X-Men: Days of Future Past stands to be one of the best comic book movies of the year and perhaps of recent history. Director Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) seems fully in control of the franchise and film genre that he helped birth. Many were wary of the quality of the production due to a few missteps in his recent filmography. However, his return to the franchise shows his mastery of character, tone and realistic motivations, that elevate the material above the usual popcorn fair.

Singer expertly manipulates tone and setting to a surprising effect. The 1973 setting is realistic and the attention to wardrobe and production design feels authentic. In addition, the tone shifts from a dystopian future, to a caper film, to a breathtaking and powerful drama, all the while using the action to support the character’s motivations and story. Each character gets a specific purpose which really make the ensemble cast standout.

Hugh Jackman returns to the role of Wolverine. He has a mental, not physical challenge in this installment, which surprisingly shows that there is still much character for Jackman to explore. His assignment is to convince a young, drug riddled Charles Xavier, played by James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland) and an incarcerated Magneto, played by Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave) to help him change the apocalyptic future. In order to do so, they must stop Mystique, portrayed by the engaging Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games) from an assassination attempt against scientist Bolivar Trask, played by Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage. The assassination will ultimately turn the public opinion against mutant kind and lead to the creation of Sentinels, super robots with the sole purpose of eradicating mutant-kind.

The time travel element successfully reinvigorates the franchise.  A lot like 2009’s Star Trek reboot, without going into spoilers, by the end of the film the story potential is limitless for the franchise. (They have already announced the upcoming sequel X-Men: Apocalypse.) There are also various callbacks and cameos to previous films that add layers to the film that only long term fans of the series can appreciate. There are some loose ends and continuity issues that if carefully inspected, aren’t neccesarily resolved, but the ambitious nature of the project really makes you not sweat the details too much.