Review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) by Barney O — 07 Feb 2017

WHAT I LIKED: Sometimes I can see why a film I like isn't well received, but frankly the reaction to 'X-Men: Apocalypse' has me stumped. As far as I'm concerned, in the absence of messy set-ups and timeline conformity, this is one of the best movies in the franchise. It's really just a much more focused story and character piece, and it consequently almost takes the franchise back to its more humble beginnings in the way it develops its leads so intimately. That's helped hugely by the best performances I've seen come from any X-Men movie, and the high stakes of Apocalypse's aims, and the overall result is a film that invests and engages you a whole lot more than most of its recent predecessors, and creates a more emotionally satisfying journey to an epic end. Epic this one is too, for the effects are wonderous, the action is amazing, and that soundtrack is simply breathtaking, but the beauty of it is that all of that has strong significance to the emotional stakes and means the film flows very nicely too. In that respect, the tone is also as bang on as 'Days of Future Past,' proving Bryan Synger really knows what the heck he's doing once again.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: I don't know who's changed in the writing chair here recently, but the cheesy, momentous lines of 'First Class' and 'Days of Future' past have remained in as stronger force as ever.

VERDICT: One of the best of the franchise; X-Men Apocalypse is a simple and intimate character study at its core that also brings the stakes and epic-ness to a whole new level. Roll on New Mutants, I have every faith in Fox.