By Scott Allden @Celluloidical 

Grossing over $90 million dollars on its opening weekend in North America. ‘X-Men: Days Of Future  Past’, the 7th entry in the Fox Studios’ X-Men franchise, based on the Marvel comic book characters/  books of the same name – Has received global acclaim. And in my humble opinion – richly deserved.  Here are 5 reasons that Days Of Future Past absolutely killed it for me….. Killed is good in this  context, by the way.

1. THAT Quicksilver Scene.

Fuck, I really hate saying it that way. ‘THAT’ Quicksilver scene… Ugh. It’s a great moment for not   only the movie itself, but for the cast too who had really supported and pushed out just how good   Evan Peters’ performance as the mutant speedster was. Though we can all say how shite his character   design was (Singer….), it truly was a great demonstration of his abilities, his personality and the use   of pop culture – As Maximoff’s walkman plays out the delightfully apt ‘Time In A Bottle’ by Jim Croce.   Evan Peters’ performance throughout his time in the movie was no less greater. Leaving a lot for Joss   Whedon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s depiction of the character to live up to in ‘Avengers: Age Of   Ultron’.

2. Wolverine’s Role

Hugh Jackman – The cornerstone of the X-Men franchise. Appearing as a lead character in 6 of the 7   movies to date. With a cameo in First Class, simply because – because… Yeah.

I’ve always found issue with Logan in these movies. Not only are the movies marred by the sheer   amount of focus that is lavished on the character, alienating others. But also because it almost   becomes detrimental to the overall story. In DOFP, the movie progresses and develops through the   narrative and each character is a driving force for that. Though we closely and prominently follow   events and actions of certain characters – namely Charles (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael   Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) – Wolverine is without question the lead. However he   is part of the story, rather than the story being a part of him. His scenes with Charles and Hank (Nick   Hoult) after his initial regression to 1973 are some of my favourite moments in the entire film. There’s   great chemistry between the 3, and this is much more apparent after Logan manages to convince   Charles to get his shit together. I also found the much maligned ‘swap’ between himself and Kitty   (Ellen Page) had proven to be a great move on the part of Singer and Kinberg.

3. The Screenplay

Simple as it seems. And is… Simon Kinberg wrote one damn good movie. Within the X-Men   community, I’d argue that First Class is the superior film based on writing – Perhaps due to the more   traditional, linear plot. With DOFP, there is so much going on that you could easily be stepping into   Last Stand territory. It just felt from watching though, that everything had its place within the story –   it was relevant, cohesive, served purpose and ultimately wasn’t wasteful fanboy nonsense thrown in   for acknowledgement. I’d wholeheartedly recommend a second viewing if this wasn’t your immediate   conclusion.

4. The ‘Reset’

Spoilers ahead. Of course, you’ve all seen the movie by now? Before production had completed, director Bryan Singer went on record to say that the beauty of time travel movies is that there is scope to undo, change or get rid of certain elements from the established timeline. In other words – He brought back Cyclops and Jean! So what does that mean for future appearances for people like James Marsden, Famke Janssen and Kelsey Grammar? Well we know now that younger versions of original trilogy characters will appear in the next movie ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’. Though we’ll never know for certain until that time, it was still great to see those characters back  – almost a sigh of relief. Especially after the massive injustice done to Cyclops.

5. Groundwork For The Future

Though I was pretty disappointed in the shelving of half the cast of First Class. Carrying over James  McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nick Hoult to DOFP in hindsight is a great   sign of potential things to come. With Charles and Hank seemingly becoming more reliant on each   other from events prior to the movie, and Erik and Mystique being ‘set loose’ essentially to build ‘The   Brotherhood’. We could potentially see some great stories featuring these characters at loggerheads   once again. Because of the dynamics and events that have occurred within the relationships of these 4   – I think we should anticipate for much more emotionally driven, tense and personal X-Men sequels.   Here’s to 2016, and ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ .