New Delhi: X-Men, the movie franchise, goes from strength to strength. After the first movie of 2000, which was the milestone that signaled the beginning of the current superhero movie craze, the two sequels did well but were artistically disappointing, in particular 'The Last Stand' (2006). This was followed by 'X-Men: First Class' (2011) which brought back some of the first movie's charm, helped as it was by a strong cast.
Spinoffs have not been that fortunate, with 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' (2009) being panned for being thematically schizophrenic and 'The Wolverine' (2013) not managing to be among the better superhero movies of the past decade and half. Other X-men characters' origin stories have been quietly shelved, disproving the theory that everything Marvel Studios touches turns to gold, but between us, barring Hugh Jackman's surly mutant, the other X-Men wouldn't work very well as standalones.
So we now have 'X-Men: Days of Future Past', interesting for the superhero movie genre because it represents an important thematic shift, being based on a well-known and critically acclaimed one-off comic book series. The principal advantage of the storyline is it lets the cast of 'First Class' and the previous trilogy, older versions of the X-Men, star together. This includes Wolverine who, to the delight of his fans, plays a key role in the plot.
The story 'Days of Future Past' on which the movie is based was published in two issues (Uncanny X-Men Nos. 141 and 142) in 1981, co-written by Chris Claremont and the great John Byrne, who five years later wrote the re-telling of the Superman mythos. Byrne also penciled the story.
The early 80s were a period of re-evaluation for the comic book industry. Long before Comic-Cons became popular and superhero movies became mainstream, writers including Byrne were trying to address the new post-Vietnam generation. Traditional golden age heroism had to be reworked to address a certain cynical, even dark approach to what heroism had come to mean.
This line of thought led to the new Superman mythos where Byrne focused on Superman's adoption of human values, for instance. Eventually it led to the 'Death of Superman' and 'Breaking of the Bat' storylines in DC. The second, part of the groundbreaking 'Knightfall' series, was adopted in part by Christopher Nolan in 'The Dark Knight Rises' (2012).
'Days of Future Past' was a standout when it was published, being an exercise in dystopian speculative fiction. This is, or was till then, almost exclusively the preserve of science fiction writers and not comic books. As you will notice in the movie, the story deals with war against mutants and state repression in the future, and a small band's attempt to forestall it by travelling through time. Byrne's story was dark and ominous, and so was his art, although it must be said that the angles, colour tones and viewpoints in vogue in comics back then did not make this an easy experiment.
The story was well received and Byrne's status as a gifted writer was established even more strongly than earlier. It therefore makes a good choice as a movie today. We have passed through our own golden age of superhero movies, and the time has come to deal with darker themes and plots (Batman, being perennially dark, doesn't count).
Even more significant, this is the first time a superhero movie is based entirely on a single comic book storyline which is not necessarily canon. Nolan's Batman series employed plots from 'Knightfall', 'No Man's Land' and 'Year One'. 'The Wolverine' draws themes and settings from 'Wolverine: The End', and the other better-known superhero movies have relied on existing comic book stories. But this is the first time a superhero movie is based on a single comic book series.
This has several advantages. For one, a truly great superhero movie by definition has to have organic integrity in the plot. This is not possible if one employs pastiches of great plots and doubly difficult in the absence of a great director like Kenneth Branagh or Nolan. Bryan Singer is still known for 'The Usual Suspects' and not for 'Superman Returns' or 'Valkyrie'. So his competent direction based on such existing story material means future directors will look for single story series to adapt in their entirety. We will then expect noted works and milestones from comics to find their way to the big screen.
Of course, all this does not mean Cyclops will ever be reinstated in the moviegoer's consciousness as anything other than a wimp. That damage, we are sorry to say, is irreversible.
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