While the superhero genre has come a long way since then,
the original X-Men, released on July
14, 2000, was very much the first ‘big-time’ superhero flick of the 21st
century. And while he (nor most of the film’s cast, for that matter) may not
have been that familiar with the franchise when he first started working on it,
Bryan Singer ultimately ended up becoming one of the pioneering directors when
it came to modern-era superhero films, later paving the way for other directors
like Joss Whedon and the Russo brothers to leave their own mark on the genre.
Singer then followed his first X-Men film
up with an even more successful sequel in the form of 2003’s X2: X-Men United. And of course as we
all know, he then left the franchise to work on other projects (most notably
another superhero project in 2006’s Superman
Returns), which then led to the films starting to drop in quality with a
highly disappointing ‘threequel’ in 2006 and an even more mediocre spin-off in
2009. Thankfully the series started to get back on track in 2011 with director
Matthew Vaughn’s 1960’s-set prequel, X-Men:
First Class. But while he may not have directed the film, part of the
film’s success, if you ask me, came from the long-awaited return of Bryan
Singer to the franchise, as he served as the film’s producer/co-writer. Three
years later, Singer would finally return to the franchise full-time as he
helmed X-Men: Days of Future Past,
inspired by the iconic comic storyline of the same name. And to put it simply,
the film proved to be not only the best X-Men
film to date but also one of the best superhero films period. It also
officially cemented the franchise’s overall road to redemption by pulling a
much-appreciated continuity retcon that erased the events of the series’
weakest installments from its official canon.
So now we come to what is, at the moment, seemingly set to
be the final film of the franchise’s First
Class era: X-Men: Apocalypse. The
new film sees the X-Men take on their greatest enemy yet in the form of the
‘original’ mutant En Sabah Nur AKA Apocalypse. With Bryan Singer back to
direct, most of the First Class era
cast returning to reprise their roles, and some very promising new additions to
the cast, who wouldn’t be excited for the latest film in this great series? Well,
if you recall my previous post on this film… apparently most of the internet.
Yes, while the franchise seemed to be in good standing following not only Days of Future Past but also this year’s
highly successful spin-off Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, for various reasons, just didn’t get much positive attention
online in the months leading up to its release, at least when compared to the
other superhero film releases this year like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War. And it looks like the internet’s
general undermining of the film has now translated to its current critical
reception, as the film sports a measly 47% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time that
I’m writing this, which actually makes it the lowest rated film of the main series
not counting X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
And yeah… I don’t get it. With great action, great characters, and the always
great direction from the franchise’s best director, X-Men: Apocalypse is yet another highly entertaining and overall
just straight-up awesome installment of the X-Men
franchise.
10 years since the events of Days of Future Past, telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has
reopened his school for Gifted Mutants in Westchester, New York while both
Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) have gone into
hiding since the incident with the Sentinels in Washington D.C, with Mystique
actually now seen as a ‘hero’ to many young mutants all over the world for her
‘efforts’ in stopping Magneto during the event. While all of this is going on,
an ancient mutant known as En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) is awakened from a
centuries-long slumber by the cults that view him as the world’s first ‘true’
mutant. Once awakened, Apocalypse begins recruiting his new lieutenants, known
as the ‘Four Horsemen’, in order to help him cleanse the Earth and preserve it
for the strongest. These Four Horsemen consist of the weather-controlling Storm
(Alexandra Shipp), psychic-energy wielding Psylocke (Olivia Munn), the
bird-like winged mutant Angel (Ben Hardy), and Magneto, whose seemingly
peaceful new life in Poland is destroyed when his past comes back to haunt him.
When Apocalypse kidnaps Xavier as part of his plan for world domination,
Mystique and Dr. Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) AKA Beast are forced to lead a
team of young mutants, including telepath Jean Grey (Sophie Turner),
optical-blasting Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) AKA Cyclops, and teleporter Kurt
Wagner (Kodi Smit-McPhee) AKA Nightcrawler into a battle against Apocalypse and
his four Horsemen with the fate of the whole world at stake.
I’m rather surprised that critics are taking issue with the
film for being ‘overloaded’ with action. After all, this film is titled X-Men: Apocalypse, not X-Men: Minor Incident. If you ask me,
the amount of action in this film is very suitable for this kind of story in
which the X-Men take on an all-powerful god-like mutant. As a result, the
action sequences in this film are excellent and are backed by some very
impressive and obviously highly complex CGI work. And without giving too much
away, this film’s Quicksilver scene somehow manages to top the equally terrific
scene that came before it in Days of
Future Past. In short, this is just yet another well-directed franchise
effort courtesy of Bryan Singer. In keeping with the ‘time period’ theming of
the past few films (e.g. the Bond-esque 60’s setting of First Class), this film’s 80’s setting is well-developed and the
dialogue is punctuated with plenty of humorous lines that liven up the mood in
just the right way, from Xavier’s failed attempts to hide the fact that he’s
flirting with Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), who had previously appeared in First Class but had her memory wiped by
Xavier at the end of it, to one hell of a joke about trilogies at the expense
of the original Star Wars trilogy.
But even with the film’s great use of humor in mind, the film still manages to
have some highly effective emotional moments, mostly in the form of key story
beats for a few of the main characters. I mean I wouldn’t say that the film
carries the exact same amount of emotional depth as some of the other X-Men films but it’s not like the film
is completely lacking of it either, as I’ve seen some critics argue.
James McAvoy is once again great as the young Charles Xavier
and while he may not be the main protagonist this time around compared to Days of Future Past, he still plays a
vital part in the overall story. He also finally adopts the bald look that has
defined the character in the comics as well as in the films when he was played
by Patrick Stewart. However, for the second time in the span of three films,
Michael Fassbender is ultimately the biggest standout of the cast, primarily because
Magneto gets a lot of the film’s best emotional moments as he is shown to have
started a family in Poland while trying to stay ‘low-key’ following the events
of the previous film. As for Mystique, some have argued that Jennifer Lawrence
‘phoned it in’ this time around as a sign of her not being that interested in
returning to the franchise. However, I thought that she was just as good as
she’s been in the previous two films. And like how First Class was Magneto’s story and Days of Future Past was Xavier’s story, Apocalypse is arguably Mystique’s story as she finds that since the
Washington incident, she has actually become a ‘hero’ for many of the younger
mutants, even though she herself doesn’t see herself as one. It should also be
noted that the character doesn’t appear in her natural blue form as much this
time around compared to previous films, which I can definitely tell will be a
problem for some fans. But considering how uncomfortable the makeup process for
the character has been throughout these films (which, according to Lawrence,
has recently been made easier due to the fact that the filmmakers just have her
wear a full bodysuit instead of having all of the elaborate body-paint applied
to her), I don’t blame her for not wanting to be like that throughout the whole
film.
As far as the new cast is concerned, Singer and company did
a pretty great job in casting new actors/actresses to take on the classic
character roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler, previously played by
James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Alan Cumming, respectively, in the franchise’s
original film trilogy. Tye Sheridan gets quite a few really effective emotional
scenes as Cyclops and fans of the character will be pleased to know he gets
more to do this time around than he did in previous films. Also, as expected
given their relationship in the comics, Sheridan forms a nice ‘chemistry’ with
Sophie Turner as Jean Grey. I’ve seen a few articles online express criticism
over her accent in the film but I personally didn’t really see anything wrong
with it. Turner is excellent in the role and I’m certain that a few noteworthy
scenes in this film will very much give X-Men
fans hope that the character’s most iconic comic storyline will finally be
done justice on the big-screen after the last attempt in doing so obviously
didn’t turn out very well. Another character that makes a long-awaited return
to the series is Nightcrawler, now played by Kodi-Smit McPhee. It might
actually surprise some people that Nightcrawler ends up having quite a lot of
humorous moments in the film and McPhee handles them quite well as the fact
that this Nightcrawler is much younger than when he was played by Cumming in X2 shows that, at this point in his
life, he can be rather socially awkward at times.
And finally, let’s talk about the film’s big baddie,
Apocalypse, played by Oscar Isaac in a very unrecognizable turn due to the
character’s great makeup design. Unfortunately, though, the character was
continuously mocked online in the months leading up to the film’s release
solely because of when the first photos of him were released, the internet made
countless comparisons between him and Ivan Ooze, the villain from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers film, even
though subsequent trailers made it clear that he would very much look exactly
like the character does in the comics. So with all of those jokes at the
character’s expense out of the way, how does this big baddie fare in the film? Well
overall I think that he was a decent villain. I’m not saying that he’s the
‘greatest’ comic book film villain ever and, not being a big comic reader, I
have the feeling that some fans may not entirely be pleased with how the
character is portrayed in the film. Still, Isaac did manage to make Apocalypse
a pretty intimidating villain thanks to his strong commanding presence,
especially when he’s flanked by his Four Horsemen; Storm, Psylocke, Angel, and
Magneto. Granted, none of them really get much to do in the film, other than
Magneto of course, but at the very least they each get at least one memorable
moment in the film.
Rating: 4.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment