Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/326223
THIS WEEK St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 NT Live Presents King Lear 19:00 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 X-Men: Days of Future Past (12A) 10:30, 14:30, 18:00, 20:50 Godzilla (12A) 10:00, 13:00, 15:40, 18:20, 21:00 Simshar (12A) 10:15, 13:45, 16:10, 18:30, 20:55 The Other Woman (12A) 16:10, 18:40, 21:10 Edge of Tomorrow (12A) 10:25, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 Maleficent 3D (PG) 10:30, 14:00, 16:20, 18:45, 21:10 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 Bad Neighbours (15) 14:20, 16:30, 18:50, 21:15, 23:25 Postman Pat The Movie (U) 14:15, 16:25, 18:30 The Double (15) 20:45, 22:55 Divergent (12A) 14:25, 18:00, 20:50, 23:35 A Million Ways to Die in the West (15) 14:00, 16:20, 18:45, 21:15, 23:40 The Other Woman (12A) 14:05, 16:25, 18:45, 21:10, 23:35 X-Men: Days Of Future Past 3D (12A) 14:30, 18:10, 21:00, 23:45 Godzilla 3D (PG) 14:25, 18:05, 20:50, 23:30 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PG) 14:20, 17:50, 20:45, 23:35 The Grand Budapest Hotel (12A) 14:10, 16:20, 18:40, 21:05, 23:20 Calvary (18) 14:15, 16:25, 18:35, 20:55, 23:05 The Quiet Ones (15) 14:10, 16:20, 18:30, 20:55, 23:15 Maleficent 3D (PG) 14:15, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:25 Edge of Tomorrow (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00, 23:25 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Godzilla (PG) 10:35, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 X-Men: Days Of Future Past 3D (12A) 10:45, 14:00, 18:00, 20:50, 23:30 Simshar (12A) 11:15, 13:35, 15:55, 18:15, 20:45 Edge of Tomorrow 3D (12A) 10:30, 13:40, 16:05, 18:30, 20:55 HOW many mutants does it take to change a light bulb? If the mu- tants in question are Marvel Com- ics's own X-Men – be they in the original print incarnation or in their equally lucrative cinematic adaptations – you can bet any- thing you own and will own that the answer to that question would be: "A lot". Whether the answer should be "too many" is debatable – though, I would argue, not entirely un- reasonable – but the fact remains that Marvel appears insistent on turning any outing featuring their superpowered, socially-embattled family of genetically advanced he- roes into a massive block party. You can see the cast of the X- Men films rapidly ballooning with each consecutive instalment of this, sometimes rocky, series. Its auspicious beginnings, with the straightforwardly titled, Bryan Singer-directed X-Men (2000) presented a comparatively trim team-up of superbeings (while also arguably creating a point-of- no-return precedent for polished superhero films). But come Brett Ratner-directed and much-maligned threequel X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), it clearly became a case of "too many characters spoil the broth" – a formula replicated to disastrous results with the puerile X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in which eve- ryone's favourite self-healing, be- clawed tough guy was – ironically (to be democratic), and stupidly (to be honest) – eclipsed by a torrent of supporting characters in his own film. And while Bryan Singer retuning to the X-fold he helped midwife into the existence on the silver screen – he's also responsible for what remains the superlative film in the series X2: X-Men United (2003) – he faces a similar predica- ment with X-Men: Days of Future Past. Culled from one of the most iconic storylines in the X-Men comics (penned by Chris Clare- mont and illustrated by John Byrne, 'Days of Future Past' ran over two issues of The Uncanny X- Men in 1981) and arriving to our silver screens thanks to a slightly confusing franchise re-jig, 'Days' sacrifices character and charm for a briskly-moving, but ultimately hollow, plot engine. So in the future, mutants are hunted down ('because prejudice', as the kids would say) by giant ro- bots called Sentinels and devised by scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). The real problem is that these Sentinels – or rather, the people who control them – got a bit overzealous and started to target absolutely everybody, lead- ing to the kind of perma-cloudy dystopian lifestyle that looks like a mixture between some kind of far- future and the stone age. Mutant ringleaders and ideologi- cal frenemies Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Erik 'Magneto' Lehnsherr (Ian McKel- len) decide to set their differences aside in an attempt to ward off the incessant onslaught of Sentinels from their secluded outpost. While a cadre of mutants hold down the fort, Xavier and Magneto devise a plan to send Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) mind into his younger body – by applying the powers of teleporting mutant Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) – in an attempt to stop the cataclysmic event which led to their current state of affairs. Mentally teleporting back to 1973 – when the Sentinel programme was first launched – Wolverine is charged with stopping fellow mu- tant, the shape-shifting Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assas- sinating Trask, which would lead to him becoming a martyr and convince the government to im- plement the Sentinels to the n-th degree. In order to do this successfully, however, Wolverine must first convince a younger, defeated and despondent Xavier (James McA- voy) – now languishing in his Mutant Academy grounds with Hank "Beast" McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) after the Vietnam War saps them of students – to do the seem- ingly impossible: break Magneto (Michael Fassbender) out of jail. (The trio first appeared in retro- X-Men origin story X-Men: First Class (2011).) The ensuing sequence is argu- ably the film's only real high point, with the rest taking the shape of a disappointingly average superhero actioner that seems to always be in a rush to get to the next scene, harried as it is by its time-hopping, complicated structure and the aforementioned too-many-char- acters syndrome. As the team opt to enlist the su- per-speedy Quicksilver (Evan Pe- ters) as the secret weapon in their prison break plan, the film not only gains an action sequence deserv- ing of hearty applause – and which matches the bravura pre-credits sequence to X2, in which the tele- porting Nightcrawler (Alan Cum- ming) takes on the White House – but it also gains a welcome (albeit temporary) jolt of humour and at- titude in a film that otherwise has too little of either. For all the hype leading up to its release, 'Days' fares poorly espe- cially by (inevitable) comparison to its Marvel Studios counter- parts. It's certainly a well-polished action vehicle that supplies all the necessary thrills, and screenwriter Simon Kinberg is to be commend- ed for streamlining its many time- travelling strands into a relatively coherent and easy-to-follow nar- rative. But this isn't really enough, is it? An 'event' picture of this kind should be more than the sum of its parts, moving with relative ef- ficiency to what was more or less a foregone conclusion. Though placing Lawrence's Mys- tique in the eye of the storm is a good idea – not only because the Oscar-winning actress and Hun- ger Games trilogy star is now a worldwide sensation, but also be- cause she actually undergoes a journey as a character – the rest of the cast is either wasted or, at best, under-served. Fassbender evokes quiet menace throughout – delivering his lines in a consistent raspy purr – that fools you into thinking he's actual- ly acting, and not lazily slumming it like the rest of his colleagues. A post-credits sequence (really, it's not worth waiting for) teases yet another in-comics X-Men saga is in the offing for the (inevitable) sequel to 'Days'. Let's hope the team take things at a more even pace this time. And more Quicksilver, please. maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 JUNE 2014 35 FILM IN CINEMAS TODAY By Teodor Reljic The end is the beginning is the end THIS WEEK ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ SUPERPOWER ★ ★ ★ ★ GOT THE POWER ★ ★ ★ FLOWER POWER ★ ★ WANING POWER ★ LOW BATTERY James McAvoy is visited by a future version of himself (Patrick Stewart) in this time-travelling X-Men sequel X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (12)) ★ ★ ★ ★