Review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) by Dan L — 14 Sep 2017

Good first half, shitty second half. The first half felt like the more emotional X-Men movies that we've seen in Bryan Singer's first two X-Men films, as we get to see a bit more of Magneto's past which was the most riveting part of the movie. But the second half was basically Origins: Wolverine and The Last Stand all over again.

Wolverine has a shoehorned cameo in which the movie recreates the William Stryker experiment as if we haven't seen that before (X2 and Origins: Wolverine). It was pointless and unnecessary, more so than his cameo appearance in First Class (which was at least funny). In this movie, the William Stryker experiment is a subplot that had no bearing on the actual plot. Without it, it would be the same film, but about 15-20 minutes shorter. Yes, it's a pretty long film (about 2 hours and 20 minutes).

The third act is basically a big set-piece that we've seen in the third act of every other superhero movie (Batman v Superman came out not too long before this film). It's generic and would only work if there were character that I cared about (like in Days of Future Past). The third act was about defeating the main villain, Apocalypse, who's easily the most boring villain in the entire X-Men franchise. His entire motivation was to destroy the world and enslave humanity, the most basic motivation for a supervillain ever.

A lot of criticisms I've read from fans was directed at Jennifer Lawrence's performance, who isn't committed to playing the character like she was before, but I felt that way about the entire cast. None of them looked like they wanted to be in the film. That's what happens a lot of the time when actors are contractually obligated to play the same characters, especially when they're given subpar material.

Even Singer seems fatigued with directing these X-Men films because the level of effort is noticeably lower. McAvoy and Fassbender have their emotional moments, but there's a lack of chemistry between the cast. The movie is set twenty years after First Class, but there's no effort to make them look older, even Rose Byrne's character (who's human) looks the same. It just shows how completely fucked the timeline is in this franchise, as it constantly goes from sequel to prequel, past to present. There's also an abundance of characters (which is the problem I've had for pretty much all of the X-Men films). They used the same ones from First Class, but barely develop any of the new characters.

Overall, X-Men: Apocalypse was such a disappointment, considering Days of Future Past (which was also directed by Singer) was really good, the best in the franchise so far in my opinion. But Apocalypse is easily the worst X-Men movie since Origins: Wolverine. Yes, I liked The Last Stand more than this. At least it's better than Batman v Superman, but honestly, I expected better, given that it was directed by Singer (who was responsible for the best X-Men films except First Class). I hope the franchise goes back to Marvel so that maybe we can see something different from the X-Men franchise, from a different director.