X-Men: Apocalypse Review: Singer ups the anti for apocalypse

X-Men Apocalypse Poster. Provided by Fox

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What do you get when you pin a team of strong, good-looking mutants with an array of extraordinary powers, against the original mutant – dating back to ancient Egyptian times, who is essentially the baddest, meanest and most powerful mutant in existence? No less than THE APOCALYPSE…Ha! Riding on the success of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ this third sequel-prequel marks an end to the “First Class” trilogy and is targeted at filling in the blanks between the end events of DOFP and the beginning of the original X-Men saga created in 2000. If you’ve managed to follow the X-Men series all the way, then you will know that Logan’s actions in DOFP completely re-wrote the history of our favourite mutants, saving old characters, relationships and giving us a hopeful future, one that made us forget about the travesty that was X-Men: The Last Stand. 

Apocalypse. Photo by FOX

Bryan Singer continues to stretch his directorial reign of this saga, tackling this new instalment which focuses on the comic-book narrative “Age of Apocalypse”. Our team returns in pure 80’s style, pinned against a new enemy: Apocalypse a.k.a Oscar Issac. He is a blue (no surprise), mighty, godly figure, who has the ability to almost regenerate (Doctor-who style) every time he becomes old, taking on a new body and also cataloguing that body’s powers. Essentially he is a mutant siphon with almost every possible power we have previously seen demonstrated in the X-Men movies, enabling him to be an unstoppable weapon – the toughest the X-Men have ever faced. Sound familiar? You’re thinking of Disney’s Avengers: Age of Ultron from 2015, which also tackled an unyielding force who “could not be beaten” but hey, you should know what you’re in for with these stereotypical-superhero-flicks. 

Most of the stars from the previous films reprise their roles, including accident-prone Jennifer Lawrence whose bereft performance of Mystique strays even further from Rebecca Romijn’s ruthless seductress that we all dearly miss; homo-sapiens what ya’ going to do with them? James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender also resume their roles as telepathic Professor X (why Marvel didn’t pick ‘Wheels’ as his super-name I will never understand) and autocratic Magneto, who begins the film living happily with his family in Poland, leading a domesticated life and wearing flannel shirts …who is this guy? It doesn’t take him long to revert back to his old humanity-hating self when he allies with Apocalypse, both hell-bent on the mass destruction of the Earth (yawn). 

Jean Gray, Nightcrawler & Cyclops. Photo by FOX

Nicholas Hoult’s Beast somehow manages to remain trapped in the back of this one, drowned by the talent of this picture’s expanding cast. Evan Peters continues to impress as speedy-gon-Quicksilver, delivering sharp witty lines such as when he addresses striker’s tedious questions: “Yo, we don’t know bro!” Peters deserves more screen-time for his character, but as he is now integrated into the X-Men ensemble, I wouldn’t be surprised if this resulted in his own movie. Some new additions to the cast include Games of Thrones’ finest Sophie Turner portraying a very wooden telekinetic Jean Gray, Alexandra Shipp rocks a Mohawk and Egyptian accent as Storm, Tye Sheridan performs as the passive-aggressive, laser-beaming Cyclops, Kodi Smit-McPhee cakes on the blue paint as Deutschland’s finest mutant Nightcrawler and EastEnders’ very own Peter Beale a.k.a Ben Hardy, tackles the under appreciated Angel. 

Must mention the cameo from the best Marvel character to ever grace our screens appears mid-way through and golly did it reignite the audiences’ attention… for a solid 5 minutes! 

The destruction of mutants. Photo by FOX

The SFX are exceptional, especially during the climatic final battle between the X-Men and Avatar reject Apocalypse, where we see 3D visuals pf buildings evaporate and bridges crumble into dust, as the industrial world collapses through Magneto’s powerful wrath. There’s also a variety of new powers and skills demonstrated, with a lot more capabilities, however, yet again withheld characters like Storm never get the screen-time to exhibit their full talents; stronger results always elevate from the mind-readers. The slow-fast-motion sequence showcasing Quicksilver’s supersonic powers was an impressively fresh and hilarious concept in DOFP, which Singer utilised once again in Apocalypse, but although it remains as a fan-favored moment, the impact of this scene just falls short of its innovative predecessor.

Evan Peters as Quicksilver. Photo by FOX.

For viewers not knowledgeable of the X-Men plot or its character, it’s a bit of a hard-watch, even for devoted fans, trying to grasp the gist of all the intricate sub-plots and character developments is like taking a lesson in advanced calculus. Still that said, the ending is super-dramatic and heart-warming, definitely still an improvement on X3: The Last Stand’s disappointing narrative, subtly scrutinised in a comment by Turner after her gang leave a movie theatre showing Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: “Well, at least we can all agree the third one is always the worst”. 

This film was increased to the highest possible level to fulfil its title, but yet still felt too low-key for the type of plot and pacing Singer was aiming for. As this film was intended on ‘filling in all the gaps’ between DOFP and X1, I feel as though I’ve come away with more unanswered questions and needing more explanation as to what is next for some of the characters i.e. Quicksilver? Towards the end he states “I think I’ll stick around here for a while” referring to Xavier’s mansion, yet at the end of DOFP he is nowhere to be seen. Following on the success of this year’s final appearance from Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in Logan, there will be multiple character sub-plot features to derive from the X-Men franchise including: The New Mutants (2018), Deadpool 2 (2018) and Channing Tatum starring as Gamit (2019). Also in the pipeline is a direct sequel to Apocalypse titled X-Men: Dark Phoenix, self-explanatory really as it attempts to explore more of Jean Gray’s storyline, however don’t get your hopes up for much else. 

By Rebecca Jennifer Munns