X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Bryan Signer’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past” –- his first return to the Marvel Mutant franchise in 11 years -– has one of those plots that would jump several Marvel titles and have me buying and reading lest I miss a twist. “Future Past” is literal as we focus on clawed-hero Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, Marvel’s hardest working man) leaping from 2023 to 1973 to stop an Orwellian existence started by a mad scientist (Peter Dinklage) bent on domination. Indeed we get the heroes and villains of the two “X-Men” time-line franchises, with seniors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan and sophomores James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender respectively playing hero Professor X and (non)villain Magneto, all for one admission. Singer serves the giddiest fun scene of the entire “X” films -- a punk speed demon (Evan Peters) breaks Magneto out of a Pentagon cell -– but, damn it, all the time leaping and plot erasing reminds me of the futility of so many comic books. No one dies. Watch a well-known character perish? No worries, wait three minutes, it won’t matter. Emotional investment? Suspense? Wet fireworks. Pay up for the next chapter, please. In three-color print, it worked. On screen? It rings empty. B-

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

Fairy tales are always ripe for reinterpretation, and director Bryan Singer (“X-Men”) does that and openly plays with the notion of scrambling legends in “Jack the Giant Slayer.” 

That’s the new film about the beanstalk kid with the piss-poor mom, the cow, and the beans, all busied up with one giant eye (sorry) on “Lord of the Rings” and the Hollywood obsession of turning every adventure story into a war epic. 

Nicholas Holt is Jack, who lives with his uncle and stupidly trades a horse (changes!) for magic beans which lead him and a princess (Elanor Tomlinson) to the land of giants. Rescues by Jack abound because even now the princess still must be helpless. Pfft. P.S. No golden eggs here. 

“Jack” endured a tortuous production and a recent title change, and the troubles show: The giants are dodgy CGI creatures passable 10 years ago. Ewan McGregor as a valiant hero is a hoot, and Stanley Tucci as the villain has fun with bad teeth. 

But two game actors and the often witty dialogue can’t keep this “Giant” from getting cut off at the knees. Also, bless his heart, but I bet Holt has never even visited a farm. C+

The Usual Suspects (1995)

“The Usual Suspects” torched my film-freak brain 15 years ago. The smoke lingers. Haven’t seen it? Stop reading. I can’t talk about “Suspects” without spilling the end to this crooked crook’s tale. See, Bryan Singer is director and Christopher McQuarrie is writer, but Kevin Spacey is God here. The other characters and we in the audience are his chess pawns. We open on a cargo ship on fire with bodies everywhere before jumping to one survivor in an ER and another in police custody, getting grilled. Rhetorically. Not literally. We only think Spacey’s sickly conman Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint is spilling to the cops. But Kint is really Keyzer Söze, the devil himself. His whole confession is a mixture of truth and sly lies that can never be unraveled, and I gladly fall for the ruse every time. The ending is obvious now. It’s Kevin fhk’n Spacey. But in 1995, we still lived in a ‘Who is this guy?’ world, and Netscape didn’t help. Having an actor play chess master has never felt so damn good. A

X2: X-Men United (2003)

“X2” -- Bryan Singer’s sequel to 2000’s “X-Men” -- goes deeper, darker and more politically blunt with barely veiled references to discrimination, imprisonment or murder of any group (Muslims, gays) deemed “dangerous” and “subversive” by right-wing flag waivers. In a LOL scene, a mom asks her super-powered son: “Have you ever tried not being a Mutant?” Nearly all of the heroes and villains of the first chapter return and reluctantly bond when threatened by a third party, a wild horse Army Special Ops guru named William Stryker (Brian Cox, making sinister look easy). Tones of faith, religion, trust, and the lure of evil are mixed in with a strong plot that further makes Professor X (Patrick Stewart) into an MLK Jr. figure and Magneto (Ian McKellen) into an early Malcolm X gone evil, while pushing the story forward. Hugh Jackman rocks as Wolverine, tough guy and babe magnet. I still hate the title: There’s not much uniting here. A-

X-Men (2000)

I love the in-your-face politics of “X-Men,” from the 1963-born comic book to the 2000 film. The set-up: A group of super heroes, born with powers through genetic hiccups at birth, fight for the common good, even protecting those who discriminate against them. In 1963, it was all racial equality. This film, directed by Bryan Singer, tilts toward immigrants and gays. And 10 years on, this take remains fresh with Arizona’s new immigration law and the Pentagon still insisting that only straights are worthy of serving their country. But I digress. Here, the righteous X-Men battle the menacing Brotherhood of Mutants for New York City, after the latter attacks with a sort-of genetics bomb. (Hey, it’s still a comic book movie.) Surprisingly thoughtful, the movie suffers greatly from Halle Berry’s stilted performance as weather-manipulator Storm, some clunky action scenes, and dialogue that often floats like a rock in water. Leading the respective sides are Patrick Stewart as Professor X and Ian McKellen as Magneto, who were born for these roles. Or maybe the characters were written for them 50 years ago? B

Valkyrie (2008)

"Valkyrie" is as dramatically deep as your average brownie and contains a myriad of accents that are, for the most part, not even close to German. But this Tom Cruise-starring dramatization of the failed July 1944 assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler is in line with the great WWII thrillers from the 1950s and 1960s that starred Gregory Peck, William Holden or Richard Burton.

The miracle here is that director Bryan Singer and co-writers Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander make us want the would-be assassins to succeed despite a minimum of action and a known outcome. (If you're remotely shocked at this "spoiler," turn off the Internet and pick up a friggin' history book.)

Cruise stars as Claus von Stauffenberg, the severely wounded Nazi army colonel who sees his Fuhrer for what he is -- evil incarnate -- and decides to stop him. Through a casual comment here and a few chance encounters, Stauffenberg meets with like-minded German men and the murder-by-bomb plot is on. Cruise, one eye covered by a patch and without the use of his right hand or most of his left hand, is a great Hollywood hero. He never digs deeps into the role as he did in "Born on the Fourth of July" or even "Tropic Thunder," but he's nonetheless solid.

I wish the script presented us with a crisis of conscious or eureka moment for Stauffenberg, but the character is against Hitler as the opening credits roll. It's a big disappointment in an otherwise good film.

Where some people see the lack of German accents as a minus, I take it as a plus. No one tries on a voice they can't carry. Cruise sounds exactly like Cruise, the same with the supporting players Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard and Kenneth Branagh. Why is that good? Think of Kevin Costner trying for Brit in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and try not to wince. Singer ("The Usual Suspects") made a wise choice. B+