I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past over the weekend. I really enjoyed it. It strayed from the comic book storyline it was based on, but did so in a way that was consistent with what had already been established in the previous movies and with more substance than two issues from a comic book series could give.
Now that I’ve had a few days to think about the movie, I can see some problems with the plot. I’m not talking about technological anachronisms or continuity errors. It’s just that given the resources at hand, the characters could have accomplished their goals much more effectively and efficiently than they did.
Since I’m about to analyze and discuss aspects of the plot, expect major *SPOILERS* if you haven’t already seen the movie.
Quicksilver
Bryan Singer has set a high bar for Joss Wheadon. Quicksilver’s scenes were some of the best in the movie. Jim Croce’s Time in a Bottle was the best use of music I’ve heard since Helix ended its first season. But these scenes also showed that Wolverine really didn’t need anyone else to change the timeline.
Since Mystique’s actions were history to Wolverine, he already knew everything he needed to be able to stop her. He just couldn’t do it alone. That’s why he sought out Xavier and Magneto. But Quicksilver could have handled things all on his own.
Breaking into the most secure prison in the US showed us that getting into a hotel conference room would have been child’s play for Quicksilver. He was fast enough to divert dozens of bullets fired by the prison guards. He could easily have used the same trick to protect Bolivar Trask and keep Mystique from being tasered by Stryker. The way he ran with Magneto to get past the first wave of guards would also work to get Mystique out of the room so that she couldn’t be captured and her DNA used to create the Sentinels.
In fact, there wasn’t a single challenge in the movie that Quicksilver couldn’t have solved on his own. He was like Star Trek: TNG’s transporters, the universal problem solver.
Mystique
Mystique’s mutant ability is to impersonate anyone almost perfectly. She is a formidable fighter, but infiltration and deception are her specialties. Why did she see killing Trask as her best option for stopping his Sentinel program?
At the end of the movie we see that Trask was charged and convicted of selling technology and weapons to hostile nations. That is exactly what he was doing when Mystique tried to assassinate him. He tried selling his plan to the US, but was rejected. So, he took the opportunity provided by the Paris Peace Accords to bring his ideas to the USSR, China and North Vietnam.
Mystique knew what Trask was doing. She had already impersonated him to get at his plans. That is how she knew how to find him. Wouldn’t exposing his intentions to the American authorities have discredited him without exposing mutants as threats? And she could have done this without revealing her activities. This tactic would have been much more effective, and more importantly, right in line with how she was used to dealing with problems.
Of course, if the writers had used Quicksilver and Mystique in these ways, the movie would have been much less entertaining.