X-Men gets better, darker

FEW film franchises get better with age, but X-Men is one of them.

Days of Future Past, the seventh film based on Marvel’s mutant comics, is the best yet, combining the top talent from the younger and older generations of actors to have graced the franchise.

Set in a bleak future, a human-mutant war has resulted in indestructible robot sentinels which are hunting down the last of the X-Men.

Knowing their days, and perhaps even their hours, are numbered, Kitty Pryde’s power is used to teleport Wolverine’s consciousness back to 1973 to prevent the pivotal event which originally sparked the inter-species conflict.

It’s a handy device used to bring the cast of X-Men: First Class together with the older, original cast.

If you haven’t seen any of the previous X-Men films, you may find Days of Future Past a bit confusing as scenes cut between two actors playing the same character.

Days of Future Past is quite dark for an X-Men film, and has a particularly grim and graphic opening scene to establish the critical importance of Wolverine’s mission, so take heed of the M rating.

But while the overall theme is one of impending doom and desperation, there are key funny moments that lighten the mood.

Evan Peters’ smaller role as a young Quicksilver is one prime