X-Men: Days of Future Past review – star-stuffed extravaganza

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/25/x-men-days-future-past-review

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Having all but exhausted the linear narrative possibilities of the X-Men universe in a series of sequels (X2, X-Men: The Last Stand), prequels (X-Men: First Class) and spin-offs (various Wolverine flicks), the serpent now eats its tail with a time-travelling riff that enables the stars of disparate franchise elements to appear together in one film.

"You don't age, so you'll basically look the same," explains Ellen Page (in Basil Exposition mode), before teleporting the soul of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine back from the apocalyptic future to the retro-70s past in order to achieve a Terminator-style rewriting of the present. Thus Wolverine awakens in the only decade where his sideburns don't seem out of place, on a mission to prevent Jennifer Lawrence's misguided Mystique from carrying out a political assassination that will inadvertently facilitate the downfall of mutants in generations to come.

The strength of the X-Men franchise has always been its metaphorical embracing of diversity; a celebration of the talented misfit in an age of bland conformity. While returning director Bryan Singer still has his eye on the outcast, there's a hint of the production line in this roadshow extravaganza, which struggles to give each of its stars their moment in the spotlight. Jackman is supremely buff as the thread joining the two time periods, wasting no opportunity to showcase his taut torso and rippling pecs. Michael Fassbender lends weight as the errant Magneto, released from his non-metallic prison to wreak havoc anew in an alternative universe in which Richard Nixon is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good (the point at which the implausible becomes the outright impossible). The real star, however, is Peter Dinklage as the suavely sinister Dr Bolivar Trask, whose shape-shifting robots set the time-warping action in motion, allowing the bad doctor to take creepy geniality to a whole new level. It trots along at a fair old pace, the cast doing a sterling job of keeping straight faces while spouting quasi-scientific gobbledegook, garbed in increasingly silly fancy dress. As for the inevitable after-the-credits extra scene, be warned – it's a long wait for a little reward.