REVIEW: X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
As a lover and proponent of original filmmaking, I seem to have found myself in a bit of a hypocritical stance. This year alone I have seen four superhero films, a reboot of a Disney movie...and The Nice Guys. Let's stop now, and keep reading to see my review of the threequel to a rebooted franchise of the now eight-strong X-Men films.
The movie starts (in a startlingly cinematic epic fashion I hadn't seen in an X-Men movie thus far) with an ancient Egyptian landscape, where the world's first mutant En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) is worshipped by practically all of CGI Egypt. After betrayal by his men who see him as a false god, Grandaddy Mutant is trapped in the rubble of a pyramid, until 1983 rears its retro head, and some...culty people (??? it's never explained ???) are able to summon up from his slumber. En Sabah Nur (who's actually never called Apocalypse come to think of it) like Ultron and countless others before him is unsatisfied with machinery, weapons and other "superpowers" are being worshipped by the people who should be worshipping true power, i.e. him. Cue his quest to cleanse, er, save the world of its weak links, employing four followers (Horsemen, get it?) to help him vanquish the "superpowers." The mutants with real superpowers, especially those under the residential hood of Professor Charles Xavier, aren't thrilled about it.
Juggling an ensemble of superheroes seems to be the trend this year. The X-Men characters have always been a team, yet they've had comic book issue after issue to give minor characters spotlight. That's where the films have a distinct disadvantage. In usually two hours (Apocalypse's daunting running time proves the exception) you have to give new stories to the old characters, introduce the young blood, introduce your villain and his/her's plot of global destruction, have them duke it out with a loss or some grieve-inducing element to the battle, and have the villain lose. Whether or not they stick exactly to that formula here in Apocalypse, you'll have to find out. The man/mutant/self-proclaimed god is certainly a worthy adversary, and the question has come up of why doesn't he just kill everyone in his way? With an unspecified power of...trapping people in sand? Don't bring Apocalypse to the beach...with the right transportation he could wipe out all of humanity. I guess the reason they give is he sees potential in all mutants, and wants them all to be his "children" so he can tap into their true power. Unrecognizable under the blue makeup that the film knowingly acknowledges is strange in one scene, Isaac certainly projects an authority and menace needed to play this creature with a god complex. But after the costume, makeup, voice distortion and special effects, how much of Isaac was actually put into that role?
Newcomers who deliver on their roles however are Ty Sheridan, forever Ellis from Mud to me, is a solid Cyclops, although it always gives me a chuckle when the outcast is tall, good looking and might be on the football team. Young Storm already has had more screen time than Halle Berry combined in the original X-Men trilogy, but even that's not saying much. I can't say she's an electric screen presence, although I'm dying to make that pun. She's one of Apocalypse's aforementioned Horsemen, along with Angel, who strangers to the comic like myself haven't heard of and didn't get a great deal of info on them, Magneto, who I'll address momentarily, and perhaps quite disappointingly, Psylocke. I didn't have any problems with her, but she was just eye candy and a henchman, something I feel Olivia Munn who plays her wasn't expecting and something that left the fans down.
Getting back to Michael Fassbender's magnetic screen presence (there's a pun for you!), he certainly has the most emotionally investing scene in the film, even more devastating than the one that opened up the series at the first place in Auschwitz. His arc is typically always is he/is he not evil, and this proves no exception. But you're certainly always invested in what he does next. James McAvoy once again is a Marvel marvel as Professor X. It doesn't seem as daunting as playing a mutant, but handling Xavier's intellect and maturity is no easy feat. Jennifer Lawrence is passable as Mystique. I remember the original trilogy's incarnation of her (played by Rebecca Romijn) being much more mischievous and daring. Lawrence plays the shape-shifter a little flat, lacking her usual charisma she oozed in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Maybe the next X-Men needs David O. Russell as a co-director. Nightcrawler was a welcome addition to the prequel series. Alan Cumming is a hard act to follow, though. Now that the cast has been addressed, the spectacle of this film is grand, perhaps second only to the nearly unanimous agreement of 2014's franchise-high Days of Future Past. The special effects are Oscar worthy, the script serviceable and at times self-referential, the score bombastic. Technically it's a summer delight, but perhaps its heart feels a little too mechanical and by the numbers.
The next installment is said to be set in the 90's. Get ready to see Professor X blasting "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Magneto sporting MC Hammer pants.
Rating: 2.5/4 stars
P.S. The Evan Peters Quiksilver scene is still wonderful, though it's hard to top the DOFP scene.
The movie starts (in a startlingly cinematic epic fashion I hadn't seen in an X-Men movie thus far) with an ancient Egyptian landscape, where the world's first mutant En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) is worshipped by practically all of CGI Egypt. After betrayal by his men who see him as a false god, Grandaddy Mutant is trapped in the rubble of a pyramid, until 1983 rears its retro head, and some...culty people (??? it's never explained ???) are able to summon up from his slumber. En Sabah Nur (who's actually never called Apocalypse come to think of it) like Ultron and countless others before him is unsatisfied with machinery, weapons and other "superpowers" are being worshipped by the people who should be worshipping true power, i.e. him. Cue his quest to cleanse, er, save the world of its weak links, employing four followers (Horsemen, get it?) to help him vanquish the "superpowers." The mutants with real superpowers, especially those under the residential hood of Professor Charles Xavier, aren't thrilled about it.Juggling an ensemble of superheroes seems to be the trend this year. The X-Men characters have always been a team, yet they've had comic book issue after issue to give minor characters spotlight. That's where the films have a distinct disadvantage. In usually two hours (Apocalypse's daunting running time proves the exception) you have to give new stories to the old characters, introduce the young blood, introduce your villain and his/her's plot of global destruction, have them duke it out with a loss or some grieve-inducing element to the battle, and have the villain lose. Whether or not they stick exactly to that formula here in Apocalypse, you'll have to find out. The man/mutant/self-proclaimed god is certainly a worthy adversary, and the question has come up of why doesn't he just kill everyone in his way? With an unspecified power of...trapping people in sand? Don't bring Apocalypse to the beach...with the right transportation he could wipe out all of humanity. I guess the reason they give is he sees potential in all mutants, and wants them all to be his "children" so he can tap into their true power. Unrecognizable under the blue makeup that the film knowingly acknowledges is strange in one scene, Isaac certainly projects an authority and menace needed to play this creature with a god complex. But after the costume, makeup, voice distortion and special effects, how much of Isaac was actually put into that role?
Newcomers who deliver on their roles however are Ty Sheridan, forever Ellis from Mud to me, is a solid Cyclops, although it always gives me a chuckle when the outcast is tall, good looking and might be on the football team. Young Storm already has had more screen time than Halle Berry combined in the original X-Men trilogy, but even that's not saying much. I can't say she's an electric screen presence, although I'm dying to make that pun. She's one of Apocalypse's aforementioned Horsemen, along with Angel, who strangers to the comic like myself haven't heard of and didn't get a great deal of info on them, Magneto, who I'll address momentarily, and perhaps quite disappointingly, Psylocke. I didn't have any problems with her, but she was just eye candy and a henchman, something I feel Olivia Munn who plays her wasn't expecting and something that left the fans down.Getting back to Michael Fassbender's magnetic screen presence (there's a pun for you!), he certainly has the most emotionally investing scene in the film, even more devastating than the one that opened up the series at the first place in Auschwitz. His arc is typically always is he/is he not evil, and this proves no exception. But you're certainly always invested in what he does next. James McAvoy once again is a Marvel marvel as Professor X. It doesn't seem as daunting as playing a mutant, but handling Xavier's intellect and maturity is no easy feat. Jennifer Lawrence is passable as Mystique. I remember the original trilogy's incarnation of her (played by Rebecca Romijn) being much more mischievous and daring. Lawrence plays the shape-shifter a little flat, lacking her usual charisma she oozed in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Maybe the next X-Men needs David O. Russell as a co-director. Nightcrawler was a welcome addition to the prequel series. Alan Cumming is a hard act to follow, though. Now that the cast has been addressed, the spectacle of this film is grand, perhaps second only to the nearly unanimous agreement of 2014's franchise-high Days of Future Past. The special effects are Oscar worthy, the script serviceable and at times self-referential, the score bombastic. Technically it's a summer delight, but perhaps its heart feels a little too mechanical and by the numbers.
The next installment is said to be set in the 90's. Get ready to see Professor X blasting "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Magneto sporting MC Hammer pants.
Rating: 2.5/4 stars
P.S. The Evan Peters Quiksilver scene is still wonderful, though it's hard to top the DOFP scene.
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