The final instalment of the X-Men prequel trilogy until Dark Phoenix in 2019, and I'd heard a lot of things about how this movie disappointed a lot of people or was just bad in general, but I'm sorry, I just don't see that. To me, X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) seemed to suffer from "Not as Good as the Best Thing Ever" Syndrome, and I'll get into that later. Starring James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique, Oscar Isaac as En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver, Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Olivia Munn as Elizabeth Braddock/Psylocke, Ben Hardy as Angel and Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok.
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| X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) |
Alright, let's just get out of the way the stuff you already know. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were once again fantastic. Michael Fassbender may even have been at his best here, as he's forced to relive his past in a truly extraordinary way. It is a little weird that the film needs to find an excuse to make him a 'villain' again, but the pay-off is that we get a genuinely emotional scene out of it, so all is forgiven. It's also refreshing that this is the first main series X-Men movie which does not feature Magneto as the true 'final villain', so to speak. Jennifer Lawrence is once again great in this role, and Nicholas Hoult delivers another sensational performance as Beast. Lucas Till is back as Havok, and I really wish they'd used him more, even though I understand why they didn't. Quicksilver also has more to do, which I'm only that much happier about.
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| Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr |
There's quite a lot of new additions to the cast this time around. Tye Sheridan is great as Cyclops, and since finding out that the entire internet hates Cyclops in general, I especially thought that this interpretation was a great one. I kinda saw it in previous X-Men movies, and it's not down to the actor. James Marsden did great work in the previous films, but here he's just not so much of an a**hole. Sophie Turner gives a fantastic portrayal of Jean Grey, and I'm especially happy she's not in this film just to be the object of a love triangle like she has been in the past. There's a lot of potential with this character moving forward, especially considering the 'Dark Phoenix' subtitle to the next film, so I can't wait for that. Unfortunately, with these recurring characters coming into the film in the form of their past selves, there is a slight case of prequel-itis occurring here, and if you've read my reviews before this one, you don't need me to tell you what that is. Just know that it doesn't kill the movie, but it's not as well-executed as it has been in the other X-Men prequel films. All the rest of the new cast fulfil their roles well enough, even if Angel was a tad under-developed for my liking.
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| Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers and Sophie Turner as Jean Grey |
But can we talk about the villain? Wow, this was a threatening villain. I didn't even recognise Poe Dameron in the role, as Oscar Isaac is simply stellar here. From what I heard, some people were upset that they didn't use his planet-sized form from the comics, but that would have been impossible to defeat, not to mention ridiculous in general. His motivations can be a little paper-thin, yes, but with a villain called Apocalypse, you don't need to give him a super compelling back story or a tragic past, you just need his presence to be cataclysmic, and it was. He commands the attention of the audience whenever he's on screen, and he's got a powerful enough skillset that makes him deliver on that presence to make him a legitimate threat. Also, this is really more Magneto's story than it is Apocalypse's anyway, so it doesn't really matter too much in the end.
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| Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse |
Alright, so why do I think this movie was so panned by fans? Well, the main reason that I can think of is that it is a direct sequel to one of the most well-received movies of all time. It happens all the time: when a movie comes along that is simply amazing and unique, when it releases a sequel, people are naturally critical of it if it's the slightest bit worse than it. It happened with Avengers: Age of Ultron, it happened with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and it even happened with the film I'm reviewing tomorrow, from what I heard. This movie isn't bad, far from it, it's actually a great movie. However, when everyone compared it with X-Men: Days of Future Past before it (naturally so, as well), it just didn't compare, and so it was treated maybe a little more harsh than it should have been.
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| James McAvoy as Professor X |
On its own, however, X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) is still a fantastic addition to the X-Men film universe. Of the three prequel films so far, it's definitely the weakest, but not by much, and it's certainly better than the internet says it is. Unless there's something huge I'm missing, but for now, I still love it. 8.5/10.
Tomorrow: Nolan's trilogy concludes with The Dark Knight Rises.
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