Take a look at our X-Men: Apocalypse review as the mutant super group goes up against an ancient evil reborn….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s easily forgotten how the X-Men series has managed to produce so many films over the last 16 years including several spinoffs while the franchise has somehow been relegated to third place in attention behind Marvel and the recently re-launched DC Film Universe.
There have certainly been a few missteps along the way — X-Men: The Last Stand, I’m looking directly at you — but for the most part the X-Men films have landed on target far more often than they have missed.
On the heels of the wildly successful Deadpool movie, X-Men: Apocalypse opens in theaters this weekend as Charles Xavier’s group of truly exceptional students go up against the first mutant in history — an ancient Egyptian mutant named En Sabah Nur — better known to comic book fans as Apocalypse.
The movie gets the band back together with all the familiar faces returning including Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Michael Fassbender as Magneto, but the film is super charged with a slew of new cast members taking over familiar roles including Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner in a break out role as well as Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers aka Cyclops.
X-Men: Apocalypse is a well-executed sequel to the franchise with a cohesive story and character development, although the movie really feels more like a supplemental tale rather than a true next chapter in the series.
Where stories like X-Men: Days of Future Past felt like a real step forward, X-Men: Apocalypse merely tells another tale— it’s not a bad thing, it’s just feels more like a bridge to what we can only hope will one day be an even better movie.
With that said, let’s get into our full review of X-Men: Apocalypse
Plot
In ancient Egypt thousands of years before the X-Men ever exist, a ruler named En Sabah Nur is worshipped by many, feared by others and loathed by numerous of his subjects. It seems this powerful ruler is seen as a false god, when in reality he’s actually the world’s first mutant long before anybody knew what the word ‘mutant’ even meant. Unfortunately for En Sabah Nur, a revolt is staged in an attempt to overthrow him and the resulting revolution ends with his minions dead and he’s buried in a crypt beneath thousands of pounds of rubble.
Fast forward to the modern day and Charles Xavier is running a very successful school in upstate New York where he’s teaching the next generation of X-Men while his “sister” Raven (aka Mystique) is seen as a savior to mutants across the world after her actions 10 years earlier that stopped the government from reigning terror down on the people afflicted by the next step in evolution. She’s no longer at home with her mutant brothers and sisters but instead Raven acts as a liaison to help mutants escape bad situations.
Everything can only stay calm and peaceful for so long however, because En Sabah Nur is eventually pulled from his crypt and awoken by followers who never quite forget the ancient leader. When he finds himself in a modern world, thousands of years later than when he fell asleep, En Sabah Nur decides that he wants to rebuild society in a better image — one that mirrors the Earth he left behind after his followers turned on him.
Now Apocalypse wants to take over and he looks to put the mutant race into power, ruling over humanity.
Acting
The performances in X-Men Apocalypse really are excellent from the top on down.
Michael Fassbender still stands head and shoulders above the rest playing Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto, who has left villainy behind when the movie begins in favor of a family he started in Poland along with a wife and baby girl. James McAvoy is underrated, but truly an excellent portrayer of Charles Xavier from his boyish smile to his infamous scowl when things go wrong.
Evan Peters finally gets the chance to stretch his legs a bit in this film after a very brief appearance in the last X-Men move but the real stars joining the cast this time around are Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan, who play star crossed future lovers Jean Grey and Cyclops. The original X-Men movie didn’t do Cyclops any favors by turning him into a mega-douche opposite Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
This time around, Cyclops is actually a sympathetic character with an origin story that actually makes him likable and he plays well opposite Jean Grey, who is really the focus of the new characters introduced in the movie. Turner has real star potential and she shows off how she can carry an action movie just as easily as she can a drama with her turn as powerful mutant Jean Grey.
The only person who fails to live up to standards in this movie is Oscar Isaac, who plays the big bad Apocalypse. It’s not that Isaac is bad — because he’s a phenomenal actor — but the character he’s playing is so cartoonish that you can’t even figure out that he’s the one buried under all that blue make up and bad wardrobe like something lost from the last Tron sequel.
What’s Wrong with the Movie?
The biggest complaint about X-Men: Apocalypse is Apocalypse himself.
It starts off with the makeup and costume design for the character, which hasn’t been well received with comic book readers since the first image from the movie was released. It’s almost like they made a version of Apocalypse but failed to go all the way and execute a costume that could have easily mimicked the famous imagery from the original source material.
There’s also the problem that Apocalypse looks shorter than virtually everyone in the cast. Now that’s obviously not Oscar Issac’s fault that he’s not a statuesque actor standing 6’4″, but Apocalypse is supposed to be a domineering, larger than life villain and the fact that he barely looked eye-to-eye with most of the cast just made him look a little too regular.
Really the problem with Apocalypse is that he’s billed as the biggest and scariest villain in the X-Men universe, but he plays out like just another run of the mill bad guy in the movie. Sure, he’s got a lot of unique powers but in terms of his threat level, it feels like past characters such as Colonel William Stryker were far more feared than this supposedly ancient and unkillable villain.
He’s not terrible villain — he’s just not the “big bad” that he should be.
Final Verdict
X-Men: Apocalypse is a very watchable movie — from the new cast members to the returning favorites, this film ticks all the boxes for a good time at the theater for a popcorn superhero movie. It’s also nice to see the franchise move away from such unbelievable reliance on Wolverine as the central character to the story — yes, he makes an appearance, but his presence isn’t necessary to the big picture for once.
The only real hiccup is the swing and miss on Apocalypse — but that’s still not enough to rate this as anything less than an enjoyable sequel to the X-Men franchise.
X-Men: Apocalypse gets a 3 out of 5 on the Skolnick Scale:
