Review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) by River W — 08 Oct 2016

With all the criticism "X-Men: Apocalypse" has been getting, I'm glad to share my positive outlook on the film. I believe that it takes it's 80s setting and runs with it, making for some delightful references and jokes.

Once again, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Michael Fasbender all give us great performances as the versions of Professor X, Mystique, Beast, and Magneto, which was expected at the least.

The newcomers (Cyclops, Jean, and Nightcrawler) are all likable and fit in with this cast quite nicely. Unfortunately, the Four Horseman are a problem. Other than Magneto, the Four Horseman are a wreck.

They just don't matter in anything other than the final fight. The Wolverine scene sets the franchise up for the future, but mistakenly. While it doesn't effect the film in any way, I would've much rather seen a new actor as Wolverine to set up for what could happen after Hugh Jackman's unfortunate departure.

I may be griping on the movie, but just wait, I'm doing the negatives first. Starting the positives, the setups. It brings up the possibility to see future X-Men movies with this team (and with good costumes this time!).

Just as in "Days of Future Past", Quicksilver steals the show, he's easily one of the best characters in the X-Men movies. Another plus is Oscar Isaac's performance, he does perfectly fine as Apocalypse.

The plot makes sense and moves along briskly. It really wraps up all of the plots going on in the X-Men universe right now (what with Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fasbender exiting), but leaves open a few new ones with the new cast.

Hopefully we can still have James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult lead this new team of X-Men in another outing in the series. Overall, I'd say "X-Men: Apocalypse" is a fun time and is a great movie when you look at what could come in the X-Men franchise (maybe where the first 2 or 3 movies of the original trilogy went) and what has already happened.

I'd recommend watching it, and it's best experienced in a marathon.