X-Men: Apocalypse – Film Review

With each X-Men film in the series, Bryan Singer is always a staple when it comes to knowing the quality. “X-Men”, “X2: X-men United” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. With this being Bryan Singer’s fourth directed film in the franchise the expectations are pretty high after the franchise extreme makeover that Days of Future Past did to the franchise. The film reinvigorated the enthusiasm about the franchise and the possibilities of the future with the X-Men property at 20th Century FOX. After “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” came out in theaters people were pretty luke-warm on the franchise. Some claimed that they wanted the property to go back to Marvel proper. I for one after watching “X-Men: First Class” didn’t want it to go back immediately but I needed Days of Future past to win me over with the property being at FOX.

This entry adds some great talent with Oscar Isaac, Olivia Munn, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-Mcphee, Tye Sheridan, and Sophie Turner. Recasting those well known roles of Jean Grey, Scott Summers/Cyclops, Ororo Monroe/Storm, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler was a tall task. Each of the actors does a very serviceable job in fitting into the role and making the role their own. The roles that worked for me were Tye Sheridan’s rendition of Cyclops and Evan Peter’s Quicksilver. Cyclops felt more like a leader this time while Quicksilver’s scene is strong and compliments the previous film’s scene. Wolverine’s cameo is welcomed but brief.

Everything they’ve built will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we’ll build a better one!

Some of the weaker points of the film included the film’s third act would could have had more punch to it. Though I know that the studio needed to push this film out by Memorial Day weekend — they should have pushed it to make it a stronger punch. The final scene did get me very excited to see the next X-Men film based in the 90’s. The believability of the age of the characters is very murky. Some characters seem accurate while others aren’t and it makes everything confusing and loses touch with how reality works. The CGI was heavily present in the film and does make sense with a character with unlimited capabilities — I just wish they were able to ground Apocalypse more.

The opening credits were great and were a huge highlight for me. James McAvoy really does lead the whole film with the story focus on him changing his ideology from everyone to co-exist to that there is a balance to how people behave and you can’t expect the best from everyone, you have to be able to put up a defense. Michael Fassbender has a huge arc in the film as well — but not as impactful as Xavier’s. He does a great job with the material he was given and closed the character out on a strong note.

In conclusion I would say this film is not a disaster compared to “X-Men: The Last Stand”. I think it’s one of my top five X-Men films. Definitely closes out the trilogy well and shows promise for the future of the franchise.