Review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) by Jeff N — 21 Nov 2016

I have had absolutely no interest in seeing this film. I love Bryan Singer's ability to tell stories, especially in the first two X-Men films, but the look of Apocalypse and his voice have just looked plain silly, as have the effects of Magneto and Angel's fight scenes.

They looked way too green screened and cartoony. Yet, I am a sucker for comic book movies, so I went anyway. The first 30 minutes were abysmal. The writing, editing, cramming of the story, etc. just made it an immensely boring film.

Very un-Bryan Singer-like. However, the rest of the movie, specifically when Quicksilver makes his entrance, was well done. I'm reaching a point in these films where stories are coming from books I had stopped reading, so some of it is quite new.

Apocalypse was introduced in X-Factor in the late 80s, one of the last comic books I would buy before giving up that hobby in high school. Archangel, originally Angel (Warren Worthington III), was altered to become one of Apocalypse's Four Horsemen, which really kind of bored me and contributed to me leaving the comic book world.

However, I liked his character in the movie, though there was no discussion about his rich-boy backstory. As one of the original X-Men, I expected more for Angel. Alas, it was not to be. Let me get the superficial stuff out right now.

I have a crazy crush on Sophie Turner. I am a sucker for good-looking redheads and she was smoking-ass hot in this film. I don't watch Game of Thrones, but have seen a couple of episodes and knew her prior to the movie.

While she doesn't look anything like Famke Janssen, the original "Jean," she was very good cast. The reveal of her Phoenix alter-ego was AWESOME. The fanboy in me was very pleased, especially after Brett Ratner's ridiculous X-Men 3, which was made fun of in this film in a not-so-subtle manner.

The short Wolverine component to the story is weaving all of the Fox-centered "X-Stories" together very well. Jackman was in full berseker mode and wore his "Weapon X" attire, which had never been seen before this film.

The post-credits scene is tying the Weapon X program into Mr. Sinister and Deadpool quite well. Knowing that Cable is forthcoming in Deadpool 2 is seeming very natural now. Good job, Bryan Singer. I still have a fundamental problem with the bi-polar nature of how they present Magneto.

Yes, he's a bit of an anti-hero in the comics, but he's had his pure evil moments. Seeing him bounce from extreme to extreme in the films is getting boring. I also don't like Mystique's "good" component.

She is not an X-Man. She's certainly not a teacher at Xavier's school. Conversely, she was never a quiet sub-character either, as portrayed in the first 3 films by Rebecca Romijn. To me, they've never gotten her right.

Jennifer Lawrence is closer, but again, not as a good guy. This is why I loved the subtle inclusion of Caliban, one of the founders of the underground Morlocks, which played a tiny part in helping bring Apocalypse's Four Horsemen together.

This was interesting because Caliban played a "Fifth Horseman" in the comics, as Death and Pestilence. As I mentioned, the movies are getting to a level where I stopped reading the comics, so much of this will start to be new to me.

However, what made the last 75% of the film a good one was the inclusion of all of those "X-Factor" components. Again, I never thought I'd see the day when these things were brought to the big screen in such a big budget way.

It's definitely a "wow" moment for me. My only real complaint about the film, though, is it is showing me that this genre, which may be in the process of becoming tiresome to mainstream audiences, is finally becoming a bit tiresome to comic fans.

Fox cannot get sloppy, like it did in the first 25% of this film, and just assume we will like whatever you put on the screen. The rush job and poor story development mattered. It also mattered in last year's reboot of Fantastic Four.

It also mattered in DC's Batman v. Superman. The story still matters. In fact, the ability to tell that story cinematically is more important than ever. Batman Begins, Dark Knight and many of Marvel's films are setting the bar very high.

These studios need to keep up that level or these movies will start to die.