DOFP may very well be the finest "X-Men" film ever.
I was concerned after the first couple trailers that the movie might seem a bit overcrowded by combining the timelines of both First Class and the original X-Men trilogy. I'm glad to say that DOFP never suffers this flaw, as it primarily focuses on only a handful of X-Men.
Fans looking for more action from, say, Colossus, Warpath, or Bishop may not be totally satisfied.
But what's great about the X-Men in general is that they have always been a dysfunctional family of unique individuals, and that dynamic is supremely relatable. Director Bryan Singer and company do a great job at capturing this once again, despite the main focus being on only a relatively small contingency of main characters.
Most of the cast have been portraying these characters for nearly 15 years. This means that they've been able to fine-tune their performances in ways that make the emotional depth of their characters more convincing now.
In DOFP, the film kicks off with the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants joining forces to battle a common enemy - the Sentinels, the spawn of a program orchestrated in the early 70s by Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). The program kicks into high gear after his death. In order to prevent the Sentinels from ever being created, Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Professor X (Patrick Stewart), and Magneto (Ian McKellan) send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to alter the course of history and save mutantkind.
To do so, he must enlist the younger versions of Charles and Erik (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender respectively), as well as a handful of other friends (Hank McCoy a.k.a "Beast" [Nicholas Hoult] and a scene-stealing Quicksilver [Evan Peters]).
The action scenes are spectacular, and the visuals quite stunning. A sequence with Fassbender lifting RFK Stadium and moving it over Washington, D.C. like a flying saucer stands out.
Though the X-Men films have always been able to make audiences think, that doesn't mean they're totally perfect, and DOFP is no exception. Like I don't think Kitty has the ability to send people through time in the comics. Some action junkies might also find the film a bit too wordy for their tastes. DOFP also lacks the game-changing force of Marvel cinematic cousin Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though it essentially undoes the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. Most fans probably won't find fault with that though.
The story of DOFP ties together nicely in the end before a post-credits teaser which sets up 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse.
A-
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