Since Fox’s bastardisation of The X-Men started to be put right with First Class and Days of Future Past I had high hopes that Apocalypse and in some ways Fox would continue to redeem The X-Men.
Getting the original class almost all back together and at the right ages, the Summers brothers, Moira and a few other things I will not spoil for you are all steps in the right direction but all these good things come at the expense of a plot line thinner than a Power Rangers episode (Ivan Ooze included).
There really are some nice touches through the movie, but everything seems to push forwards for the plots sake whether it makes sense or not, some characters get fewer lines than Superman in Dawn of Justice. Everyone bar a main few just seems disposable or interchangeable. Strength of powers stays inconsistent throughout the film, Quicksilver’s set piece isn’t as cool as they think, especially as it has been rammed down our throats in the sky broadband adverts. By the second half of the movie we are overdosing on CGI, at one point I could of swore I was watching Mortal Kombat; all that CGI can’t take the strain of holding so many aspects of an overstuffed film together.
On the plus side, there is a very nice reveal at the end that even shocks Oscar Isaac’s (who was awesome) Apocalypse: “All has been revealed at last” he says and it would seem a pretty big card has been played very well. How this plays out in future movies is something I can’t wait to see.
All in all what could have been a trilogy has been squashed into a single movie making Apocalypse come across as a “villain of the week” and character development suffers greatly because of it. The original Four Horsemen, Jean Grey, Angel, Psylocke and Caliban are criminally underused. Beast becomes a bit player in fact Ally Sheedy gets more lines in her cameo than some of the main characters do in the whole movie. There are some nice cameos though – keep your eyes peeled. Unfortunately there just seems to be so much missed potential.
Leaving the cinema though, I was full of optimism for the next X-Men movie. They have finally corrected all the crap they threw at us in all their movies (including the Wolverine ones) and have some solid continuity that makes sense that they can build on. Also by having the film set back in 1983 we have time and space to see this team grow and develop. I just hope Fox gives it to them in their next movie.
Rating: 6.5 / 10 – A rising phoenix for a franchise that almost destroyed itself.
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Founded Cult Faction in 2014. Some would describe him as a teacher, writer, dream weaver, and visionary... some would not...
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