Review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) by Leon B — 12 Nov 2016

Review:

I was quite a big fan on the last X-Men movie, Days of Future Past, mainly because of the relationship between Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), and the betrayal at the end but this movie seemed a bit messy because there was way to many superheroes introduced at once. Like the previous movie, I loved Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and the slow down action scene, was one of the best part of the movie but there wasn't much depth to the new characters, and I wasn't that impressed with the baddie, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) who just looked like an actor with loads of make-up. The storyline also was a bit poor! It's a basic, goodie vs. baddie concept, with the X-Men joining forces, to kill someone who wants to destroy earth. Apocalypse recruits 4 sidekicks with special powers, to help him destroy earth, so the X-Men are set with a big task to stop the powerful warlord, who can get into people's minds and enhance there powers. Although the movie looked epic and some of the visual effects were pretty impressive, I didn't think that the final showdown lived up to its expectations and you don't get to see the various superheroes, push there abilities to the limit. The great thing about the last movie is that you get to see the various characters learn how to control there powers but in this film you only get an in depth look into Cyclops (Scott Summers), who wasn't that great. I also didn't really see the point of Moira Mactaggert (Rose Byrne), who just seemed in the way most of the time, and no one seemed to acknowledge what Quicksilver done to save there life's. Anyway, I did enjoy some elements of this movie and it definitely was huge, in terms of scale but I still was expecting more of a witty script, like the original movie, and better action scenes. Watchable!

Round-Up:

This movie was directed by Bryan Singer, 51, who first hit the scene with the critically acclaimed Usual Suspects, in 1993. After the disappointing Apt Pupil in 1998, he returned with the first X-Men movie in 2000, followed by the sequel in 2003. He then directed Superman Returns in 2006 and the Tom Cruise war movie Valkyrie in 2008 and then he released Jack the Giant Slayer in 2013. After the popular X-Men: Days of Future Past, he took a couple of years out before releasing this film. To prove that he was fully committed to this franchise, he turned down the opportunity to direct Alien: Resurrection and he didn't direct X-Men: The Last Stand because he was directing Superman Returns, which didn't go down to well with audiences. If he decides to return as the director for another X-Men movie, he really needs to cut down the amount of new characters to introduce, so the audience can connect and feel some sort of emotion to the ones that are already available. Apart from that, this movie was a decent watch, and there are some epic scenes which were put together well, so I'm looking forward to see how these characters progress in the supernatural world of the X-Men.

Budget: $178million.

Worldwide Gross: $544million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/sci-fi's, starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Hugh Jackman, Josh Helman, Sophie Turner and Ben Hardy. 6/10.