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Film review: X-Men — Days of Future Past (12A)

JEFF SAWTELL reads a note of resistance in X-Men

The latest in the X-Men franchise begins some time in the future.

There Sentinel robots are waging war on mutants — metaphors for human minorities — as we witness sinister scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) creating a super anti-mutant weapon. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), is despatched by X-Men Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) back to 1973 in an attempt to alter the course of history.

The desperate hope is that the course of events will be changed and doom for both mutants and humans can be averted. By destroying their murderous forbears Armageddon can be zapped too, the logic runs.

The Sentinels have an advantage because unlike Wolverine, they can shape-shift into a mutant or human. It being 1973 — a year when the Vietnam war raged — Wolverine's sans silvery claws.

But his biggest problem is convincing the younger Xavier and Magneto — brio performances by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender — not only of who he is but also why they must unite.

The incarcerated Magneto is freed in a superb slo-mo scene in which a grid iron stadium is uprooted to surround the White House where President “Tricky Dicky” Nixon (Mark Camacho) cowers. The convoluted plot sees Wolverine and the mutants attempting to foil Trask and there are major confrontations with the shape-shifting Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence).

Despite the film being set in the period of the Vietnam war and the parallels that can be drawn with the US conflict with the Vietcong “others,” there’s no concession to the fact that the Washington war machine was beaten by the Vietnamese in open warfare nor the fact that the US created genetic mutants with their chemical weapons.

That cruel irony should resonate with the millions who opposed the war.

This X-Men is a sophisticated feature but its message is simple — collaborating around a common cause gets results against the greatest of odds. Apart from amazing action and intelligent interchanges it’s studded with sardonic humour and irrepressible symbols of hope.

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