Review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) by Jesse O — 04 Nov 2016

I feel like I should give a bit of background onto my history with the X-Men. Apart from being, really, the first major superhero movie franchise, previous Batman films didn't count as they didn't feature a shared universe, my relationship with the X-Men actually goes back to my youth.

Realistically speaking, as a child, my favorite superheroes were Batman and Wolverine. I had an X-Men Game Gear game and I remember being a big fan of the cartoons that used to air in the 90s. Really, I think I loved X-Men more than Batman when I was a little kid.

It's not like I'm a fanboy, because I haven't read the comics, but I did really enjoy the X-Men. By and large, I've also really enjoyed the film franchise. There's certainly some weak movies in there, like the Wolverine Origins movie and X-Men 3.

They've been on somewhat of a roll since First Class came out in 2011. That hot streak continued with 2014's Days of Future Past. Which brings us to Apocalypse. As evidenced by the rating, it's obvious that the hot streak has been halted.

I don't know what it was, but it's obvious that this movie doesn't come close to some of the franchise's best. And, as far as pure X-Men films go (this doesn't include Wolverine or Deadpool films), some might even say that it's the worst film in the franchise.

I wouldn't actually go that far, as I still felt X-Men 3 is still the weakest and even then it's a solid, but lifeless, action movie. As far as this movie goes, once the movie really gets going, it actually turns into a really fun little superhero flick.

Nothing that will set the world on fire, particularly with films like Civil War and, even, Deadpool coming out this year. I suppose it might be better than Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad, but I haven't seen either so I really wouldn't know.

But the fact of the matter is that Marvel put out some really high quality films this year. And, really, for this film to stand out above the pack, or even be considered in the same league as the best, it had to put on a really high-quality film.

And, sadly, it didn't offer that at all. Part of the problem is the fact that the film sees Apocalypse, the world's first mutant and revered as some sort of god, recruiting his 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', as it were, and this honestly takes fucking forever.

It honestly takes up over half of the film before Apocalypse reaches his goal, which is Xavier, since he is able to communicate with every mutant on earth and having this power would allow Apocalypse to control everybody and get them to do his bidding of ridding the world of humanity.

This is when the movie really picks up. That's not saying that everything that happened before Apocalypse reached his goal is bad, it's just that it takes more time than it reasonably should have to get to that point.

This is where I disagree with the consensus on this site, which says that this movie is overloaded with action. I couldn't disagree more, because it implies that the movie is all action from beginning to end, which is not the case.

They do leave it all for when the rest of the X-Men go to Cairo to save Xavier, but even in that case it's not like there's so much action that you simply can't keep up. There's a whole lot of talking prior to that point and it's not like it's the type of talking that really holds your interest.

Days of Future Past worked without having insane amounts of action, prior to the third act, because it was a supremely well-written movie with strong character development. This movie doesn't have as much character development as much as one would hope.

They do some cool stuff with Magneto going back to his old ways after the tragic death of his wife and daughter. And Mystique deals with being a heroic figure to all of the young mutants coming up for what she did in DC (in Days of Future Past).

So those were really the most interesting parts of the film as it relates to character, but it's not like it's as good as it was in the previous movie. The coolest scene in the entire movie, obviously, belongs to Quicksilver/Peter Maximoff.

I think they even managed to outdo themselves from his scene in Days of Future Past, with him saving everybody from the mansion using his superpower. Seriously, if you remember Quicksilver's scene in Days, this is even considerably better than that.

Then again, maybe it's not better as much as it's more entertaining, but some Quicksilver's scene still remain some of the most inspired in the entire franchise. And, thankfully, they finally brought back Nightcrawler, after THIRTEEN fucking years.

He's a really fucking cool character regardless of the fact that he isn't as used as effectively as he was in X-Men 2. The cast is strong as usual, no complaints there. As far the villain goes, however, Apocalypse left a lot to be desired.

Oscar Isaac did really well and there's some cool scenes with the character, like when he decapitates two people with just sand, but I don't know. Something about the character was just missing.

He basically wants to destroy the world and humanity because it isn't like how he remembered it, that's pretty much it. There's not much else in the way of legitimate motivation for this guy, so it's difficult to get into him as a character.

Like I said, though, when the movie finally gets going, it's a quite fun, escapist summer blockbuster. Doesn't offer much in the way of complexity, but it gets the job done. Can't really find much else to say about this really.

It's obviously not nearly as good as some of the franchise's best entries, but it's still a solidly entertaining entry in a franchise that has gone on for nearly 2 decades. Would recommend it as a rental.