X-Men: Past and Future Make a Perfect Present

Back from “X-Men: Days of Future Past” with Matt Mattingly and Bart Rettberg. Bryan Singer’s film will join that handful of near-perfect superhero movies that includes “The Avengers,” “Iron Man,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Batman Begins.”

The movie has many mutants, giant robots, time travel — all that great comic-book stuff embedded in a melodrama that works because it spotlights characters with whom you can empathize, particularly the always charming and accessible Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, who leads the audience through the preposterous proceedings like a friendly guide. It’s peppered with well-placed humor and lighter touches, but marches at a perfect pace toward a satisfying, suspenseful dual climax of superheroic Sturm und Drang.