Great Swell of Pity

X-Men: Apocalypse

Hi everyone, I am going to dive right into this because I have a lot to say and I don’t want to waste time with an intro to this. Bryan Singer’s newest entry into the X-Men franchise, X-Men: Apocalypse brings back excruciating memories of X-Men: Last Stand. This is largely ironic because in Apocalypse Singer takes a jab at Last Stand, stating that the third movie of any franchise/trilogy is always suck. Did Singer already know that this film was bad too…? Sorry, I am getting a little off track, so let me start this off better.

The Story: Apocalypse starts off 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt as we bear witness to the transference of power from what looks like an already Apocalypse to another ancient mutant that has the regenerative power so he can live forever. Well there are some people in Egypt that don’t like this happening so a group of warriors band together to kill Apocalypse and his four horsemen during the transfer. They are successful at killing the horsemen; however the transfer of conscience is complete but puts the new Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac Ex Machina) into a state of slumber. Fast forward to 1983 and the world is pretty much the same as it was at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence The Hunger Games) is roaming the world trying to help other mutants in need, new students have enrolled in the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters including Jean Grey (Sophie Turner Game of Thrones) and Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan Mud), and Erik (Michael Fassbender Steve Jobs) has found a way to start a family and live peacefully in Poland. Of course all of this gets thrown out the window when Apocalypse awakens, notices that this world is not the one that was planned, and decides to recruit new horsemen to take back the world for himself.

The Good: Hold tight because this is going to be a short list. First off, I actually did enjoy Isaac has Apocalypse. I thought that he had a great commanding presence, which he should have, and I thought that Isaac was quite convincing as a bad guy. I highly enjoyed (like every one of my peers) everything that was associated with Quicksilver (Evan Peters American Horror Story). I loved how Singer built just a little bit more onto the character without making him a centerpiece to the film. Most times when a character that is highly liked with one movie, studios like to expand too much on that same character with the second movie. Here Quicksilver’s scenes are reminiscent of his in Days of Future Past, but just amplified a touch. I will say that out of the newest members of the X-team, I thought that Singer was going in a good direction with Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee Slow West). I think that his character was one of the most faithfully interpreted characters in this film.

The Bad: Oh goodness, where to start with this. Here goes…ummm, this movie was BORING! This film is literally a recruitment movie for Apocalypse with a highly disappointing final showdown. All in all this film just lacked substance. Days of Future Past had a clear cut vision, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back to alter the past to save mutant kind for being exterminated. Here in Apocalypse, I understand that he wanted to cleanse the Earth and take it back, but it there was no urgency. The whole film just felt lazy. The film was also filled with convenient coincidences. Apocalypse awakens in Egypt, where Storm (Alexandra Shipp Straight Outta Compton) is so he recruits her. Somehow they pair make it to Germany where Psylocke (Olivia Munn Deliver Us from Evil) is camped out, so he recruits her. She happens to know Angel (Ben Hardy EastEnders) and so he is recruited. Then magically the find Erik in Poland and recruit him. Then there is coincidences on the “good” side too, like Quicksilver deciding to go look for Erik (his father) and decides to go to the Xavier school (ten years later?!? Man, that is laziness). He makes it there just as the school is being destroyed, he decides to help and is somehow thrown into the fray with the rest of the “X-Men”. The other is the Weapon X scene, which didn’t make any real sense to me. Why are we fitting Wolverine into a movie he really didn’t need to be in? STOP TRYING TO FIT WOLVERINE IN X-MOVIES HE DOESN’T NEED TO BE IN! I promise the film will do just fine without him. I know he is a fan favorite, but in this film his cameo seems REALLY forced and way to convenient. The next problem I have with this movie is the HUGE creative liberties they take with the introductions of these new characters. I have accepted the fact that Jennifer Lawrence can’t be a villain due to her likability within our society, I have also come to grips with Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne Neighbors) not being either Scottish or a mutant geneticist ( that last one was hard to swallow), but come on let’s not mess with characters pivotal to the X-Universe. Like Scott Summers, who is the OLDER brother of Havok (Lucas Till MacGyver) and not an angry shit. Or how Psylocke wasn’t even English. Come on, we are six movies into this franchise, can we PLEASE start to at least get some of these characters right?!? Now that I think of it, some of the characters they got right (i.e. Storm, finally with an African accent, who is WAY under-developed in this film).  If the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be nearly spot on, I think then the characters of the X-Franchise can be just as close. Especially the important ones. The film also had plotlines that really didn’t go anywhere or didn’t build up enough. For example, Jean is believed by Xavier to be one of the most powerful mutants and her psionic dreams/nightmares are scaring the children of the school. However, we really never get to see it. One scene she uses her powers to move her school books, she psychically hides herself and two others in another scene, and then in the final battle she goes all out Phoenix. Never do we see the real build up to that final Phoenix scene, just spurts of what she can do. Also, Scott’s apparent anger issues. He is perceived as a troubled teen in the beginning, but by the end of the film he just seems normal. No rhyme or reason to why he calmed down.

The Verdict: I think that the X-Franchise has gone away from story and moved to large set pieces. With the reset of the franchise, First Class, the franchise was moving in the right direction. First Class gave audiences a reason to believe in the good stories that are buried deep within the X-Universe like Days of Future Past . When the latter film came out, audiences had a chance to witness the start of a new direction with great stories to come and iconic villains. However, Apocalypse become an overly hyped set piece with no substance. I highly believe  that 20^th Century Fox needs to take a cue from the MCU and start creating things authentic to the property they own. The X-Men comics are JAM-PACKED with amazing stories and plot arches that it just seems like a waste that we, X-Men loyalists, only got one story adaption among six movies. Apocalypse, in the end, just didn’t seem as powerful as he claimed and this film did not utilize one of the most menacing villains in the X-Men books. Also this film was a horrible attempt to build up the Phoenix saga. You wanna build that up, then make Jean the center of the movie not some supporting character. I am done ranting…for now.

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