Freeview film of the day: X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past ★★★★
Premiere 9.00-11.40pm C4

I interviewed James McAvoy about the seventh X-Men instalment, having only seen five minutes of completed footage. Such are the promotional frustrations given the vertiginous level at which the Marvel franchise operates. (Its nine films have taken $4.3 billion so far.) I can now vouch for the remaining 126 minutes. The previous “origins” story, First Class (2011), flashed back to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. This one sends the present-day Wolverine (HughJackman) to a pre-Watergate 1973, while the younger Xavier and Magneto (McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) meet their elder selves (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen) via a nifty bit of timebending. With high-wire action aced by returning director Bryan Singer and Peter Dinklage as a baddie with a Napoleon complex, it’s satisfying stuff. Since then we’ve enjoyed Deadpool and Apocalypse. Next stop: Logan, due in March.