X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Review

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

X-Men: Apocalypse follows Charles and a new crop of X-Men, led by Jean Grey, who, after the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse, is awoken, must stop him and the 4 Horsemen from destroying the Earth and remaking it in his image. 

After the successes of First Class and Days of Future Past, it seemed like Bryan Singer and the X-Men could do no wrong with these new string of movies…but then along came Apocalypse. Now, while this would certainly be one of the most visually impressive X-Men films to date, it’s story was far from that, bordering on boring to outright unwatchable at times. Much of the initial excitement laid in Apocalypse, one of the team’s greatest foes in the comics, and yet, he just ends up a droning, monotonous tool who shares more in common with Ivan Ooze from the Power Rangers than the menacing threat he is in the comics. This change, and the choice to make him fully practical, really does a number on the movie, which is sad because the rest shows so much promise, from the 80s setting, to Wolverine’s origin, and even another awesome slow-mo scene out of Quicksilver. 

Setting it in the 80s opened so many interesting doors for the franchise, which seems to jump a decade each film, giving us my favorite X-Men additions in Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler (even though he looks awful), it’s just too bad they, and Professor X at his peak, are wasted on such a shitty entry that sees Magneto redundantly become a villain after doing so three movies in a row. 

We actually get a solid cast here, starring Josh Helman, Lucas Till, Olivia Munn, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Evan Peters, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner, Oscar Isaac, and James McAvoy. McAvoy and Fassbender as usual are fantastic, as well as the newbies like Peters Sheridan, and Turner, and so it’s too bad that we have to suffer through an awful turn from Isaac, who plays Apocalypse like a wooden board. 

X-Men: Apocalypse, directed by Bryan Singer, though chock-full of some great scenes, ultimately flops by putting all of it’s cards on Apocalypse, whose drab monologuing and pointless ambitions lead to a comically bad misstep for the franchise. 

5.8/10