There was a quote in this latest X-Men film that stated that the third film in the series is also the worst. This was subtle shot at the original X-Men trilogy where X-Men: Last Stand was considered by many to be the worst of the franchise. The irony of that comment is that X-Men: Apocalypse is the third film with James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence in the lead roles. And the verdict is not quite Last Stand but definitely not First Class either. Warning, spoilers ahead…
If you stayed the watch the ending credits of X-Men: Days of Future Past, we got a glimpse of what was to come here. The first and most powerful mutant, Apocalypse was worshipped as a god at the start of civilization. After a thousand year slumber, he awakened to a much different world than the one he remembered. Upon awakening, he had harassed the powers of many mutants he had recruited for his plan to cleanse the world of its human influences. One such mutant would be a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender) who tragically lost his wife and child in an unfortunate accident by the hand of some humans.
With the fate of mankind hanging in the balance, it takes Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) to bring a new band of young X-Men together to stop Apocalypse and help save Magneto from losing any sense of “humanity” he has left. Reminding him that he still has a family. With that type of premise, it still takes a good hour and forty minutes or so before the action really hit its stride and grabs our attention. Basically it takes a cameo appearance of one particular and snarly X-Men favorite, to turn this film around.
The action is a bit overloaded and full of destruction that has become all too familiar with action films today but good fun nonetheless. It just takes too long to get there. Sadly, the weakest aspect of Apocalypse is the villain himself. The comic book version is a much more menacing and commanding character than the one portrayed here. He’s just a cliché type villain with world domination as his end game. The strongest aspect of the film was some of the performances. Sophie Turner as a young Jean Grey and Evan Peters as Quicksilver. I was especially glad to see the character of Quicksilver (who happens to be Magneto’s son), play a larger role in this film as oppose to his brief yet standout performance in Days of Future Past.
To date there have been eight X-Men related films. This includes Deadpool from earlier in the year. Apocalypse for all its strong acting performances is still a middle of the road film for this venerable franchise. It’s neither one of the best nor one of the worst. It has moments that would challenge any great superhero film. And it also has moments where you wish you had a forward or skip button to move the film along. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of our favorite mutants.
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Sophie Turner, Evan Peters and Olivia Munn
PG13 136 Mins
X-MEN: APOCAPLYSE – 2.5 (out of 5 stars)
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
