X-Men: Days of Future Past, based on works by Stan Lee - Eight out of 10

X-Men: Days of Future Past, based on works by Stan Lee

Eight out of 10

For funs of the genre this is probably as good as it gets, but the undersigned is not overwhelmed by X-Men, Spider men and other spectacular, but otherworldly creatures, which might be interesting, perhaps in some small doses, taken far and between, only as the landscape looks now, the cinemas are invaded by Avengers, Captains of Destiny, all laudable for what they might inspire in teenagers, but much too similar to cartoon characters to be a serious, exclusive nourishment for the intellectual mind.

As it is, Days of Future Past offers a festival, a banquet of delights, with guests like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Jennifer Lawrence and the list is so long and prestigious as to become a futile endeavor to just write all these fantastic names here…albeit, the other side of this is that so many talented artists gather to generate a lot of fuss, but for the uninterested, casual cinephile this may lead to the old adage…

“Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.”

Having said that, one must admit that once inside the narrative, it can be quite entertaining, notwithstanding the lack of food for the soul, intellectual or other challenges, but if one is there just for the joy ride, observing without much expectation the galactic travails of Logan, who travels back in time to convince Charles Xavier to help him to try and prevent Erik Lehnsherr to abandon his bloodthirsty quest for revenge of the mutants, killed by nefarious, abhorrent humans – one of the absolute villains is the scientist Bolivar Trask.

Raven aka Mystique aka the beautiful Jennifer Lawrence is also one of the key figures of the plot, humans are trying to get to her DNA and design a weapon that would identify the mutants and then destroy them, therefore Erik tries to kill her in Paris, where she took the shape and form of a Vietnamese general – she can do that – who was part of the delegation discussing the peace terms at the end of the infamous Vietnam War, and Beast aka Hank tries to stop the killing, all in view of the terrified population.

When Richard Nixon announces that America has the means to protect its citizens of those of the world, the same Erik seems to be able to exact vengeance, for he takes control of the gathering, shooting into the crowds by means of controlling the new weapons designed by Bolivar Trask and his team.

Charles Xavier and Logan try to convince Erik and Beast to stop their mad journey – although they have some good reasons to be furious, for mankind had been horrid to their own, as it has a tendency to do…look what the idiot in the White house has just done to the Kurds who had fought for so many years against IS, only to be betrayed and abandoned with a tween from the cretin who is the leader of the free world…some progress we have made there! – And see that the eternal conflict would be good for no one.

There are plenty of stupefying special effects…one may argue that they are the real protagonists, super stars of the show, for they generate the bling, the chase through the clouds, exists from one age and into another, the showdown between bad colossus and the good characters, overwhelming ray guns – or whatever they are called – impressive, huge robots and all the other paraphernalia that comes with this territory.

As aforementioned, this viewer is not exactly inclined to enjoy such clashes, aweing, fabulous as they may look for other cinemagoers.