'X-Men: Apocalypse' Movie Review
The newest installation of the X-Men film franchise pits the "immortal" Apocalypse against our heroes. En Sabah Nur, the world's first mutant, was the ruler of Egypt thousands of years ago but was betrayed by his followers, buried under his temple.
He is rejuvenated when Moira McTaggert allows sunlight into the chamber, giving him new power and life. Apocalypse goes about recruiting new Horsemen in Storm, Psylocke, Angel and Magneto. The new team of X-Men, consisting of Professor X, Cyclops, Jean, Beast Mystique, Quicksilver and Nightcrawler, are tasked with saving the world from Apocalypse's "cleansing".
I'll start out with my negatives before going on to my positives.
I feel like Apocalypse was very misused and wasn't formidable. Seeing Apocalypse in the comics and even the 90's animated series, Apocalypse is an extremely powerful mutant and though his powers were impressive in the film, he himself didn't impose much of a threat to the X-Men. He mainly used the horsemen to do his bidding and set about destroying cities and landscapes. The fact that a teenage Nightcrawler was able to take the fight to him single-handedly goes to show how much he was powered down in the film. Apocalypse is a villain that could easily have been a threat in more than one film, much like Thanos being the "big bad" in the MCU.
I was a little confused as to why someone like Magneto would be given a plot line where he is living among humans and holding down a regular job, much like Wolverine in 'X-Men Origins', it just doesn't fit his character as someone who despises humanity and is always out to bring mutants to the forefront. The whole premise of his family being killed was to make it believable that he would become one of the Horsemen, which I wasn't a fan of. For a mutant that the X-Men nearly couldn't defeat in 'Days of Future Past', his teaming up with Apocalypse should have been game over, especially for a group of teenage X-Men.
For a movie with a villain like this, I felt like it lacked action. Sure, the destruction scenes were pretty cool, but the fight scenes were very lacking. The first half of the movie didn't have a lot of action and had a massive amount of dialogue. Sorry, but I don't want to see the X-Men just standing around talking while a 'God' is about to destroy the planet.
The entire X-Men film franchise, to me, has no direction. It jumps around in different time periods and has no problem disregarding continuity. 'Days of Future Past' essentially renders 'X3' and 'Origins' useless. It's like the team at Fox will continue to keep just pumping out different stories and plugging in characters and plots where they see fit, foregoing any kind of cohesion. Yes, seeing an 80's-style X-Men film was neat, but I don't want to keep going back to the past for this franchise. A modern story line is what this franchise needs, and if rebooting is necessary, I'd be all for it.
*Do we REALLY need to see the 'Dark Phoenix' plot again? Sure, it wasn't done well before, but I think there are other ways to make Jean interesting without recycling that plot again.
**Just because Jennifer Lawrence is playing Mystique does NOT mean she should be at the forefront of the franchise. Mystique was never one of my favorite characters and is given way too much to do only because of the star playing her.
***Storm was very under-utilized and was pretty much a non-factor.
Now, on to my positives.
The movie was visually pleasing. The massive destruction of cities and landmarks was really cool. The bright colors and humor made for a nice tone, especially set in the time period it was in. Though I didn't care for Magneto being a Horseman, his reasoning for doing so made sense within the context of the film.
I really liked Nightcrawler, I felt that his depiction was very accurate to his character as a meek, timid "person". His fight scenes with Angel were really cool, as he was "bamfing" all over the place.
I liked the younger X-Men finding their way and learning about their powers, but I feel like a movie of this magnitude wasn't the right place for it. A film with a lesser villain would have made more sense in its place.
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto, respectively, are great. Getting to see those characters as younger men has been the highlight of the past 3 films. Sure, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan are phenomenal, but their ages make it too difficult to have them included in battle sequences.
I really liked the costumes, specifically at the end when we got comic-accurate ones, though it was just a quick glimpse. Though the black flight suits they were in were reminiscent of the black spandex of the first films, the design was cool. Psylocke was easily the most comic-accurate costume to date.
Wolverine's cameo was a lot of fun and really set the tone for his final film with Hugh Jackman coming next year. But what didn't make sense was at the end of 'Days of Future Past' as he is taken by Stryker (actually Mystique) to be worked on in the Weapon X program, he is really with Stryker in this film. Mystique quickly recognizes him, but we didn't get any further explanation of what actually happened after she took him at the end of DOFP. However, his raw brutality was awesome to see, even if it was only for one scene.
And finally, let's talk about Quicksilver. Much like DOFP, he again steals the movie. His dialogue, humor and action scenes are incredible and are probably the best parts of the movie. I loved how he was more involved in this movie and played a much larger part. Kudos, Evan Peters, at least FOX has done one thing better than Marvel/Disney.
*The end credit scene features a man going back into the Weapon X facility at Alkali Lake, taking a vial of Wolverine's blood and adding it to his briefcase that has other vials of liquid in it and displays a placard of 'Essex Corp'. X-Men fans will know that this is Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mr. Sinister. If the next film, rumored to be set in the 90's includes Mr. Sinister, I will be VERY happy.
Overall, I enjoyed the film for what it was. Again, I'm not a fan of the franchise dealing with story lines in the past, I would much rather see the story in the modern era. FOX keeps finding a way to reboot the franchise internally without having to start anew, but for me that premise is wearing thin. Constantly recycling old plots, disregarding continuity, and not moving the story forward are hindering what the X-Men franchise should be. We all know how Wolverine and the others got their powers at this point, do we really need to keep seeing it all over again?
My rating: 7 out of 10
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