After 100s of years of entrapment, the first mutant, Apocalypse re-awakens. When Apocalypse hopes to cleanse the earth from humans with the help of his Four Horseman, it'll be up to the X-Men to stop them.
There are some very positive aspects to this movie. An evident strength is the new cast for the younger X-Men that were set up. The big three Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), all fit very well into their new roles and hopefully Fox is working on a film that focuses on these new, younger characters. Another character that was developed even more from Days of Future Past was Quicksilver (Evan Peters). The first Quicksilver slo-mo scene in Days of Future Past was spectacular because the audiences were not expecting it. While the slo-mo scene in Apocalypse is shoehorned in and not as entertaining as the first one, it is still very charming and shot beautifully. He is not my favorite character in this film though.
My favorite character in this is Magneto (Michael Fassbender). I was very curious going into see how they would go about having Magneto joining Apocalypse to be one of his Four Horseman and it was done perfectly. Without going into spoilers, Magneto is at his lowest of low when he joins Apocalypse and audiences will see his brokenness. The development for this character over the past three movies has been done brilliantly, especially the relationship between him and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). Fassbender has embraced and encompassed this role in an incredible way. The first half of this film with the new X-Men and Magneto's story is very well done.
There are issues with some of the characters in this movie. The most obvious ones are the other Four Horseman besides Magneto. Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy), and Psylocke (Olivia Munn), are very under utilized and there was not a whole lot of logic set up for them joining Apocalypse. I understood why Apocalypse pursues them but I did not understand their side very well.
My biggest issue with this movie is Mystique played by Jennifer Lawrence. I understand this is an alternate timeline since Days of Future Past so Mystique can be on the side of the X-Men. Unfortunately though it feels like Fox is just trying to throw Lawrence's star power in front us just to appeal to a wide market. This is not the only issue. Her performance as Mystique in this movie is not good. This felt like a cash grab for Lawrence just to show up and mail her performance in. She has stated this will probably be her last X-Men film and I certainly hope so. She's a fantastic actress but this role is not for her.
Another issue in the film is the visual effects. I was not huge on the looks of Apocalypse and Psylocke. While I feel Oscar Isaac did well in the role, the look was off-setting. The same goes with Psylocke. I understand they were going for the comic book look. However that does not always translate well to the big screen. This movie also relied heavily on CGI and while there is nothing wrong with that if the CGI is well done, often times the shots were very repetitive. Lots of destruction shots with buildings rising which we've seen in superhero movies time after time. Also, the end scene is a bit anti-climatic and very cliched for superhero movies. I was hoping to see a bit more fighting between all the characters but it was ultimately underwhelming.
While this movie has some issues, the first half of the film and the setup for the new X-Men is very well done. It's not as good as First Class or Days of Future Past but Apocalypse serves to the story and is an entertaining addition to this newer X-Men trilogy.
Rating: 7.0 out of 10
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