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Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past
I need to stop worrying about new X-Men movies. FOX knows what they’re doing. Ahead of X-Men: First Class, I thought it was going to just be a terrible, desperate attempt to hold on to the franchise – but it is now my favorite X-Movie. And I thought X-Men: Days of Future Past was going to be a mess of time travel and too many characters. Boy was I wrong about that one. X-Men: Days of Future Past is an enjoyable X-Flick, with a solid cast, an important plot and some quality, unique mutant action.
I wasn’t as blown away as some critics have been, but consider me a firm believer that the X-Men are in good hands.
Movie Rating: 7/10 – Good.
I think what Days of Future Past lacked, at least for me, was a uniquely X-Men story element to grab onto. There were some great super-powers on display, especially Quicksilver and Blink, but they were minor elements of the much larger, less captivating film. Instead of starring the actual X-Men, Days of Future Past was about the trio of Wolverine, Xavier and young Hank McCoy running around trying to catch up to the rest of the movie. The really compelling characters, the ones who drive the plot, are Mystique and maybe Magneto, but both of them are relegated to side character status.
Mystique may do something evil, and Magneto will definitely do something evil, and it’s up to Wolverine and his Amazing Friends to try and get there in time to stop it. Compare that to X-Men: First Class, which had the recruitment and training of the new students, the formation of the X-Men, and the evil Hellfire Club, all while really focusing on the Xavier/Magneto friendship. First Class had a lot going for it in terms of mutants and the X-Men, but Days of Future Past is just a movie about the heroes racing to save the day. Fortunately, it has some fun on the way there.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is not a disappointment, by any means. It’s a solid, entertaining entry into the X-Men franchise. But for me, I would have liked a bit more Adamantium on the claws – though not literally.
Join me after the jump for the full review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 5/24/14
I don’t know about you guys and gals, but I’m still too broken up about the Edgar Wright/Ant-Man news! He was supposed to be the Chosen One! Talk about a bad way to start Memorial Day weekend. Fortunately, I wrote these reviews before I heard the news, so let’s get right to them, shall we?!
The biggest deal this week was the finale of Forever Evil…but the delays definitely hurt the book. I feel it kind of limped across the finish line, overfilling the issue with ‘cool moments’ to try and compensate. Fortunately, the Justice League follow-up was much better. On the Marvel side of things, we’ve got the second issue of Original Sin! Or what I like to call, issue #1.5. Yeah.
Much more fortunately, I snagged a copy of Lumberjanes #2 in time to review it, so that’s exciting! And Comic of the Week goes to Uncanny X-Men #21, especially for its awesome handling of Magneto and Blob!
The bromance is over
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Factor #8, Amazing Spider-Man #2, Batman Eternal #7, Forever Evil #7, Justice League #30, Lumberjanes #2, Original Sin #2, Sinestro #2, Uncanny X-Men #21.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 5/10/14
It is with a heavy heart that I announce that I am throwing in the towel of doing full, giant-sized reviews of All-New X-Factor. I got hit with a lot of work at the end of this week, including those reviews of Teen Titans and Ultimate Spider-Man, and I took a long hard look at All-New X-Factor and decided that I just didn’t care enough anymore. I started the long-form reviews for X-Factor because it was my favorite comic starring my favorite character, but it has since become a shadow of its former self.
So from now on, let’s welcome All-New X-Factor to our Hench-Sized Reviews! I hope it finds the place a nice fit.
Beyond that new issue, this week brought an avalanche of good comics, some of which I had to simply skip right over due to time constraints. I really want to get back to reviewing Black Widow, and She-Hulk was really good again, but this week I had to focus on the first chapters of Original Sin and Futures End, the new Big Event comics from Marvel and DC.
Neither one is all that great, quite frankly.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Magneto #3, though I have a feeling that some of the comics still on my pile waiting to be read might be a little better. Still, out of the stack I managed to get done in time for reviews, Magneto was pretty cool.
Plus he’s got that starring role coming up in X-Men: Days of Future Past. So I want to be on his good side.
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Factor #7, Aquaman and the Others #2, Batman Eternal #5, Futures End #1, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #2, Magneto #3 and Original Sin #1.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/5/14
Busy week, my friends. Between seeing the new Captain America film, a dentist appointment and spending some time with my parents, I didn’t have time to get to all the comics I wanted. There are so many cool and interesting books coming out these days, but I had to cut my review list short, because The Winter Soldier wasn’t going to wait for any man! Neither were those fillings, ouch!
I decided to shake things up a little bit this week by paying a visit to Action Comics. I haven’t touched that series since about mid-way through Grant Morrison’s disappointing run – probably only disappointing to me. I know most people love that guy. But how poorly has Superman had it in the New 52? It’s depressing. But I think that writer Greg Pak is at least doing something fun with Action Comics.
A slew of Marvel’s new comics hit the stands this week, but I was only able to get to a few of them. The new Magneto is pretty good, but I really didn’t like the first issue of Inhuman. I’m afraid Marvel’s Next Big Thing is a bit of a dud from the get-go. But maybe you thought differently. What I do know is that Moon Knight won Comic Book of the Week almost on art alone!
He is…not quite the night
Comic Reviews: Action Comics #30, Aquaman and the Others #1, Inhuman #1, Magneto #2 and Moon Knight #2.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/8/14
The new Marvel #1 issues keep pouring in! This week we’ve got Magneto, Moon Knight and the new relaunch of Wolverine and the X-Men. Personally, I have been super satisfied with the All-New Marvel NOW! campaign. It has produced some wonderful books – and some real stinkers. Fortunately, the releases this week are all mostly good.
I was very tempted to give Uncanny X-Men the gold star this week. I’ve ranted and raved before about how much I’m loving Cyclops these days, and the new issue is all about Cyclops! But then I got to thinking…we’re 18 issues into Uncanny X-Men, but has Brian Michael Bendis even gotten around to starting this ‘Mutant Revolution’ of his? The Uncanny X-Men have mostly just swirled around themselves this whole time, accomplishing little. And that kind of bummed me out. Fortunately, a new issue of She-Hulk came along to warm my heart and win Comic Book of the Week!
I hope there are some Patsy Walker fans in the audience!
Not only is Charles Soule going to be writing about legal logic, but he’s a master of drunk logic as well!
Comic Reviews: Forever Evil #6, Green Lantern #29, Magneto #1, Moon Knight #1, New Warriors #2, She-Hulk #2, Uncanny X-Men #18 and Wolverine and the X-Men #1.
Henchman-4-Hire 