X-Men: Days of Future Past ***

This X-Men prequel-sequel to Matthew Vaughn’s 2011 film X-Men: First Class is a tale of time-travel and apparent alternate universes. Director Bryan Singer(who helmed the best of the previous X-Men movies) and screenwriters Jane Goldman, Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn all bring a sense of substance and vibrancy to what could’ve been just another superhero franchise movie.

The film opens in a dark apocalyptic vision of the future where an ongoing war between mutants and humans has led to widespread destruction. State-of-the-art robots called Sentinels have succeeded in wiping out most of mutant-kind, but on a remote outpost, Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto,(Ian Mckellen) plan to send Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to 1973. They intend to stop a train of events involving Mystique(Jennifer Lawrence) and  Dr Trask,(Peter Dinklage) a government scientist who pioneered the Sentinal technology and used Mystique’s shape-shifting mutant abilities to refine the efficiency of these killing machines. Once you get over the clunky Terminator/The Matrix inspired tech-enslaving-futuristic-robot-time-travel-exposition-set-up, the experience is infinitely more enjoyable.

Wolverine(Hugh Jackman) wakes up in the 1970’s with the mission of convincing the younger Professor Xavier(James McAvoy) and Magneto(Michael Fassbender) of the dark future that will incur unless they try and rewrite their present. The 70’s period setting is not only appealingly evoked but it seems to have been chosen so we can have fun watching the X-Men strutting around with dodgy sideburns, brown leather jackets and bad shirts – in much the same way that American Hustle or even Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy derived its humour from that era – and it does provide a certain levity and charm to what is a rather straight-faced movie.

Singer is sure to utilize the hallmarks of the previous X-Men movies, but whereas before the creative licence taken on the political/historical backdrop has conveyed mutant activity amidst The Holocaust and the Cuban missile crisis, Days of Future Past references the Vietnam war and links Magneto’s metal manipulation abilities to the swerving bullet of the Kennedy assassination – crass, indeed, but it just about gets away with it.

Although the third act is a mandatory CGI setpiece, the most interesting stuff is all to do with the characters and the dialogue, which really is testament to how effectively the actors portray them and how substantially fleshed out the characters are in the script. James McAvoy is compelling as a jaded, disillusioned Xavier and Michael Fassbender is icily charismatic and perfidious as Magneto. As Wolverine begins to assemble his X-Men team there are some truly great moments, particularly when Professor X, Wolverine and Quicksilver try to bust Magneto out of a high security prison cell and Quicksilver, with the aid of his mutant ability to stall time, moves around bullets with his hands in a slow-motion The Matrix-esque gunfight to the sound of Jim Croce singing “If I could save time in a bottle…”

Days of Future Past often feels baggy and unfocussed and the time travel plot is messy and doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. However, the film has a kind of substantial, meaty quality to it, which ultimately prevents the experience from feeling completely flimsy - even in its most ludicrous moments.

The Purge: Anarchy ***

The sequel to last year’s dystopian horror focuses this time on the street-level carnage of the annual ‘purge night’ – a 12 hour window where crimes as serious as murder can be perpetrated without facing the consequences. This time a mother and daughter find themselves stranded in the streets of Los Angeles where they are prey to a host of bloodthirsty gangs.

The narrative is even more flimsy than its predecessor, but whereas the first ‘Purge’ was a boring film with a compelling premise, the sequel is more satirical, nihilistic and enjoyable. The dystopian wasteland of LA is very sub-28 Days/Weeks Later and the political ideas are conveyed in a clumsier, more obvious way than before, but the central conspiracy idea relating to the cruel upper-class attempting to ‘cleanse’ the weak underclass from society is still engaging.