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Update: May 17, 2016
Dragonlord’s Review of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Afflicted with character overload, overall flatness and a final showdown that's disappointingly dull, X-Men: Apocalypse proves that the third film is always the worst among the X-trilogy.
An ancient and powerful mutant, En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) awakens after centuries in deep sleep and decides to reshape the world by destroying the old one. It’s up to Professor X and the X-Men to stop Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen from bringing in the end of the world.
X-Men: Apocalypse is the culmination of the pseudo-trilogy that started with X-Men: First Class and it is almost but not quite as ambitious as X-Men: Days of Future Past. Unfortunately, Apocalypse is also the weakest among the three films.
The setting is 1983 and we are re-introduced to familiar X-Men characters like Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Angel, Psylocke and many more for the first time since the timeline reboot. There’s not enough quality screen time for many of them and some of the characters ended up being shortchanged. Some characters do get some considerable minutes but doesn’t do anything substantial with it and are just tag alongs.
Would have loved to see Cyclops and the other students interacting with each other more. Too bad they cut the scene where they go out to the mall. In the actual movie, there's a scene where the gang goes out to watch a Return of the Jedi and Nightcrawler is out in the public with blue skin, tail and all. Clearly there seems to be drastic shift in societal acceptance due to the events of Days of Future Past. It's an interesting dynamic that I would have liked the movie to explore more.
After watching Return of the Jedi, one of the kids gives a meta comment on how the "third movie is always the worst." It's meant to be a jab at X:Men: The Last Stand but LOL at the irony.
Doesn’t detract from the quality of the movie but the fact that Apocalypse takes place 20 years after First Class but the original cast members still look as young as ever was laughable.
If you hated how they depicted Apocalypse in the trailers, I doubt watching the actual movie will change your opinion. But for someone who accepted that this version of the character is not going to be an exact replica from the comic books, I thought Apocalypse was a sinister and charismatic figure in the early part. I also appreciated Apocalypse’s outlandish appearance compared to the bland look they gave Sebastian Shaw in First Class.
Halfway through the movie, Apocalypse’s one-dimensional destroy-the-world schtick gets tiresome. His overacting and shouting his cheesy spiel were cringey. Another laughable aspect is how Apocalypse said he was looking for the strongest mutants as his Horsemen but ended up recruiting the first mutants he sees. Apocalypse's abilities include power amplification, teleportation, regeneration, sand/rock manipulation and, apparently, fashion designing (you'll get it when you see it).
Another controversial figure is Mystique since a lot of people here don’t like the idea of Raven taking charge of the team as well as giving the spotlight to actress Jennifer Lawrence. But I do like Mystique’s arc in the trilogy. Out of all the characters, she has shown to have the most growth, going from rebellious teen, to a neophyte villain, and lastly, a reluctant figurehead and leader.
Michael Fassbender was solid as Magneto as usual and his beginning ordeal was heartbreaking. James McAvoy did a great job as Professor X once again. Tye Sheridan was decent as Cyclops. Sophie Turner is miscast as Jean Grey. Disappointed with their characterization of Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), felt like I was watching Balki from Perfect Strangers.
Three out of the Four Horsemen are treated more like groupies than his acolytes/soldiers. The 3 Horsemen (Archangel, Psylocke and Storm) don't do much and only get to fight at the finale battle. Ben Hardy as Angel was interesting early on but he became boring once he became Archangel. The most embarrassing thing is the Falcon easily outshined Archangel in the wing department action in Civil War. Olivia Munn looked great as Psylocke but was rather forgettable overall. Alexandra Shipp looked and sounded like Storm (way better than Halle Berry’s horrible version) but the character had an epic facepalm moment (see spoilers below).
Quicksilver (Evan Peters) once again steals the show with one of the most fun action sequence in the movie. Plus he rocked in the final battle.
Frustratingly, the film did not explain what Mystique did to Wolverine at the end of Days of Future Past nor reveal what her motivations were.
With a few exceptions like Quicksilver in action, the final battle was mostly dull. Found the fight choreography and stuntwork to be sorely lacking. X-Men: Apocalypse has a huge disadvantage coming after just weeks of the terrific Captain America: Civil War where the benchmark for group super battle is set so high audiences cannot help but compare this film to it. Some of the wirework looked horrible when Magneto and Storm levitated, especially Magneto who looked like very awkward with his pose at the end. There’s a Roland Emmerich-style epic global destruction vibe going on but the impact is muted since we don’t really see the public’s reaction of panic and despair. The opening sequence in ancient Egypt was well-done and exciting though.
Overall, X-Men: Apocalypse is flat and sufers from character overload while the big final showdown turned out to be bewilderingly dull. Stick around for the post-credits scene (see spoilers below to see what it all means). For the betterment of the X-Men franchise, no Magneto in the next movie please and focus more on the other X-Men characters.
Rating: 5/10
Warning - Spoiler thoughts and musings below:
After Professor X is kidnapped, the scene that followed where the team is captured by Stryker and brought to his secret base felt tacked on. The main purpose for the change of scenery of course is for Wolverine to make an appearance. Inspired by the Weapon X origin, a mindless Wolverine goes berserk and kills all the guards and scientists in his way. It’s very brutal and bad-ass. But they should have depicted the guards and scientists more negatively in order to fully relish the massacre.
Storm agrees to become Apocalypse’s Horsemen and has no problems with his plans of destroying the entire world and killing majority of the population. But when Storm sees her idol, Mystique, fighting Apocalypse, she suddenly realizes she’s on the wrong side. Uh, wasn’t the mass genocide master plan not enough of a strong hint.
For some reason, the most emotional scene that got to me was when Charles unlocked Moira’s past memories.
The ending is very convenient. Storm is absolved in her part of nearly ending the world. Magneto is hailed as a hero despite proof that it was his handiwork that destroyed the world infrastructures and most likely killed millions of people. But everything is swept under the rug and quickly forgotten.
Quicksilver is a cool character and he officially joins the team at the end. But I foresee a lot of problems for the future sequel with him being around because his powers are too uber. Either they create some sort of legitimate and logical reason why he just doesn't save the day or they'll just make up some illogical plot holes to neutralize him.
The post-credits scene shows men from the Essex Corp. take Wolverine’s blood sample from the Weapon X site. It’s a sign that Mister Sinister a.k.a. Nathaniel Essex is coming to the Fox X-Men Universe. Richard E. Grant was cast as a madman scientist in Wolverine 3, it’s possible that Grant is playing Mister Sinister. X-23 was also rumored to be in Wolverine 3, so it fits how the Essex Corp. will use Logan’s blood to create a female clone.
Link to previous threads:
X-Men: Apocalypse Official Thread 1.0
X-Men: Apocalypse Official Thread 2.0
Dragonlord’s Review of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Afflicted with character overload, overall flatness and a final showdown that's disappointingly dull, X-Men: Apocalypse proves that the third film is always the worst among the X-trilogy.
An ancient and powerful mutant, En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) awakens after centuries in deep sleep and decides to reshape the world by destroying the old one. It’s up to Professor X and the X-Men to stop Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen from bringing in the end of the world.
X-Men: Apocalypse is the culmination of the pseudo-trilogy that started with X-Men: First Class and it is almost but not quite as ambitious as X-Men: Days of Future Past. Unfortunately, Apocalypse is also the weakest among the three films.
The setting is 1983 and we are re-introduced to familiar X-Men characters like Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Angel, Psylocke and many more for the first time since the timeline reboot. There’s not enough quality screen time for many of them and some of the characters ended up being shortchanged. Some characters do get some considerable minutes but doesn’t do anything substantial with it and are just tag alongs.
Would have loved to see Cyclops and the other students interacting with each other more. Too bad they cut the scene where they go out to the mall. In the actual movie, there's a scene where the gang goes out to watch a Return of the Jedi and Nightcrawler is out in the public with blue skin, tail and all. Clearly there seems to be drastic shift in societal acceptance due to the events of Days of Future Past. It's an interesting dynamic that I would have liked the movie to explore more.
After watching Return of the Jedi, one of the kids gives a meta comment on how the "third movie is always the worst." It's meant to be a jab at X:Men: The Last Stand but LOL at the irony.
Doesn’t detract from the quality of the movie but the fact that Apocalypse takes place 20 years after First Class but the original cast members still look as young as ever was laughable.
If you hated how they depicted Apocalypse in the trailers, I doubt watching the actual movie will change your opinion. But for someone who accepted that this version of the character is not going to be an exact replica from the comic books, I thought Apocalypse was a sinister and charismatic figure in the early part. I also appreciated Apocalypse’s outlandish appearance compared to the bland look they gave Sebastian Shaw in First Class.
Halfway through the movie, Apocalypse’s one-dimensional destroy-the-world schtick gets tiresome. His overacting and shouting his cheesy spiel were cringey. Another laughable aspect is how Apocalypse said he was looking for the strongest mutants as his Horsemen but ended up recruiting the first mutants he sees. Apocalypse's abilities include power amplification, teleportation, regeneration, sand/rock manipulation and, apparently, fashion designing (you'll get it when you see it).
Another controversial figure is Mystique since a lot of people here don’t like the idea of Raven taking charge of the team as well as giving the spotlight to actress Jennifer Lawrence. But I do like Mystique’s arc in the trilogy. Out of all the characters, she has shown to have the most growth, going from rebellious teen, to a neophyte villain, and lastly, a reluctant figurehead and leader.
Michael Fassbender was solid as Magneto as usual and his beginning ordeal was heartbreaking. James McAvoy did a great job as Professor X once again. Tye Sheridan was decent as Cyclops. Sophie Turner is miscast as Jean Grey. Disappointed with their characterization of Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), felt like I was watching Balki from Perfect Strangers.
Three out of the Four Horsemen are treated more like groupies than his acolytes/soldiers. The 3 Horsemen (Archangel, Psylocke and Storm) don't do much and only get to fight at the finale battle. Ben Hardy as Angel was interesting early on but he became boring once he became Archangel. The most embarrassing thing is the Falcon easily outshined Archangel in the wing department action in Civil War. Olivia Munn looked great as Psylocke but was rather forgettable overall. Alexandra Shipp looked and sounded like Storm (way better than Halle Berry’s horrible version) but the character had an epic facepalm moment (see spoilers below).
Quicksilver (Evan Peters) once again steals the show with one of the most fun action sequence in the movie. Plus he rocked in the final battle.
Frustratingly, the film did not explain what Mystique did to Wolverine at the end of Days of Future Past nor reveal what her motivations were.
With a few exceptions like Quicksilver in action, the final battle was mostly dull. Found the fight choreography and stuntwork to be sorely lacking. X-Men: Apocalypse has a huge disadvantage coming after just weeks of the terrific Captain America: Civil War where the benchmark for group super battle is set so high audiences cannot help but compare this film to it. Some of the wirework looked horrible when Magneto and Storm levitated, especially Magneto who looked like very awkward with his pose at the end. There’s a Roland Emmerich-style epic global destruction vibe going on but the impact is muted since we don’t really see the public’s reaction of panic and despair. The opening sequence in ancient Egypt was well-done and exciting though.
Overall, X-Men: Apocalypse is flat and sufers from character overload while the big final showdown turned out to be bewilderingly dull. Stick around for the post-credits scene (see spoilers below to see what it all means). For the betterment of the X-Men franchise, no Magneto in the next movie please and focus more on the other X-Men characters.
Rating: 5/10
Warning - Spoiler thoughts and musings below:
After Professor X is kidnapped, the scene that followed where the team is captured by Stryker and brought to his secret base felt tacked on. The main purpose for the change of scenery of course is for Wolverine to make an appearance. Inspired by the Weapon X origin, a mindless Wolverine goes berserk and kills all the guards and scientists in his way. It’s very brutal and bad-ass. But they should have depicted the guards and scientists more negatively in order to fully relish the massacre.
Storm agrees to become Apocalypse’s Horsemen and has no problems with his plans of destroying the entire world and killing majority of the population. But when Storm sees her idol, Mystique, fighting Apocalypse, she suddenly realizes she’s on the wrong side. Uh, wasn’t the mass genocide master plan not enough of a strong hint.
For some reason, the most emotional scene that got to me was when Charles unlocked Moira’s past memories.
The ending is very convenient. Storm is absolved in her part of nearly ending the world. Magneto is hailed as a hero despite proof that it was his handiwork that destroyed the world infrastructures and most likely killed millions of people. But everything is swept under the rug and quickly forgotten.
Quicksilver is a cool character and he officially joins the team at the end. But I foresee a lot of problems for the future sequel with him being around because his powers are too uber. Either they create some sort of legitimate and logical reason why he just doesn't save the day or they'll just make up some illogical plot holes to neutralize him.
The post-credits scene shows men from the Essex Corp. take Wolverine’s blood sample from the Weapon X site. It’s a sign that Mister Sinister a.k.a. Nathaniel Essex is coming to the Fox X-Men Universe. Richard E. Grant was cast as a madman scientist in Wolverine 3, it’s possible that Grant is playing Mister Sinister. X-23 was also rumored to be in Wolverine 3, so it fits how the Essex Corp. will use Logan’s blood to create a female clone.
Link to previous threads:
X-Men: Apocalypse Official Thread 1.0
X-Men: Apocalypse Official Thread 2.0
