is take a LOT away. The future is as dark literally as it is narratively, so dark in 3D in fact I was squinting to see what I was looking at in a lot of scenes.