This movie marked Bryan Singer (who directed X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003)) to the X-Men franchise. The film was originally going to be directed by Matthew Vaughn (who directed X-Men First Class (2011)), but Vaughn backed out in order to direct Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). When Singer was brought on as director, he brought back many of those who worked with him on the first two X-Men films. This included production designer John Myhre (whose only previous X-Men film was the first), costume designer Louise Mingenbach (who had worked on X2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and composer John Ottman (who not only worked on the first two X-Men movies but composed music for all of Singer's films starting with The Usual Suspects (1995).
In this film, robotic Sentinels are about to destroy all mutant kind. These Sentinels contain mutant DNA from Mystique (AKA Raven). The only way to stop the end of mutant kind is to travel back in time to 1973, when the DNA was obtained. However, traveling back in time that far would destroy one's body. Because Wolverine's body can regenerate, he is the natural choice to travel back in time. Wolverine must team up with a young Charles Xavier, Magneto and Beast to save the future.
This is possibly the best X-Men movie and is superhero movie making at its finest. Everything about this wonderful movie works very well. The time travel element is incredibly well used. Writer Simon Kinberg studied such popular time travel films as Back to the Future (1985), The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Meanwhile Singer did some research into string theory and spent much time trying to come up with as plausible a set of rules to how time travel could work to make this feel as plausible as possible. The result is more intelligent and believable than the majority of time travel movies. Yet the film never finds itself being bogged down by the inherent complexities of time travel, as the focus is not on the sci-fi elements but rather on the characters themselves. Thus, this becomes one of the most emotional of all the X-Men movies. Probably the most emotionally resonant part of this film is Charle Xavier's story here. Unlike in the other X-Men films, we see him at his lowest point here. He has been so emotionally broken by the events in X-Men: First Class as well as various events that have followed, that he has given up on all that he once stood for. He has closed the school and is addicted to a drug that gives him the ability to walk but makes him lose his powers. This makes his character feel even more human We can all relate to his pain and his feelings of loss, and we have all felt like giving up. We see so much of ourselves in him that we become even more emotional invested than in the previous films. Meanwhile we can also relate to Wolverine's self-doubt, Magento's desire for justice without caring about the price and Raven's journey to still try and find who she truly is. The film also does a great job of following the themes of prejudice, persecution and whether or not the means justify the ends. This is explored heavily through the villain (played magnificently by Peter Dinklage), who is one of the best villains in these movies. This is because he feels all too real and believable, exploiting people's prejudice to try and bring about what he believes is the greater good, he resembles too many people in the world today. With all these deeper themes and intelligence this movie also has its share of pure superhero fun. The action scenes are the best this series has had to this point and the humor is often laugh out loud funny.
This film had the worldwide highest grossing opening weekend for any X-Men movie at this time at $262.8 million. By the end of its run, it would gross $747.9 million worldwide, the largest gross for an X-Men film until Deadpool (2016). The critical response was quite positive with many critics feeling that this was one of the best of all X-Men films. It currently holds a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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