X-men: Days of Future past is a flawed movie. It doesn't do justice to the original comic, nor is it particularly true to the plot, but I still liked it a lot more than most blockbusters the industry craps out these days. To be sure, it's Bryan Singer again, so if you didn't like the tone or grainy CGI look or plastic costumes of the of the first 2 X-men movies, this is probably not the movie for you. Or at least, none of that has really changed. But to be honest, it's the familiarity that works for me.
I still love the old cast and their interpretations of the characters. I still love the new cast and the energy they bring to the mythos. I enjoyed the future dystopia scenes, which mostly consist of some of my favorite mutants fighting sentinels, but found the scenes from the 70s more interesting thematically and visually. I think putting silly comic concepts in stylish clothes from the 70s helps smooth out the rough edges of comic wackiness. I loved the addition of Quicksilver, and his big scene is officially one of my favorites of the series.
But mostly what I love is that I didn't leave the theater with a deeply sad soul, like I do far too often with blockbusters these days. Not because the plots themselves are too dramatic or anything, but because so many movies these days seem to be written by cynical people writing gritty reboots about how everything is shit, really, when you get down to it. Or who purport to be upholding morals with the mouth parts while categorically demolishing the idea of moral behavior with the punchy parts.
For instance my biggest problems with Man of Steel weren't that the action wasn't good, or the plot holes, it's that the creators seemed to genuinely not understand the concepts of heroism, hope, and murder and genocide not being morally justifiable when you have it in your power to prevent it. I left the movie feeling sad and angry about what the creators were trying to tell me being a good person is. It felt far more like post-collateral damage rationalize of America's military violence over the last half a century, but that's another essay.
So, it was thrilling to me to see a movie whose central moral dilemma was trying to prevent someone from using their perfectly justifiable rage and pain from killing a human being, who undoubtedly had done bad things in the past and would again in the future, in order to stop a cycle of self-justified revenge on both sides that would end up destroying everyone in the end. It was nice to see, once again, the stark judgement that Erik is not justified in aggression and oppression and violence even though he had himself been justified. It is nice to see a movie repeat again, the lesson we all impatiently claim to know but seem to constantly forget, that our feelings of victimization do not legitimize our aggression and demonization of the hated other. A movie that holds out the hope, again and again, that we'll get over ourselves and our pain long enough to be the first to stop the endless cycles of retribution, demonization, and rationalized aggression that we find ourselves in.
Are you human or mutant? Are you left or right? Are you black or white? Are you Democrat or Republican? Are you Russian or American? Did that man hurt you? Who cares. The messages of Jesus, Buddha, Ghandi, MLK and Professor Xavier are all the same: learn to care for, talk to and embrace the people who cause you pain or the future only gets worse.
Keep your gritty, soulless, pessimistic reboots. Give me actual hope any day of the week.
