X-Men: Apocalypse - SPOILER POST

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

(WARNING: SPOILERS)

As I went over previously in my post on why the film was being criminally undervalued online in the months leading up to its release, X-Men: Apocalypse is the one superhero film that just couldn’t catch a break compared to the other superhero films that were being released this year. When the first photos came out, which included the first shot of the film’s big baddie Apocalypse, the internet did what it always does and made fun of them, claiming that Apocalypse looked more like Ivan Ooze, the villain of the first Power Rangers film, than the intimidating god-like mutant that he is in the comics. Then there came those who argued that the film wasn’t doing enough to stand out in the genre that has been under increasingly heavy scrutiny in the past few years to keep upping its game. That and, as I’ve recently found out, I guess these X-Men films aren’t necessarily that popular with fans of the comics. And all of that undermining, it seems, has ultimately translated into the film’s mediocre critical reception. With a mediocre 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is the lowest rated X-Men film of the main series. But as you recall from my review, I definitely wasn’t agreeing with the general consensus on this film. X-Men: Apocalypse was simply yet another highly entertaining and epic installment courtesy of the man who brought the series to relevance in the first place, Bryan Singer. And today on Rhode Island Movie Corner, it’s time for me to delve further into this increasingly underrated superhero flick. However, this Spoiler Post is going to be a little different compared to the other Spoiler Posts that I’ve done over the past few years. Instead of focusing in on the film’s key moments, I’m instead going to focus on the film’s cast of characters, from the heroes to the villains.  

XAVIER

While Xavier admittedly spends most of the film as Apocalypse’s ‘prisoner’, James McAvoy still does a fantastic job in the role of the wise telepath. This film also finally allows McAvoy to adopt the character’s iconic bald look after having a full head of hair in the previous two films (“Next thing you know I’ll be going bald” – Xavier in First Class). This occurs when Apocalypse puts him through the process of transferring his soul into Xavier’s body, who is arguably the most powerful telepath in the world, so that he can use Xavier’s abilities to take over the world. Aside from that, another part of his role in the film revolves around him reuniting with Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), his love interest from First Class. However, at the end of that film, he had wiped her memories of him and the X-Men so when they meet again in this film, she doesn’t know him in the way that she did before. Though with that said, she still knows who he ‘is’ by way of his research on mutants, which is the same way that she first learned about him in First Class. But it’s clear that Xavier still has feelings for her, as primarily exemplified by some of the film’s best hilarious moments in which he rather unsubtly flirts with her. My favorite line of that regard is when he first sees her, while using Cerebro for the record, and says to Beast “I’m going to check her out- check out the situation”. Thankfully by the end of the film Xavier does restore her memories of him and the X-Men which is definitely good because if you ask me it would’ve been one hell of an awkward situation if he didn’t.

MAGNETO

Michael Fassbender proved to be the biggest standout of X-Men: First Class, a film that very much focused on Magneto’s story and how he came to develop a hatred for humanity. And with X-Men: Apocalypse, Magneto once again proves to be one of the best parts of the film as he gets the bulk of the film’s best emotional moments. Following the events of Days of Future Past, Magneto has gone into hiding after his attempt to kill the President and his officials in Washington D.C. As the film begins, he is shown to have started a new life in Poland, working in a metalwork factory and living with his wife Magda and their daughter Nina. However, his true identity is revealed to his co-workers when he uses his powers to save one of them from being crushed by a large vat of molten metal that falls as the result of an earthquake that was caused by the reawakening of Apocalypse. He immediately returns to his home and tells his wife, who is shown to at least be aware of who he really is, that they need to leave. However, they initially can’t find Nina and as it turns out, she’s been taken captive by a group of policemen. Although Magneto convinces them to take him into custody instead, things get complicated when it is revealed that Nina has mutant powers of her own as she summons a flock of birds to attack the guards (I’m not aware of anyone in the comics with that power so let me know in the comments if this connects to a character in the comics). Sadly, the scene ends in tragedy as one of the guards accidentally fires an arrow, which kills both Magda and Nina. In vengeance, Magneto kills all of the policemen in the same way that he killed Shaw in First Class; by propelling the coin that he had from his childhood (which he had turned into a necklace for Nina) through all of them.

All of this is what eventually leads to Apocalypse recruiting him as one of his Horsemen, following a great one-liner in which Magneto asks “Who the f*** are you?” when Apocalypse and the other Horsemen first arrive at the factory at the same time that Magneto returns there, intent on killing his co-workers for ratting him out to the police and inadvertently causing the death of his family. He then takes Magneto to the concentration camp at Auschwitz where he was separated from his family, as seen in First Class in a scene that was directly lifted from the very first X-Men film. There he improves his powers so that he can control the Earth’s magnetic poles, which then leads to Magneto destroying the camp. All of these aforementioned scenes are highly emotional and as a result, this very much goes against one of the main criticisms that I’ve seen about the film in that it is supposedly ‘emotionless’. I don’t know about you but all of these scenes, from Magneto grieving the loss of his wife and daughter to the scene in which he confronts his co-workers at the factory, are quite emotionally powerful and are buoyed by Fassbender’s once-again terrific turn in the role. Though with that said, I guess this does bring up another criticism about the film in that the whole idea of Magneto being one of the major villains in the main plot has been done again and again in all of the other films. At first everything seems fine but then once everything goes to s***, Magneto goes off on his usual ‘destroying the human race’ binge. And sure, that once again is the case here but ultimately it really doesn’t bother me that much because the filmmakers continually do a great job at making Magneto one of the most empathetic characters of the franchise, even when taking his villainous actions into account. And in fact, I’d argue this is Fassbender’s best performance in the role to date. 

MYSTIQUE

It seems like Mystique has been a fairly polarizing element of these films recently. For one thing, as noted in the review, there were quite a lot of people who felt that Jennifer Lawrence phoned it in performance-wise this time around, which was interpreted as a sign that she wasn’t really interested in returning to the franchise. However, I’d argue that Mystique got some really good material to work with in this film. Whereas First Class was very much Magneto’s story, with him seeking revenge against Sebastian Shaw for ruining his life and eventually gaining his aforementioned hatred for humanity, and DOFP was Xavier’s story, in which he had to regain his hope for humanity following everything that happened to him in First Class, Apocalypse is arguably Mystique’s story. It is established that because she stopped Magneto from killing the president and his officials during the finale of DOFP, she has actually become a hero for young mutants all over the world, even though, as we all know, that wasn’t her original intention. As this film begins, she is shown to be going around the world protecting her fellow mutants, as she helps save Nightcrawler from the underground fight club he’s been forced to partake in. When Magneto ends up in the news again, she returns to the X-Mansion to seek out Xavier’s help. But when Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen (including Magneto) enter the picture and kidnap Xavier, suddenly she finds herself becoming the ‘leader’ for the new class of mutants as they head into battle against the all-powerful mutant and his mighty Horsemen.

To me it was really interesting to see Mystique take on this role, one that she hasn’t taken on in any of the previous films. While at first she doesn’t want to take on that responsibility, by the end of the film she does decide to stay at the mansion to help train the new X-Men. If I had to pick her best scene in the film, it is the scene where the X-Men are heading into battle, during which she tells the younger mutants about the time in First Class when she went on her first mission with the X-Men. Say what you will about her performance in the film as a whole but this scene is a pretty powerful scene that serves as a great way to inspire the younger X-Men before they head into the biggest battle of their lives. These recent films have portrayed Mystique much differently compared to when she was played by Rebecca Romjin in the original trilogy. Whereas in those films she was very much an antagonist, serving as Magneto’s second-in-command, these films have portrayed her more as a protagonist, with the only exception being DOFP, for the most part, due to the fact that her actions were what caused the original timeline’s dark future. Overall, I must say that I actually like this version of Mystique better, both in regards to Lawrence’s turn in the role as well as how the character has been portrayed in these recent films, conflicted between Xavier and Magneto’s views on the relationship between humans and mutants. 

QUICKSILVER

While fanboys were initially very critical of his costume design prior to the release of DOFP, Evan Peters’ Quicksilver proved to be one of the best parts of the film thanks to his brief but unforgettable scene in which he ran through the kitchen of the Pentagon subduing numerous guards. In Apocalypse, Bryan Singer and co. actually manage to top that with an even greater scene involving the speedy mutant. This time around, the scene in question consists of Quicksilver speeding through Xavier’s mansion to save everyone inside when Havok accidentally causes an explosion while trying to stop Apocalypse and the Horsemen from taking Xavier. We then cut to Quicksilver, who just happened to arrive at the mansion at that time, as he once again steps into action. And just like how the kitchen scene in DOFP was set perfectly to Jim Croce’s ‘Time in a Bottle’, this entire sequence is paired brilliantly with Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams’. Quicksilver rushes through the mansion rescuing not only Beast, Mystique, and Moira down in the mansion’s basement but all of the students inside the mansion save for Cyclops, Jean, Nightcrawler, and Jubilee, who were coming back from a trip to the mall. This has quite frankly become one of my all-time favorite moments in any superhero film. Just like its predecessor, this ‘extraction’ scene (as the filmmakers put it) is full of hilarious moments, from Quicksilver briefly doing the moonwalk at one point to him rescuing a student’s dog who was getting into some pizza.

So why was Quicksilver at the mansion, you ask? Well, if you recall the scene in DOFP when Quicksilver helped get Magneto out of prison, he mentions that ‘his mom knew someone who could control metal’ like him. So yes, as this film confirms, Magneto is Quicksilver’s father, which I presume was something that obviously must’ve happened before the events of X-Men: First Class seeing how Quicksilver was already a young man by the time he appeared in DOFP, which was set only 10 years after the events of the previous film. Anyway, it is this connection that drives Quicksilver into finding him, which he gets the opportunity to do when he joins up with the X-Men to fight Apocalypse. During the battle, he and Mystique travel up to where Magneto is stationed causing destruction all over the Earth by controlling its magnetic poles and try to reason with him. And though it seems as if Quicksilver will finally bring up their connection, he actually doesn’t. Thankfully Magneto does come to his senses later on to help the X-Men defeat Apocalypse though I do wonder if Quicksilver revealing to him that he’s his son would’ve changed his mind sooner. Then again I have the feeling that if this reveal was the catalyst for Magneto’s redemption, critics/fans would’ve accused it of being a cheap plotline similar to when Superman pleaded with Batman to ‘save Martha’ in Batman v Superman earlier this year.

Anyway, at the end of the film when Magneto and Jean rebuild the mansion, Storm, who has decided to stay at the mansion, asks Quicksilver if he’ll ever tell Magneto that he’s his son, to which he replies that he might but for now he’ll stick around at the mansion. So will he ever tell Magneto? Will we ever see his ‘sister’ Scarlet Witch in these films, even though that would obviously be a bit confusing seeing how Elizabeth Olsen is playing the character in the MCU films, which also did their own version of Quicksilver? We’re just going to have to wait and see but for now I’ll say this; while I do like Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver from the MCU films, Evan Peters is easily the definitive Quicksilver. He may not have looked exactly like the character does in the comics but he’s provided some of the genre’s absolute greatest moments and his big scene in X-Men: Apocalypse is easily in the all-time Top 5. And on that note, a friend of mine, Michael Phillips, made this suggestion recently about what the music choice should be for the next Quicksilver sequence. Seeing how the next film is set to take place in the 90’s, continuing on the recent trend of having these films take place decades apart, he suggested that the song should be Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and I have to say that I definitely second that notion. And while I know that they’re probably never going to read this post, if Simon Kinberg, Bryan Singer, and/or anyone who’s involved with the next film ever come across this, perhaps you’ll consider this idea.

Now it’s time to focus in on the ‘new recruits’, or in this case ‘old recruits’ seeing how these characters have appeared in previous films…

CYCLOPS

Prior to this film, Cyclops has never really gotten much to work with in the original X-Men films as a result of the franchise placing greater emphasis on Wolverine. But with Apocalypse, I’m pleased to say that this is the best representation of Cyclops to date. Portrayed excellently by Tye Sheridan, this film not only reintroduces the optic-blasting mutant but it also gives him some effective emotional moments as well (again, in contrast to the ‘emotionless’ argument critics are making). We first see Scott coming into his powers while at school. This then leads to his brother Alex (Havok) bringing him to Xavier’s school, and he is subsequently accepted there… following a hilarious/sort of darkly comic moment when he accidentally blasts a tree that Xavier was very fond of due to it being built by his grandfather. It is also during these first few days when he first meets Jean Grey and while the film doesn’t immediately put them into the romantic relationship that they have in the comics, it’s definitely hinted at. Ultimately though Cyclops’ big moment occurs after Jean, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, and him return to the mansion following a trip to the mall. When they return, the mansion has already been destroyed as a result of the explosion that was caused by Havok accidentally blasting the X-Jet’s engine. And unfortunately for Scott, while Quicksilver did manage to save everyone else inside the mansion, Alex wasn’t so lucky due to the fact that he was directly next to the explosion when it occurred. It’s a really well-done scene and Sheridan handles it all perfectly. To paraphrase a tweet that I saw online from a ‘friend of a friend’, it’s a moment where you just want to give the poor guy a hug because of everything that he’s going through. Just like the aforementioned scenes with Magneto and his family, this scene proves that this film isn’t as emotionless as critics are claiming.   

JEAN GREY

As many of us know, the Phoenix saga storyline that Jean Grey was known for in the comics was handled quite poorly in X-Men: The Last Stand as a result of the film mashing up that storyline with Joss Whedon’s ‘Gifted’ storyline. But thankfully it looks like we might be able to get a proper adaptation of that story in the future based on a climactic scene at the end of this film. In order to defeat Apocalypse, Xavier telepathically hacks into his mind and the two of them fight on what is known as the ‘astral plane’. At first Xavier has the upper hand but soon Apocalypse gains a leg up on him when he starts to grow in size (referencing the character’s ability to change his size in the comics). He is only defeated when Xavier calls upon Jean to unleash her full potential, the power of the Phoenix, which she does, effectively disintegrating Apocalypse. It’s quite an epic scene that teases the great potential for the Phoenix storyline to be done again, but properly this time, in future films and needless to say Sophie Turner definitely shines in the role. As noted before in the review, there was some criticism regarding her accent in the film but I didn’t really notice anything wrong with it. While I haven’t watched Game of Thrones, I can definitely see the similarities between Jean and Turner’s character on GOT, Sansa Stark, in regards to both characters frequently experiencing moments of alienation and vulnerability. So to put it simply, Turner was perfectly cast in the role and I very much look forward to seeing her character develop further in future films.

NIGHTCRAWLER

Nightcrawler (not to be confused with the 2014 Jake Gyllenhaal film of the same name) first made his live-action debut in X2, played by Alan Cumming. And right of out the gate he proved to be a major standout thanks to the opening sequence in which he attempts to assassinate the President of the United States. In this film, he is played by Kodi Smit-McPhee and first appears in an underground fight club in Germany before being rescued by Mystique. After that, Nightcrawler becomes one of the film’s main sources of comic relief. Some of his best moments include a scene where he interrupts a conversation between Beast and Mystique when the former comments that she’s not in her natural blue form by exclaiming “I’m Blue!”, when he has trouble telling Mystique’s captured group to get away from the door before it gets blasted by Cyclops, and at the end of the final battle when he abruptly wakes up after he passed out teleporting the entire team to safety and asks “What did I miss?” This definitely contrasts with how the character was handled in X2, as Cumming portrayed the character in a more serious manner, being a very religious Catholic who was brainwashed by Colonel Stryker. And while Cumming was definitely excellent in the role, from what I hear McPhee’s version of Nightcrawler is much more in line with how the character is portrayed in the comics because of the fact that he serves as the comic relief.  

Time to move on to the villains…

APOCALYPSE

As far as being the main villain in the film is concerned, I have the feeling that fans of the comics may not be too happy with how this film portrays the god-like Apocalypse. Obviously I’ve already gone over how much the internet ridiculed the character over the first pic of him, even though the way he looked in that picture was solely due to the lighting and was taken at a time when most of the film’s effects weren’t even completed yet. But then there’s also the fact that many critiqued him for looking too small whereas in the comics he can change in size and become giant. Ultimately he doesn’t do that in the film save for the scene in which he confronts Xavier on the astral plane. But he never uses that power in the real world. However, while I wouldn’t go as far as to say that he was one of the best superhero film villains to date, I still thought that he was a decent villain in regards the material he got to work with. The main reason why is because Oscar Isaac definitely gave the character a great commanding presence, as exemplified by the scenes in which he recruits his Horsemen; Storm, Psylocke, Angel, and Magneto. I mean sure, maybe this film didn’t fully portray him in the same way that he’s portrayed in the comics as fans might’ve hoped (I wouldn’t really know because I’m not much of a comic book reader) but he’s still a pretty memorable adversary if you ask me. And I got to admit, the scene near the end in which he gets his ass handed to him by Quicksilver is hilarious. Another standout moment for everyone’s favorite speedster. 

HIS FOUR HORSEMEN

If there was one weak link to the film, it is that, aside from Magneto, the rest of Apocalypse’s Horsemen really don’t get a lot to work with in this film. Sure the film does build them up as Apocalypse goes around to recruit them all but after that they are just relegated to basic henchmen roles. Still, at the very least, I think that the three of them at least had one standout moment each in the film. Alexandra Shipp definitely got the general characteristics of Storm down really well but, as has sort of been the case with these films, Storm once again gets little to do. I do feel bad for fans of the character because she really hasn’t done much in these films, even when she was played by Halle Berry in the previous films. As for Psylocke, she also doesn’t do much in the film (in fact she doesn’t even have many lines) but at the very least this film is the first to portray her in an accurate manner that matches her portrayal in the comics. Apparently she was in The Last Stand but was really nothing like her comic counterpart. Thankfully, the fact that she leaves after the battle is over suggests that this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of her in these films. And finally there’s Angel, who in this film starts out as a fighter in the aforementioned underground fight club before his wings get damaged during a fight with Nightcrawler. When he is approached by Apocalypse, the latter recruits him as a Horseman and gives him metallic wings that shoot razor projectiles, turning him into ‘Archangel’… and then in the final battle he is killed when he ends up on the X-Men’s jet as it crashes. I guess Apocalypse was right in calling him ‘useless’.

THE ‘WOLVERINE’ SCENE

Admit it… you saw this one coming a mile away. Still, I can’t deny that the scene in which Wolverine, in his Weapon X form (with the same ‘costume’ that he wears in the comics), is unleashed upon Stryker’s forces is quite an awesome moment. Is it fan-service? Yeah sure, but that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. For being a small cameo appearance (one that was apparently reduced to give more screen time for Mystique, which I’m pretty sure didn’t go over well with those who have been critical of Mystique’s role in the recent films), it still manages to be one highly effective sequence. Heck it even implies what may come in the upcoming ‘guaranteed to be R-rated’ Wolverine film because the sequence does get rather violent and bloody at times, although obviously not going all the way because it still is a PG-13 rated film (don’t get me started on why I feel it’s perfectly fine for the X-Men films to still be rated PG-13 while its spin-offs like Deadpool and the new Wolverine are rated R). Anyway, after decimating Stryker’s forces, Wolverine is approached by the trio of Jean, Cyclops, and Kurt as he begins to leave the facility. Jean helps him by taking off his headgear and restoring some of his lost memories before he runs off into the snow. The scene concludes with a hilarious line from Cyclops, who states “I hope that’s the last we’ve seen of that guy” Well we all know how that turns out…

WHERE WILL THE FRANCHISE GO FROM HERE?

After the final battle with Apocalypse, the X-Mansion is restored by Erik and Jean and Mystique finally accepts her role as a ‘teacher’ to the young mutants. The film ends with the new X-Men team (Beast, Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Quicksilver) training to combat future threats in the Danger Room as they begin to take on a group of Sentinels. So with that in mind, what’s going to happen next for this franchise? Well, I have a suggestion for the filmmakers. It’s been stated that this is set to be the final film in the First Class era of the franchise. So if that’s the case, then how about for the next few films the members of the new X-Men team become the main protagonists? Obviously up to this point the main characters of the franchise have always been Wolverine, Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique. Does that mean that those four (or to be more precise three given the fact that the next Wolverine film is going to be Hugh Jackman’s last appearance in the role and they’re probably not going to recast the part for a while) shouldn’t appear in future films? No, not at all. I think that it would be totally fine if they appear in supporting roles down the road. But like I said, I think the best route for the franchise now is to focus on characters who haven’t got much attention in previous films, like Cyclops and Storm. I mean considering that these films have been criticized for doing the same sort of plot over and over again, shifting focus to the new team very much feels necessary at this point.  

TIMELINE CONFUSION

I guess I should’ve brought this up a few weeks ago when I did my post on why this film was being undervalued. In recent years, the X-Men films have been under some scrutiny for the highly confusing nature of the series’ timeline. You might recall the scene in Deadpool where Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are dragging Deadpool back to the mansion to see the professor, which then leads to Deadpool quipping “McAvoy or Stewart? These timelines can get so confusing!” That fourth wall gag very much represents how the internet has felt about this series’ chronology. Everything started off fine with the original trilogy but then things started to get a little more complicated once the series started to go into prequel territory. X-Men: First Class, despite being a 60’s set ‘prequel’, had some moments that didn’t really match up with events in the original trilogy, like the fact that Mystique was Xavier’s adopted sister and she had somewhat of a romantic relationship with Beast. And then there came X-Men: Days of Future Past, which made an effort to fix the timeline by ‘erasing’ the events of the films that were released prior to First Class (as well as, in a way, the 2013 Wolverine film) from the series’ canon as a result of Wolverine’s actions in the 70’s preventing the dark future where the mutant race was on the brink of extinction. While that was primarily a good thing considering that the events of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the series’ weakest installments, were erased from the timeline, it still led to many questions regarding the series’ continuity, which is arguably still a bit messy in some places. However, I don’t think the series’ overall timeline is as confusing as the internet puts it out to be.

First Class was very much a reboot of the series, recasting many of the series’ main roles and going back in time to focus on the younger versions of the characters. While some events did conflict with the chronology of the original timeline, the connection between the two timelines was officially severed when the dark future of DOFP was prevented from happening. So as a result, it’s clear that certain events of the original trilogy never happened in this new timeline, namely the fact that Jean Grey and Cyclops did not die like they did in The Last Stand. And as I’ve been saying time and time again, this is definitely the best thing that this franchise could’ve done. It was a sign that the filmmakers were aware of the mistakes they’ve made in the past and were intent on fixing them as much as they could. I mean I guess you can say the retcon didn’t fix ‘everything’ but it fixed enough if you ask me. So as a result, the X-Men films have basically done the same thing as the recent Star Trek films and have set up a new, alternate ‘official timeline’. And like with those Star Trek films, I like that idea as it allows the franchise to tell new stories while still being able to use classic characters. But like I said, hopefully these next few films allow characters who haven’t gotten much to do in these films to have more substantial roles in the story. And the ending to this film definitely shows the potential for that to happen.

POST-CREDITS

Now as far as superhero film post-credits scenes are concerned, the post-credit scene for this film is definitely a case where those who haven’t read the comics are more than likely going to be confused as to why the scene, which consists of a bunch of businessmen from the Essex Corporation collecting data from the abandoned Weapon X facility, including a sample of Wolverine’s blood, is important. What is this Essex Corporation, some of you might be asking? Well it all connects to a character who serves as one of the X-Men’s biggest villains in the comics; Mister Sinister. Not being a comic reader, I can’t really go into too much detail about the character but I can say that one of the major things he did in the comics was experiment on both Cyclops and Jean. He even ended up creating a clone of Jean, Madelyne Pryor, who had a child with Cyclops, Nathan AKA Cable, the time-traveling metal armed mutant who’s set to appear in Deadpool 2. But it seems as if the Deadpool sequel isn’t going to be the only film affected by Sinister. According to producer Simon Kinberg, the post-credits scene also serves as set-up for the third Wolverine spin-off, the impending Gambit film (which has sort of been in limbo these past few months so it’s unclear when it’ll get made), and the next X-Men film. Based on what I can gather from what I’ve read online about the character’s role in the comics, I will try to predict some of the film franchise’s future developments: A.) The Wolverine film introduces the character X-23, a clone of Wolverine (hence why they took his blood) B.) Gambit will be connected to Sinister in some way, and C.) Perhaps Sinister will be formally introduced in the next X-Men film which, according to Kinberg, will be set in the 90’s (obviously) and may even see the mutants going into space. As usual, I’m just spit-balling ideas here but it’s clear that Mister Sinister is set to have a major impact on future X-Men films, both in regards to the main series as well as its spin-offs.

IN CONCLUSION

I won’t lie… I’m still pretty pissed that this film was continuously undermined online in the months leading up to its release. This is a film that is very much far better than what its meager 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes suggests. Bryan Singer, the superhero director who has sadly never gotten the credit he deserves as one of the genre’s biggest pioneers, delivers yet another epically scaled and super fun superhero pic full of great action and great characters portrayed by an excellent ensemble cast. While the film has gotten some criticism for supposedly not having any emotional depth, there are plenty of scenes in this film, many of which involve Magneto and the tragedy that occurs with his new family, that effectively negate that idea. But there’s also the criticism that the film is ‘overstuffed’ with characters. A similar criticism was directed at 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. But the thing is… critics just have to realize that this is just going to be the norm now for most superhero films. Many of them going to have large ensemble casts and not every character is going to get much to do in these films. But that’s okay if the films as a whole are well-made and of course, many of the superhero films released since the start of the MCU-era of the genre have been at least ‘good’. X-Men: Apocalypse is definitely a really good superhero flick. I didn’t go into this expecting it to be better than DOFP because it’s hard for any sequel to follow up a tough act to follow like that one. And for the most part, the new X-Men film did deliver. Sure it ain’t perfect but to reference some reviews of the film, this certainly isn’t a ‘disaster’ that ‘sets the franchise back a decade’. The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine this ain’t.