The X-Men franchise was once responsible for revolutionising superhero movies. Not only did the first entry in the saga (which was released almost 16 years ago) really prove the point that this genre of movies could make serious money but it also set the precedent for how to make a good superhero ensemble a whole decade before The Avengers, while also making a star out of Australian national treasure and Oscar winner, Hugh Jackman. Despite a dip in its quality come the third and fourth entries in the franchise (my distain for the Hollywood equivalent of used toilet paper that is X-Men Origins: Wolverine being well documented) the series was rejuvenated in 2011 with X-Men: First Class and it has went from strength to strength since then.
Until now, as X-Men: Apocalypse doesn't really hold up to what's come before.
For all that there was a lot about this movie I did enjoy, there was a lot of glaringly obvious problems, the biggest of these (literally and figuratively) being the movie's title villain, Apocalypse. He is the most generic, seemingly all-powerful, tyrannical big-bad you could possibly imagine. This is no knock on actor Oscar Isaac who brings all he can to the part, but the character is just badly written. He is just a boring, blueish, generic super-villain. That's it. You may as well have called him Ronan and had Chris Pratt defeat him by way of dance-off. The series to this point has made use a plethora of really complex and compelling antagonists (Magneto, General Stryker, Sabertooth etc) all of whom make Apocalypse look very one-note by comparison. Sometimes movies are only as good as their bad guy (see Heath Ledger's Joker) and this film is a testament to that philosophy. The other major issue I had with the film was the use of CGI, which the filmmakers relied on far too heavily. Most of the film's final act centred around general scenes of mass destruction and I couldn't help but feel that I'd seen this before. Like the title character, the CGI felt very generic. On top of this the effects themselves were underwhelming at best, with the best example of its lacklustre quality coming halfway through the run-time when Cyclops accidentally cut a tree in half. Without going into this too much, it looked about as fake as Donald Trump's hair and completely sums up my argument in a nutshell.
These major grievances aside, there were also some minor gripes I had with the film which I'm going to list quickly. There were far too many characters who didn't get as much screen-time as they deserved, namely Storm, Beast and Nightcrawler. There were far too many unnecessary characters included that did nothing to advance the plot. As great an actress as she is, this was J-Law's flattest outing as Mystique. Also, why did Apocalypse not die when all the rubble fell on him at the start of the movie? Did they have to give away one of the film's best moments in the trailer? Was it the intention of the filmmakers to make the fate of Magneto's family so painfully obvious? And why in the bluest of blue hells did so many characters cry a single tear in this movie? The single tear acting, while mostly on point, was drastically overdone. To sum up, there were parts of this film that I absolutely loathed.
On the flip-side, there were elements of this film I thought worked extremely well. The new additions to the cast were fantastic, and the benefits of hitting the reset button in Days of Future Past are very clear to see here. Sophie Turner shines as Jean Grey, giving new life to a character who was grossly mishandled the last time she was used on the big-screen. Turner has proven her acting chops on Game of Thrones, and her strong performance here is a reflection of how much she has grown as an actress since 2010. Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Alexandra Shipp also did a fantastic job in bringing some of our most popular mutants back to the big screen, while franchise veteran James McIlvoy arguably gives his best performance to date as Professor X. The film's character driven moments are excellent and it's just a shame that we couldn't have seen more of these moments in the messy third act. Other highlights include the throwbacks to the original X-Men film (see Xavier and Magneto's dialogue in the final scene) and also an intense (albeit unsurprising) cameo from a certain man from a land down under. The film's post-credit scene also gives me faith that they are going in new and brave directions with the future of the franchise.
Maybe I'm being too harsh on this movie due to my love of this franchise, but I can't deny there were flashes of brilliance in X-Men: Apocalypse. There were snippets of great character development. There were glimpses of deeper underlying themes. There were golden moments of pure, gritty action. Yet when I think back on this movie I feel nothing but frustration. The film's obvious flaws hang over it like a black cloud in my mind. The over-reliance on sensationalised action and CGI created a disconnect between the film and the viewer, the inclusion of too many characters meant some did not get their fair share of time to shine, and the translation of the X-Men's greatest threat as he made the jump from the comics to the big-screen was underwhelming at best. While it's not as bad as some films in the franchise's past (cough cough wink wink Origins) it is by nowhere near its best. A number of different factors could be blamed for this, though I think the studio had more than a hand in the way this film turned out, perhaps forcing Bryan Singer to go in this over-the-top direction in an attempt to compete with the releases of Batman v Superman and Civil War respectively at the box-office. This was a mistake. X-Men shouldn't try to play by anyones rules but it's own. X-2 is perhaps the best film the superhero genre has ever seen, and it takes place predominately in smaller scale settings. It proved that blockbusters could be entertaining, make money AND be quality films. I wish I could give this film a better grade because, like I said, there were parts I really enjoyed. In saying this, ultimately the overall experience left me frustrated and the overarching plot was somewhat forgettable.
Let's hope Hugh Jackman's last outing as Wolverine is better than this effort, as that man deserves a great send-off for the massive contribution he's made to the franchise.
Score: 6.8/10
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