X-Men: Apocalypse Movie Review
Apocalypse, known as the first and most powerful mutant, awakens thousands of years after being betrayed by his own followers to arise once again as the god he portrays. Apocalypse assembles his four horsemen, recruiting the likes of Magneto, Psylocke, Archangel and Storm. By his side they begin to destroy the world in order to tear it down to create a new one. A new world in the vision of Apocalypse.
I entered the theatre with high hopes, something I usually try not to do when reviewing a movie. However, the comic loving fan boy that I am, I could not help myself due to the epic trailer for this film. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, in my opinion, has been improving over a short time of great movie releases. I was expecting this one to not only be as good as the others but to raise the bar and continue with the growing success of the MCU.
I was instantly skeptic with the opening of this movie. The introduction of Apocalypse seemed a little plain to me but when the action kicked in I found myself entertained. The return of Apocalypse and the display of his overpowered abilities seemed bang on to what I remembered from the cartoon and comic series.
Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse vs Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique.
When I first saw Oscar Isaac it was in the movie, Ex Machina. His acting skills were impressive to see and as I watched more movies with this actor (Inside Llewyn Davis, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, etc) I became a fan. When I found out that he would be portraying the mutant ‘god’ known as Apocalypse I was very excited. Throughout X-Men: Apocalypse, Oscar Isaacs performance never faltered and he was an excellent choice for this antagonist.
The things I enjoyed from this movie were definitely the casting for certain characters. There was a scene with Quicksilver that was much like a music video with the song ‘Sweet Dreams’ by Annie Lennox playing during his action sequence that was probably one of the best parts of the film.
Evan Peters, another excellent casting job, as Quicksilver.
As I mentioned, the trailer got me pumped for this movie. One of the reasons for that was seeing Olivia Munn as Psylocke. One of my favourite heroines from the X-Men comics is Psylocke. I always found her as a mysterious bad ass and as a teenager growing up with the X-Men, I had a fanboy crush on Psylocke. Olivia Munn not only looked good as Psylocke but played the part how I would expect it to be. Not a lot of dialogue but the look and facial expressions were, in my opinion, spot on.
The only thing working against these excellent characters were the short spurted action sequences that seemed to be constantly interrupted by random soap opera style dramatic moments. For example; An epic battle erupts and Beast finds himself toe to toe against the mysterious Psylocke. At the same time, Nightcrawler is in the fight of his life against Archangel while a young Cyclops, only known for now as Scott Summers, is battling against a young and feisty Storm. This sounds incredible and it was for a comic book and X-Men fan as myself to be witness to. However, as the action started to roll, it would be interrupted with short stops of Jean Grey or Professor X in what looked like motion stills of dramatic moments. This wasn’t really due to bad acting, but rather a bad story as the “dramatic moments” had no feeling behind them as the story didn’t implant any care or deep interest into me as I watched. The action had me excited but the story would bring me down.
Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler and Tye Sheridan as Cyclops.
I understand the MCU is different than the Marvel Comics world and that isn’t what bothers me. I have started to go into Marvel movies with an open mind and a fresh attitude, letting the story take me where the writers want to go. The MCU is starting to grow on me but X-Men: Apocalypse left me with a dull feeling. Though the characters and action were excellent, the story seemed bland. No matter how epic the actors made something sound, the story wouldn’t compliment the scene and only served as a nuisance, breaking up the action throughout the movie. Because of this the momentum was not able to build and felt like a roller coaster that went nowhere once it got to the top. It was going up and we were waiting for an epic drop... but then it broke.
All that being said, I did enjoy myself at this movie. Popcorn in hand, wide eyed at the characters I’ve adored for years coming to life on the big screen was very enjoyable. I was just disappointed in the writing and found myself constantly wishing for a better story to compliment these excellent characters portrayed by an excellent cast. It hurts me to rate it and I thought long and hard about this one, almost going a half point lower but X-Men: Apocalypse, for me, is a 6/10.
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