X-Men: Apocalipse

En Sabah Nur is Apocalypse, the first mutant who ruled ancient Egypt until he was entombed. It's the 80's. CIA agent Moira MacTaggert goes to Egypt and witnesses his emergence. He recruits his four horsemen Magneto, Storm, Psylocke, and Angel giving them greater power. Meanwhile, Raven recruits Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler from an East Berlin fight club. Alex Summers brings his younger brother Scott to Professor Charles Xavier's school. Quicksilver arrives at the school just in time to rescue almost everybody from an explosion but Professor X is kidnapped by Apocalypse.

I really like the first half. There are some good introduction of the new characters. It's working fine for the most part. It hits the pinnacle with Quicksilver's rescue which is funny and exciting. It is visually dynamic and a joy to behold. The rest of the movie feels like a long slow slide into mediocrity.

The most troubling problem for the continuing franchise is the use of Mystique as the leading X-Men. That character has never been in that role. JLaw is struggling to put out the intensity to match the central part. She and her character is not up to the task so far. It's also funny that her powers is to not be JLaw. The other problem is Apocalypse. I hoped for better but his mega-destruction is underwhelming. It's a lot of bland and his powers are nebulous. I actually think it would have been better to allow Apocalypse to be a two-parter. As an one-and-done villain, he isn't allowed to be anything more than a monster of the moment. With a lower level of power from him, it could be more compelling to struggle for the soul of each horseman. As it stands, the character Apocalypse is nothing special.

As you can probably gather I thought this was another very good addition to the X-Men franchise. Whilst it doesn't hit the heady heights of Days of Future Past it still is a really good watch and I fail to see why it has had a mixed press.

Firstly I found it to have a perfectly serviceable story, with Apocalypse and his followers recruiting the very vulnerable and angry Magneto as part of his plan to destroy civilisation and rebuild it in his image. Fassbender turns in another solid performance and you really feel his pain and confusion for the Erik/Magneto character. I also thought all the supporting cast were absolutely fine in their roles, and to me Evan Peters as Quicksilver really stole the scenes he was in and makes a fine addition to the cast. The same also goes to Tye Sheridan as Scott/Cyclops, whose back story is filled in better and with more depth than it was in the Wolverine origins film.

I see the critics have been moaning about having too many characters in the film, yet I actually think it was handled better than it was in the Captain America: Civil War film. In Apocalypse the large cast do actually have something to do and contribute to the story, whereas the Captain America film felt like some were shoe horned in, which I felt made that film feel bloated and repetitive whereas this one at least get the storyline moving. I felt that Civil War felt way too long because of all the story padding yet Apocalypse, whilst also a long film, kept my interest to the end (and yes there is a post credits scene that I suspect is setting up Wolverine 3). I should also add that Apocalypse, despite it's bleak story, does have some moments of humour and wit that went down well with the audience.

I also felt the surprise appearance of Wolverine fitted in nicely with the back story that we already know, particularly the one told in X Men 2 and the Origins film, nicely closing that particular characters story arc and fitting in perfectly with the circumstances surrounding his appearance in the very first X-Men film of 16 years ago. If this is to be Wolverines final appearance with the X-men then they have given him a lovely send off.

I did find some minor flaws with the film though, particularly with the visual appearance of some of the characters and how their ages don't compute when the first X-men film of 2000 is taken into account. However, asides from that I thoroughly enjoyed X-Men Apocalypse and thought it was a solid & worthy addition to the other X-Men films. The films had spectacle, action, laughs and carried on with the journeys of the characters we have got to know and love over the past sixteen years.

X-Men: Apocalypse is the sequel to Days of Future Past and takes place about a decade later in the '80s. This movie entertained me from start to finish and I can't say I was ever bored. But there are a lot of things I was not satisfied with while watching. Starting off with the good, Magneto and Professor X continue to be the best parts of these movies. Michael Fassbender as Magneto is amazing and he has a really emotional scene towards the beginning which got me locked into the film. James McAvoy is also great as Xavier. The internal battles inside Xavier's head were riveting. I really liked the new cast of the younger X-Men, like Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Cyclops. Quicksilver has another awesome scene just like the previous movie. The action is handled very well for the most part. The first half of the movie is terrific, but the second half brings it down. Apocalypse as the villain was OK for me. Some scenes worked well and others didn't. I was always skeptical of Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse and I still don't think he was the best choice. He is just like Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor for me. Apocalypse is also a small mutant compared to the others for some reason and he's just another villain who is obsessed with destroying the world, and his motivations are thin. Jennifer Lawrence was a boring Mystique. She just seems uninspired throughout the run-time and becomes tedious since she uses the personality over and over again to play the character. Some mutants were completely wasted here with Psylocke and Angel. There's an entire sequence in a secret lab and it seemed there for only one reason: the cameo of a specific person. While it was fun to watch, it didn't do much of anything for the story in the long run. The entire thing could have been removed and the movie would have been the same. The final battle felt underwhelming with the whole global extinction. The problem is they don't show any civilians dying; it's just buildings coming apart, making it hard to care about the situation. Overall, X-Men: Apocalypse is a disappointing sequel to First Class and Days of Future Past. But it is not at all a bad movie. Magneto and Professor X are once again great, Apocalypse is a mixed bag, the pacing for the movie is all over the place, and the dull second half just brings the film down from the really good first half. X-Men: Apocalypse gets a B-.

X-Men: Apocalypse was very fun, but got quite messy at parts. X-Men fans will like this just like I did. it is a huge step down from Days of Future Past and has a pretty clichéd villain. I forgave the clichéd villain because of how cool and how frightening he was. Oscar Isaac did so good as Apocalypse. The characters are well developed, but some of them do not get enough screen time and some get to much. Angel, Psyloche and Storm have no motivation, there is no reason why they agreed to help Apocalypse destroy the world. What would they gain? Overall I thought the movie was good, I had a blast watching it and will be watching it again.

Suffering from bizarre narrative choices and weak character development, X-Men: Apocalypse is an otherwise passable and occasionally great installment of the franchise, mainly due to the continued strong performances and glorious action set pieces.