X-Men: Days of Future Past

A big contributor to the awesomeness of the latest installment in the franchise is the return of Bryan Singer to the director’s chair. Singer piloted the first two X-Men films, and he has a nice command of the characters in their old and younger incarnations. The film starts in the future, where the likes of Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) have been reduced to hiding out in a dark, apocalyptic world where their enemy is a vicious robotic mutant-hunting force called the Sentinels. With help of the powers of Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Wolverine travels back in time to the early 1970s, before the Sentinels have gone into production, and before shape-shifting Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) commits a murder that will ultimately bring about the doom of the future. Most of the action takes place in the past, so the younger X-Men: First Class actors get most of the screen time. That means more of the terrific Michael Fassbender’s take on Magneto, and James McAvoy stealing the show as young Xavier/Professor X. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13