I personally prefer 'The Rogue Cut' of
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2015).
X-tra Rogue was what this film needed...
The film’s beginning includes a Professor X voiceover and the opening credits sequence/theme like we’ve come to expect (which were all absent in First Class), as we’re dropped into the middle of this post-apocalyptic grim/dark future (with bright neon lights!) Xavier describes, where mutants are far fewer than they were and this has led to a surprising team-up between Xavier/Magneto (it’s good to see Patrick Stewart/Ian McKellen together again onscreen) along with familiar characters Wolverine, Storm (could her hair BE any shorter?), Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Colossus...and a bunch of new mutants we don’t know/care about who serve as cannon fodder (though Iceman gets the nastiest demise). However, it's a total “Psyche!” moment, as Kitty (once again showing off her delightfully amusing potty-mouth) soon reveals this was them warning their future selves. In this bleak future, Sentinels (which now resemble the Destroyer from 2011’s
Thor) possess Mystique’s ability to change/adapt, giving them the various mutants’ powers (which they turn on them/kill them with).
They gained her power because past Mystique assassinated Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), who was experimenting on mutants, and she got captured/her blood was used. Xavier tasks Kitty (now possessing the unexplained power to send someone’s mind back in time to their past self’s body) with sending Wolverine (whose mind, which heals, is the only one that can handle such a distant/prolonged trip) back to prevent the assassination/creation of this unbeatable enemy. The 70’s setting provides some good humour (lava lamps! Water beds! Logan's butt! No internet! Okay,
one of those mightn’t be 70’s-specific), as Future-Logan’s-mind-in-Past-Logan's-body has to navigate unfamiliar territory. He's surprised to find Charles (James McAvoy) walking and Hank (Nicholas Hoult) a non-hairy-Beast. Turns out they're using an unmentioned-until-now serum that suppresses their mutations (where was this when Rogue wanted to be able to touch people without putting them in a coma, HMM?).
After Logan has essentially the same thing he said to Charles during his First Class cameo thrown back in his face, it takes some convincing to get this now-shaggy-haired/bearded young Xavier to help out. Eventually he does, but they require the services of Michael Fassbender’s Magneto...who's in prison for killing Kennedy (though he later reveals to Charles he was trying to SAVE him...because he was a mutant), so Logan seeks the help of Evan Peters’ Peter/Quicksilver (who’s treated like he's an old friend we should
know). While most apparently think of the slow-mo sequence showing off Quicksilver’s super-speed as a film highlight, my ‘unpopular opinion’ is I prefer the MCU version, as this one’s powers are mainly just an excuse to show him pranking folks in between saving people. I’m much more interested in seeing J-Law’s Raven/Mystique FINALLY kicking major butt (like Rebecca Romijn’s version always did), since we got NONE of that during First Class.
Raven’s now much more bitter, her ‘friends’ (ie. Magneto’s lame/forgettable crew from First Class) are dead after having been experimented on and she’s determined to put a bullet in Trask...except Magneto winds up putting a bullet in *her* (well, her leg) in a nifty display of his powers (whilst all this is happening, Logan momentarily loses his future self’s consciousness and he freaks out, not knowing where he is/WTF Beast is after Hank changes back to a furball. Thankfully, Hoult’s Beast makeup/prosthetics is somewhat-improved), and once again Erik's inadvertently responsible for screwing things up (first paralysing Charles, now spilling Raven’s blood that’s used for Sentinels). McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence and Hoult all firmly established the different dynamics between their characters in their previous film, and I enjoyed their interaction with each other (as well as Jackman’s Logan/Wolverine) the most in this film. The new characters introduced? Not-so-much.
Although it’s nice seeing Ellen Page/Shawn Ashmore get to play more prominent/important roles as Kitty/Bobby than they did previously (plus, we
finally see Iceman do his signature comic-book ‘ice-surfing’ move), it sucks for Rogue that those two are together after she took the cure to be with Bobby. However, 'The Rogue Cut’ shows she *still* somehow has her absorption power, and after Kitty’s inadvertently hurt by Wolverine when he lashes out (he has a habit of doing this, as Rogue can attest after him doing the same thing to her in the first film) as his mind's short-circuiting, Bobby FINALLY remembers his ex-girlfriend. He's apparently known ALL THIS TIME she’s being held in Cerebro at the old X-Mansion, but previous rescue attempts failed/were abandoned because of...tight security (really? You have SUPER-POWERS.
Nothing should be ‘impenetrable’ for you!). Evidently, Bobby sucks.
Iceman, Magneto and Xavier (who actually gets to *do* something instead of being taken out of commission/sidelined/vaporised) rescue Rogue, and she’s briefly reunited with her jerky ex...just in time for him to DIE AGAIN (at least it's while protecting/saving her, so he's not completely useless). Obviously, Kitty doesn’t take this news well (a shame that Ellen Page’s best acting was exorcised from the theatrical version) and Rogue 'borrows' her power, using it to keep Logan’s mind in the past. There's other less significant stuff added back in, some helps explain certain things, but what I really appreciated were all the little ‘character moments’ sprinkled throughout, which I thought added something extra to the film, fleshing out some character relationships/dynamics. ‘The Rogue Cut’ feels like a more 'complete' film. While the movies always did her character dirty, I still appreciated the bond between Anna Paquin's Marie/Rogue and Jackman's Logan/Wolverine, so I was thankful to see them together again (even if he was unconscious for it).
While I really enjoyed First Class, Bryan Singer's return helped make this film what it was. He handles the action (the 'stadium levitation' sequence especially) and the time-travel shenanigans well, 'righting' the many 'wrongs' of The Last Stand with this film's ending (which is the only place we see Rogue in the theatrical version), the Jean/Scott cameos (plus Kelsey Grammer's Beast) were genuine surprises and, honestly, since it's all downhill from here...probably best to just pretend this movie's the TRUE ending for this iteration of the X-Men.