*Originally written May 18th, 2016*
"Apocalyptic"
I am baffled by the mixed reviews X-Men: Apocalypse has been getting. Honestly, I am so confused. I've always found the X-Men franchise to be the most consistent of the superhero franchises at the moment, sure it's had its lows (The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine), but in terms of cinematic film-making and meaningful storytelling, I've always felt this series has rose above the rest.
The ninth installment in the X-Men franchise takes us to 1983, set 10 years after the events of Days of Future Past. The oldest known mutant 'Apocalypse' awakens in the current day and vows to cleanse the Earth of life with the help of 4 mutants, so it's up to Professor Xavier, Mystique and new group of teenage X-Men to stop them.
I was a bit suspect with this, considering the reviews, some even said it was worst than The Last Stand, so I didn't know what I was in for, but to be honest, I thought it was great. Hell, it might even be my favourite film in the series so far.
I loved the new cast. It's the same characters we know from the original trilogy, but young and still getting to know their powers. Although the events from this film has made the timeline with these films an utter train wreck. I know Days of Future Past had the time travel stuff, but it's all so confusing, and that doesn't even include where Deadpool fits into this universe.
The strongest part of these new X-Men films has always been Michael Fassbender's Magneto, which was once again, amazing. His earlier scenes were extremely strong, emotionally resonant and oddly powerful when they needed to be. It's just shame he spends the second half of the film as a background sidekick to the inferior and less compelling Apocalypse.
The rest of the returning cast are great too, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence are reliable as ever, but Evan Peters completely tops himself as Quicksilver once again by having one of the best and funniest scenes from any comic-book movie which managed to top his scene from the last one and make a mockery of the MCU version of Quicksilver, which is just laughable in comparison.
I was a bit disappointed by the setting. First Class captured the swinging '60s pretty well and Days of Future Past made use of its '70s setting, Apocalypse on the other hand does nothing with the '80s. Aside from a couple of music choices, this felt like it could have been set in any era. It was fun to see the younger mutants come out of a screening of Return of the Jedi, even taking the oppurtinity of taking a meta jab at The Last Stand by adressing "The third one is always the worst".
On the main villain side of things, Oscar Isaac, a very competent actor is wasted as Apocalypse. There were some things I liked with him. His voice was very intimidating and I the way he killed people was pretty cool at times. There's just no real motivation here for his character compared to say Magneto, who we've seen be torn down by humanity, so we can understand why he does what he does, Apocalypse is just wanting to destroy the world because well, I'm not too sure to be honest? Something about mankind having technology that can destroy them or something?
I was surprised at just how violent this was too, it really pushes boundaries at what a 12A/PG-13 can get away with. People are stabbed, decapitated and melted in pretty graphic ways and things get pretty grizzly and quite bloody when a certain X-Man makes a cameo in a brief but memorable scene.
The action was pretty great though. I've always loved this series ability to have all these characters with different powers combine in fun and different ways. While the main action doesn't hit till the end of the film, it really worked. We've seen the massive, city-wide destruction before in superhero films, but here it feels like the actual stakes matter with characters we care about. It also helps that these films actual look and feel like real films, as opposed to the MCU's televisual look.
I don't mean to take jabs at the MCU, but notice how they manage to tell a story without every other scene used to try and set-up other films. It's nice to have a franchise where each film can be watched as its own thing, sure they all connect, but you can pick any of these films up and they tell their own self-contained story.
Despite the mixed reviews, I found X-Men: Apocalypse to be another excellent entry in the X-Men franchise with another powerhouse performance from Michael Fassbender, great action, genuine emotional depth and characters you actually care about.
8/10 Dans
X-Men: Apocalypse is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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