Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,  Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Daniel Cudmore, Evan Peters, Fan Bingbing, Josh Helman, Ellen Page,  Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till, Evan Jonigkeit, Gregg Lowe, Mark Camacho, James Marsden, Famke Janssen.

There is a war coming and battle lines will be drawn, anybody with a voice or a love to lose will be forced to choose a side. The war, innocent as it sounds, will be between those who relish in the thought of the X-Men franchise carrying on towards the end of its second decade and those who think that graphic novels and comic books have no place in the world of cinema, that they only belong with the trash.

No matter what you believe, it’s hard to not like the latest in the abundant sequels that Wolverine, Professor X, Magneto and Mystique have graced the cinema with. Even if some of the characters now seem a little overplayed.

X-Men: Days of Future Past isn’t the first of the Marvel films to be adapted from a single series of the comic books but in many ways it’s one of the finest, (No matter how long you are going to wait its possible you will never see the Secret Wars 12 issue story played out, or even perhaps a full scale adaption of the Fantastic Four that does the first family of Marvel any true justice, or Daredevil for that matter.)

With one moment in time being pivotal to the future of Mutants and Homo Sapiens alike, Mystique, arguably alongside the Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey and Wolverine as the strongest and most-well liked of all the Mutant characters inside the X-Men range, decides to kill Bolivar Task, played by a fantastic Peter Dinklage, the man whose death will spark off the absolute fear of all mutants and the mass extermination of Human and Homo Superior alike.

Yes there are going to be a few scratches of heads to get round the plot of two concurrent versions of history being played out upon the screen but if the cinema goer takes time out to read the original story that it is taken from, such things do become self-explanatory. It is a film though that does stand on its feet and a perfect excuse to relive every moment in the series so far, with possible exception of the Wolverine origin story.

In a story that has many of much loved characters taken part, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, James McAvoy as the young doubt ridden Professor X, the superb Michael Fassbender as the young Magneto and Nicholas Hoult as the young Beast all steal the show. Jennifer Lawrence gives such a sterling performance as the blue skinned Mutant that she confirms her position as one of the best young screen actors in America today. There isn’t a moment when her performance isn’t spell-binding and as true to the Mystique in the graphic novels as you could possibly ask for.

There will be those who are almost zealous in their hatred of such films and who decry the franchise as glorified violence but scratch beneath its surface a few times and the morality of the story peeks out and blinks unnervingly in the bright lights of oppression, a world that nearly was allowed to happen and still could.

The prospect of more X-Men films to come are surely high, whilst graphic novels still sell in their millions, there will always be those willing to pay for them to be adapted and in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the outlook for them all has a high mark to equal.

Ian D. Hall