Of all the comic book films coming out this year (of which there are many), I was excited for X-Men: Apocalypse the least. That seemed weird to me at first, since I loved Days of Future Past so much, and the X-Men series has been going from strength to strength lately. For one, the marketing for Apocalypse was very poor, with trailers and promos of all kinds not really showing anything special, or showing a bunch of spoilers (including the last shot of the film). It looked like the traditional comic book movie fare; a bad guy who wants to destroy the world, global CGI destruction, a big final battle, etc. Overall, I got the impression of nothing really new or special, and that it would most likely be boring and/or predictable. All in all, I was expecting a disappointment.
I guess I can't accuse them of false advertising.
X-Men: Apocalypse is a very strange movie. It takes a while to get going, then it seems really good, and then it just falls flat on its face. In terms of story and characters, everything seems to be set up well. There's interesting conflict, new ideas, and some really awesome visuals. But as the movie goes on, whether because it kind of turns into a fan-service machine or because the destruction gets dialed up to eleven, it just ends on a feeling of complete neutrality. There's no feeling of victory at the end, because the stakes didn't have any weight to them. By the time the ending sequence begins, the tone is flying all over the place, and it's not easy to know what you should be feeling i the moment. The X-Men films, no matter how big they've gotten (except for The Last Stand), have always managed to feel grounded to a certain point. So to have the climax go crazy with CGI destruction flying all over the place feels really inconsistent with the rest of the franchise. It's not like they're doing anything original with it, either. The destruction is the same destruction that you've seen in every other movie that ends this way.
What is new, at least to this chapter of the franchise, is young versions of classic X-Men characters such as Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler. Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, and Kodi Smit-Mcphee all did a really good job in the roles, bringing a fresh, youthful energy to the characters that was a noticeable contrast with some of the more serious, weighty dialogue. They don't all have definitive moments to shine, but the relationship forged between them left me wanting to see more of them together in the future. There's a lot more heart and detail put into their characters in this movie, especially in regards to Cyclops. We're seeing very different sides to these characters, and that's cool. They could have very easily been the exact same characters as in the original trilogy of X-Men films, but they do feel like younger, different versions of those characters; you see them learn as well as how they'll be able to grow in the future.
I appreciated that Mystique didn't have as large of a role; she is important to the plot and the world of the franchise now, but the story doesn't hinge on her this time. Jennifer Lawrence is the only actor who didn't seem to care that much about this movie, but her performance as Mystique has always been pretty lifeless. Once again, Evan Peters' Quicksilver is the highlight of the film. It seemed impossible to top his scene from Days of Future Past, but Bryan Singer did it. It was definitely the best scene of the film; in fact, it was as good as the film ever got, because when it was over, the movie started to go downhill. The inclusion of Moira MacTaggert is especially pointless, and only served to create a long scene of exposition and a weird love story sub-plot. And if you thought Jubilee was just going to be nothing but a gratuitous cameo, then you were right.
The balance between the characters was handled very well, and that's one of Bryan Singer's greatest strengths with this series. The characters also had a lot of humourous moments among them, as this was probably the funniest of the X-Men series (both intentionally and not. There were more jokes than I expected, and a lot of them landed really well.
The characters that were really disappointing were Apocalypse's Horsemen, who just seemed pointless. I've never understood why Apocalypse needs the Horsemen, since he has so many powers on his own, and they serve less than no purpose in this movie. They have to protect him at one point, and that's it. The only one who has any story or arc is Magneto, but it's the same conflict he always feels in these movies. It left me wondering when Xavier was just going to let it go and accept that he's evil. Still, his motivations were very cleverly set-up, and it really gives Fassbender a chance to bring some sympathy to Magneto. Psylocke had about two lines, and one action scene, but that action scene had so much shaky-cam that it was barely coherent. Olivia Munn also never conveyed any sense of menace or threat; she just had a vaguely pissed off look on her face all the time. Storm, who also had next to nothing to do, switched allegiances at the drop of a hat, and seemed to be less powerful than other movies, despite her powers being enhanced by Apocalypse. And no, it's not a spoiler to say that Storm joins the X-Men. I think that the actress, Alexandra Shipp, did a good job in the role, and at least had a convincing accent. Last and definitely least, Angel may have actually done nothing throughout the entire movie. His design was really cool, but he just kind of flew around a bit, and that was all.
As a villain, Apocalypse was definitely...interesting. Oscar Isaac gives it his all in every scene, somehow managing to act through all of the makeup and prosthetics. It was nice that there was actually an actor doing that part; there wasn't a disconnect like if he'd been a CGI character. Physically, the only change I would have made would be to make him taller than some of his Horsemen, to have a more significant physical presence. He's very over-the-top and theatrical, which fits the tone of the movie, but it's not really intimidating. He was edging into more into "goofy shlock" territory that a dark, apocalyptic film, and there were more moments where I was laughing at him than being in awe of his power. Apocalypse's motivations and plan are about as generic as you can get: "he's evil and he wants to destroy the world". He starts to destroy the world and the X-Men stop him, the end. He's definitely a different villain than the X-Men have faced before, but pretty much everything about him just went so far over the top that he wasn't that interesting, and he was beaten in a way that's equal to everyone punching him at the same time.
The action is all over the place, going from big things crashing into each other to surprising moments of brutality. There's never been destruction and enormous, world-ending battles on this scale before in an X-Men film, and now it seems like a good thing that it was avoided up until now. I do get why they went this route with the final battle though, because it fits with a villain who's named "Apocalypse". But there's no weight to the destruction; the consequences are flat-out ignored, and it all gets wrapped up in such a neat, tidy bow that I wish there'd been more risks taken. When the world is exploding and falling apart, we never see any people being affected, or dying. There isn't a single citizen anywhere in the final battle, which takes place across the entire city of Cairo. There are no bodies, there are no people trying to escape or get help; it just feels like a bunch of people fighting on an empty sound stage. Speaking of empty sound stages, the special effects were pretty inconsistent as well. Sometimes they looked good, but it does suffer at the end from the fact that there's just so much going on. Things looked downright cartoonish at times.
The times when this movie really falls flat are the self-referential moments. I guess Fox should leave the fourth-wall breaking to Deadpool, because whenever some of those cheeky little moments pop up, it really took me out of the movie. There's a point in the movie where the young X-Men are talking about movie trilogies after seeing Return of the Jedi, and Jean Grey says "I think we can all agree that the third movie is always the worst". While that's an obvious slight at X-Men: The Last Stand, ironically, Apocalypse is the third movie in this new X-Men trilogy, and it's definitely the worst. Weirdly, this movie feels like it's trying to correct mistakes in the X-Men franchise even more than Days of Future Past did (and the entire point of that movie was to fix the franchise). There's a lot of time devoted to putting things "back on track", and there are so many examples of that that it begins to feel bloated. The movie is setting things up for the future, but a lot of it also feels like Bryan Singer saying "Oh, fans didn't like what I did with that character? Then I'll try this instead". But he's saying it too much, and the story really suffers because of it.
The timeline inconsistencies are also very large and very annoying at this point. I thought the whole point of Days of Future Past was to set things back on track, but there are a bunch of things that just irritate me. The most glaring issue is that this movie takes place 20 years after X-Men: First Class, but most of the actors look the same age as in First Class, especially Nicholas Hoult and Michael Fassbender. I know that that's pretty much unavoidable, because Fox will want these actors on board for as long as possible, but it's kind of funny that they supposedly just got the timeline straightened out, and there's still just as many problems as ever.
Bryan Singer also simply makes some weird directorial choices in this movie; some scenes are brilliant, but some get so campy and weird that all you can do is sit there and wonder what tone he was going for. If he thought he was making another human, grounded, serious film, then he's wrong.
In the end, X-Men: Apocalypse is just a big disappointment. It doesn't join the likes of Batman and Robin or Catwoman, but it just falls apart so completely at the end, and doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. There are some fantastic scenes throughout, but tonal whiplash kills much more of it, and it results in a final film that feels muddled. The first half of the movie was built up very well, but it just fell apart as it went on, and that's too bad.
I have hope for the future of the franchise, whether Bryan Singer remains on board as a director or not. Apocalypse ends with a clear idea for the future of some of the characters, and since I am invested in the story, I want to see what happens next. Gambit and the third Wolverine film will be telling different stories than the last few movies in the new "trilogy", and the New Mutants film may be doing the same thing. X-Men Apocalypse may be a misstep, but the X-Men franchise has come back from far worse than this.
I guess I can't accuse them of false advertising.
X-Men: Apocalypse is a very strange movie. It takes a while to get going, then it seems really good, and then it just falls flat on its face. In terms of story and characters, everything seems to be set up well. There's interesting conflict, new ideas, and some really awesome visuals. But as the movie goes on, whether because it kind of turns into a fan-service machine or because the destruction gets dialed up to eleven, it just ends on a feeling of complete neutrality. There's no feeling of victory at the end, because the stakes didn't have any weight to them. By the time the ending sequence begins, the tone is flying all over the place, and it's not easy to know what you should be feeling i the moment. The X-Men films, no matter how big they've gotten (except for The Last Stand), have always managed to feel grounded to a certain point. So to have the climax go crazy with CGI destruction flying all over the place feels really inconsistent with the rest of the franchise. It's not like they're doing anything original with it, either. The destruction is the same destruction that you've seen in every other movie that ends this way.
What is new, at least to this chapter of the franchise, is young versions of classic X-Men characters such as Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler. Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, and Kodi Smit-Mcphee all did a really good job in the roles, bringing a fresh, youthful energy to the characters that was a noticeable contrast with some of the more serious, weighty dialogue. They don't all have definitive moments to shine, but the relationship forged between them left me wanting to see more of them together in the future. There's a lot more heart and detail put into their characters in this movie, especially in regards to Cyclops. We're seeing very different sides to these characters, and that's cool. They could have very easily been the exact same characters as in the original trilogy of X-Men films, but they do feel like younger, different versions of those characters; you see them learn as well as how they'll be able to grow in the future.
I appreciated that Mystique didn't have as large of a role; she is important to the plot and the world of the franchise now, but the story doesn't hinge on her this time. Jennifer Lawrence is the only actor who didn't seem to care that much about this movie, but her performance as Mystique has always been pretty lifeless. Once again, Evan Peters' Quicksilver is the highlight of the film. It seemed impossible to top his scene from Days of Future Past, but Bryan Singer did it. It was definitely the best scene of the film; in fact, it was as good as the film ever got, because when it was over, the movie started to go downhill. The inclusion of Moira MacTaggert is especially pointless, and only served to create a long scene of exposition and a weird love story sub-plot. And if you thought Jubilee was just going to be nothing but a gratuitous cameo, then you were right.
The balance between the characters was handled very well, and that's one of Bryan Singer's greatest strengths with this series. The characters also had a lot of humourous moments among them, as this was probably the funniest of the X-Men series (both intentionally and not. There were more jokes than I expected, and a lot of them landed really well.
The characters that were really disappointing were Apocalypse's Horsemen, who just seemed pointless. I've never understood why Apocalypse needs the Horsemen, since he has so many powers on his own, and they serve less than no purpose in this movie. They have to protect him at one point, and that's it. The only one who has any story or arc is Magneto, but it's the same conflict he always feels in these movies. It left me wondering when Xavier was just going to let it go and accept that he's evil. Still, his motivations were very cleverly set-up, and it really gives Fassbender a chance to bring some sympathy to Magneto. Psylocke had about two lines, and one action scene, but that action scene had so much shaky-cam that it was barely coherent. Olivia Munn also never conveyed any sense of menace or threat; she just had a vaguely pissed off look on her face all the time. Storm, who also had next to nothing to do, switched allegiances at the drop of a hat, and seemed to be less powerful than other movies, despite her powers being enhanced by Apocalypse. And no, it's not a spoiler to say that Storm joins the X-Men. I think that the actress, Alexandra Shipp, did a good job in the role, and at least had a convincing accent. Last and definitely least, Angel may have actually done nothing throughout the entire movie. His design was really cool, but he just kind of flew around a bit, and that was all.
As a villain, Apocalypse was definitely...interesting. Oscar Isaac gives it his all in every scene, somehow managing to act through all of the makeup and prosthetics. It was nice that there was actually an actor doing that part; there wasn't a disconnect like if he'd been a CGI character. Physically, the only change I would have made would be to make him taller than some of his Horsemen, to have a more significant physical presence. He's very over-the-top and theatrical, which fits the tone of the movie, but it's not really intimidating. He was edging into more into "goofy shlock" territory that a dark, apocalyptic film, and there were more moments where I was laughing at him than being in awe of his power. Apocalypse's motivations and plan are about as generic as you can get: "he's evil and he wants to destroy the world". He starts to destroy the world and the X-Men stop him, the end. He's definitely a different villain than the X-Men have faced before, but pretty much everything about him just went so far over the top that he wasn't that interesting, and he was beaten in a way that's equal to everyone punching him at the same time.
The action is all over the place, going from big things crashing into each other to surprising moments of brutality. There's never been destruction and enormous, world-ending battles on this scale before in an X-Men film, and now it seems like a good thing that it was avoided up until now. I do get why they went this route with the final battle though, because it fits with a villain who's named "Apocalypse". But there's no weight to the destruction; the consequences are flat-out ignored, and it all gets wrapped up in such a neat, tidy bow that I wish there'd been more risks taken. When the world is exploding and falling apart, we never see any people being affected, or dying. There isn't a single citizen anywhere in the final battle, which takes place across the entire city of Cairo. There are no bodies, there are no people trying to escape or get help; it just feels like a bunch of people fighting on an empty sound stage. Speaking of empty sound stages, the special effects were pretty inconsistent as well. Sometimes they looked good, but it does suffer at the end from the fact that there's just so much going on. Things looked downright cartoonish at times.
The times when this movie really falls flat are the self-referential moments. I guess Fox should leave the fourth-wall breaking to Deadpool, because whenever some of those cheeky little moments pop up, it really took me out of the movie. There's a point in the movie where the young X-Men are talking about movie trilogies after seeing Return of the Jedi, and Jean Grey says "I think we can all agree that the third movie is always the worst". While that's an obvious slight at X-Men: The Last Stand, ironically, Apocalypse is the third movie in this new X-Men trilogy, and it's definitely the worst. Weirdly, this movie feels like it's trying to correct mistakes in the X-Men franchise even more than Days of Future Past did (and the entire point of that movie was to fix the franchise). There's a lot of time devoted to putting things "back on track", and there are so many examples of that that it begins to feel bloated. The movie is setting things up for the future, but a lot of it also feels like Bryan Singer saying "Oh, fans didn't like what I did with that character? Then I'll try this instead". But he's saying it too much, and the story really suffers because of it.
The timeline inconsistencies are also very large and very annoying at this point. I thought the whole point of Days of Future Past was to set things back on track, but there are a bunch of things that just irritate me. The most glaring issue is that this movie takes place 20 years after X-Men: First Class, but most of the actors look the same age as in First Class, especially Nicholas Hoult and Michael Fassbender. I know that that's pretty much unavoidable, because Fox will want these actors on board for as long as possible, but it's kind of funny that they supposedly just got the timeline straightened out, and there's still just as many problems as ever.
Bryan Singer also simply makes some weird directorial choices in this movie; some scenes are brilliant, but some get so campy and weird that all you can do is sit there and wonder what tone he was going for. If he thought he was making another human, grounded, serious film, then he's wrong.
In the end, X-Men: Apocalypse is just a big disappointment. It doesn't join the likes of Batman and Robin or Catwoman, but it just falls apart so completely at the end, and doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. There are some fantastic scenes throughout, but tonal whiplash kills much more of it, and it results in a final film that feels muddled. The first half of the movie was built up very well, but it just fell apart as it went on, and that's too bad.
I have hope for the future of the franchise, whether Bryan Singer remains on board as a director or not. Apocalypse ends with a clear idea for the future of some of the characters, and since I am invested in the story, I want to see what happens next. Gambit and the third Wolverine film will be telling different stories than the last few movies in the new "trilogy", and the New Mutants film may be doing the same thing. X-Men Apocalypse may be a misstep, but the X-Men franchise has come back from far worse than this.
I agree that the film is a major disappointment. Let's hope the series can redeem itself next time around.
ReplyDelete- Zach