Review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) by Snoracks — 26 May 2016

After reading what a lot of critics said, I went into the film with pretty low expectations and it sort of surprised me. I could see a lot of the problems they had with the film. The beginning was trying to weave together too many threads and none of them were particularly strong. The special effects are kind of suspect and the title villain is by far the weakest part of the film. William Stryker was a more interesting villain than Apocalypse in the film and he had about 2 minutes of screen time.

The whole production was still a lot of fun though. The film started off weak, but as soon as you see Quicksilver, the film starts to perk up. He is once again the best part of the film and balances out extremely uneven performances from some of my otherwise favorite actors like Oscar Issac and Michael Fassbender. Quicksilver steals every scene he’s in but they still keep him in balance with the other characters. Sophie Turner also has terrific screen presence and I look forward to seeing this actress come into her own.

Part of the reason I enjoyed the film was that it had just so many comic characters and nods to avid comic readers. Yet, this both hurts and helps. Seeing Caliban on screen was pretty great, but the true to the comic outfit for Psylocke (Apocalypse too) made her look extremely out of place in every scene she was in. While I like that they went for it, all of the other Horsemen get practical armor and she is just wearing the least practical thing available and it’s just all you can look at every time she’s on screen.

I would recommend this movie if you’re a fan of the film series and the comics, but otherwise I would stay away from it because it is going to be not only confusing, but what works about the movie probably will not work for you.