Reviews Film / X Men Apocalypse

As with most of superhero movies, the plot was lazily written and didn’t make much sense.

That alone seems awfully prejudicious and disdainful.

Why was the pyramid designed in such an idiotic way that only several people acting together could cause its destruction in entirety?

Could easily be explained if these people had accomplices among the guys who built it.

Why didn’t the rebels get to Apocalypse’s hibernated body and ensure that he was dead?

... Because he was incredibly deep into the ground, making it difficult to access to especially with no modern technology? Because they couldn\'t know he had survived the fall of the pyramid, especially since he didn\'t get back on his feet right away? Because who would want to risk approaching a probably pissed off Physical God after you tried killing him, should he still be alive?

Why didn’t Xavier just get the necessary info using his power — why did Moira even have so much screen time?

Eh. Good point for that one.

Why did the military base, designed specifically for containing mutants, have anti-mutant fields only on some of its doors and walls? Why wasn’t Wolverine’s room protected in a similar way?

The anti-mutant field were placed on the cells, that seems enough to me. As for Wolverine, the guy isn\'t just a mutant, he also has adamantium claws allowing it to cut through anything. I doubt such a field would have helped.

Why were soldiers there armed with weapons that would only work on targets with baseline human’s defences?

How do you know that?

Also, would a person with ability to eventually recover from injuries and some enhanced speed really be able to kill his way through the entire complex if he didn’t have a ridiculously overpowered Plot Armor?

And an indestructible metallic skeleton coupled with claws.

Why did both Magneto and the gov. officials wait till pre-dawn hours?

Magneto probably needed to package everything and convince his wife, the gov. official needed time to arrive.

What was Magneto’s daughter doing out in the forest when she was supposed to be sleeping?

What tells you she wasn\'t taken away from her room?

Why did the police think that simply not carrying any metal would work? That made sense in the 2003 movie because then Magneto was isolated in that huge plastic bubble. How did they even come up with that stupid plan instead of something like poisoning his air supply?

... Because they wanted to try catching him alive first?

Why wasn’t Magneto himself always carrying some metal on him, aside from the conveniently symbolic necklace? Had he never thought about his potential weaknesses?

One: he was trying to move on with his life. Two: he had the necklace to serve as this anyway, so why does that even bother you?

Why was Magneto so nonchalant when his daughter started freaking out? Again, didn’t it cross his mind that the situation could deteriorate?

I fail to see how he was nonchalant, he seemed pretty worried to me. And it pretty much crossed his mind, that\'s why he was trying to avoid it.

That was unlikely the 1st time she started loosing control over her abilities, so why didn’t her mother try distracting her, quickly carrying her away, or even slapping her to return her to balance?

And why wouldn\'t it be the first time exactly?

Did they all know how to operate a bow in 1983 or did they magically learn that skill in that one evening in between learning about Magneto’s presence and coming to arrest him?

... really? You\'re concerned with this? It\'s not like they were shown having Hawkeye-level of aiming skills. Any moron with enough strength can shoot with a bow, it\'s aiming right that\'s difficult.

Why did they pick bows instead of something easier to operate, like wooden clubs? Because it wouldn’t be so conveniently easy to portray accidentally clubbing two people to death?

.... Because they needed long-range weapons against the guy who can literally kill people as long as metal is around?

Apocalypse’s motivations and actions, as the 2nd half in general, were such a mess that there aren’t even any specific questions to ask — anything examined there just generates another swarm of questions.

Yeah, disagree with this. His motivations hardly were particularly complex or unique, but to me they were pretty clear and coherent.

I am sorry, some of your questions make sense, but the large majority of them are big nitpicks.

No need to apologise for stating your opinion.

I am not being prejudicious because I’ve actually watched many movie titles that the superhero industry had to offer. And I am being disdainful because I’ve expected more of them.

Having support among the pyramid’s architects would work if Apocalypse never — not even once — checked the designs for the structure to notice its Deathstar-tier vulnerabilities. The problem with that, as with Magneto not constantly carrying metal with him or having a quick escape rout always prepared is that these characters have Informed Attribute of having Super-Genius level intelligence. Look up the meaning of being “suitcase ready” in context of jews in WW 2, for instance. Someone with Magneto’s background and his informed intelligence would not have to explain anything to his wife and *just* start packing *after* his revealed identity had put them in immediate danger. By that point he should’ve’d long convinced his wife on the importance of the immediate relocation in case of exposure and prepared a suitcase with all the essential items so that they could leave immediately in case of danger. Glaring problems like this render the title into a B-movie aimed to milk cash and awareness on exploitation of superhero genre.

Here’s how the scene unfolded according to your counter-arguments: The government learned from Magneto’s co-workers who he was and sent a unit after him. They wanted to capture him, but didn’t use things like sleep gas and went with bows (!) instead, which they were likely to not even know how to operate. They sneaked into his house just to kidnap his daughter, then set up a hostage exchange of sorts ignoring the facts that he didn’t have to get his metal from them, that the bows wouldn’t help much if he really had access to metal and intended to kill, and that he could retaliate *after* his essentially kidnapped daughter was set free.

Strip away from this situation the context of it being in a hyped X-Men movie — pretend, for instance, that you’re reading it as a 10k word-long fanfic. Would you honestly think that the author did a good job of building the plot? I’d honestly either drop it halfway through or at least recommend others from reading something so badly written.

The sequence in Stryker’s military base is just as bad: 1) the base *designed* for containing mutants didn’t have firewall-defences on *all* of its walls and doors, which essentially made it a victim of Swiss Cheese Security — another case of Oo C intelligence retardation. 2) IIRC, the largest calibre the soldiers were *shown* to be equipped with was 5.56. 3) Wolverine — even with regeneration, adamantine toughness, claws, and speed — shouldn’t’ve been able to ignore so many people shooting at him, and the bullets should’ve taken him at least some time to recover from. Similarly, the soldiers should’ve additionally been shooting at him with paralytics, shockers, higher calibres, etc. The heavy-duty doors on his was should’ve been remotely closed to trap him in and buy the soldiers time for re-grouping and possibly changing weapons, etc. But Wolverine in the form of Hugh Jackman is very popular, so the Doylist logic ignores all of these things and lets him waltz through a military base like a low-tier deity.

>Why didn’t the rebels get to Apocalypse’s hibernated body and ensure that he was dead? >>Because he was incredibly deep into the ground, making it difficult to access to especially with no modern technology.

Your 1st argument could work, so I concede on this issue.

I am not being prejudicious because I’ve actually watched many movie titles that the superhero industry had to offer. And I am being disdainful because I’ve expected more of them.

That doesn\'t make it any better in my opinion. I agree that there are a lot of superhero movies that are weak in plot, but there are plenty who have good plots and writing as well. And many fans think like me.What you say is kinda offending to them.

Having support among the pyramid’s architects would work if Apocalypse never — not even once — checked the designs for the structure to notice its Deathstar-tier vulnerabilities.

Again, easily fixed by having accomplices cover up so he won\'t notice. Apocalypse might be intelligent, but he also is arrogant and sees himself as a god; I could totally buy that he wouldn\'t expect humans to betray him, or not bother checking because he thinks his powers and horsemen make him invincible. Real life megalomaniacs have made stupider mistakes, from what I heard.

The problem with that, as with Magneto not constantly carrying metal with him or having a quick escape rout always prepared is that these characters have Informed Attribute of having Super-Genius level intelligence. Look up the meaning of being “suitcase ready” in context of jews in WW 2, for instance. Someone with Magneto’s background and his informed intelligence would not have to explain anything to his wife and *just* start packing *after* his revealed identity had put them in immediate danger. By that point he should’ve’d long convinced his wife on the importance of the immediate relocation in case of exposure and prepared a suitcase with all the essential items so that they could leave immediately in case of danger.

The problem with that reasonning is that you neglect the fact very little detail is given on what he had planned should this happen. A good chunk is in fact ellipsed between the moment he ends up using his powers and the moment he is talking about leaving to his wife. For all we know, he might have had precautions, it just wasn\'t enough. And I already answered for the metal bit.

Glaring problems like this render the title into a B-movie aimed to milk cash and awareness on exploitation of superhero genre.

No, it doesn\'t. It\'s a problem, but not sufficient to make it a B-Movie. Frankly, again you are nitpicking.

They wanted to capture him, but didn’t use things like sleep gas and went with bows (!) instead, which they were likely to not even know how to operate. They sneaked into his house just to kidnap his daughter, then set up a hostage exchange of sorts ignoring the facts that he didn’t have to get his metal from them, that the bows wouldn’t help much if he really had access to metal and intended to kill, and that he could retaliate *after* his essentially kidnapped daughter was set free.

Yeah, one thing about them: I don\'t think they were supposed to be government agents. Had they been, yeah, they probably would have arrived with armors and plastic guns or something. But they were dressed in uniforms, and Magneto knew some of them. To me it\'s more like these were the local authorities who were trying to react fast because they knew Magneto would be gone or kill them all by the time the actual government agents arrived. So yeah, their solution was far from perfect, but going with the idea they weren\'t trained government agents and more the village\'s local police, I think it\'s a bit more acceptable that they would be badly prepared to deal with a mutant terrorist.

Strip away from this situation the context of it being in a hyped X-Men movie — pretend, for instance, that you’re reading it as a 10k word-long fanfic. Would you honestly think that the author did a good job of building the plot? I’d honestly either drop it halfway through or at least recommend others from reading something so badly written.

I would as well, but for completely different reasons- because I feel killing off Magneto\'s family was predictable and cliché (and before you ask, yes, I actually apply this criticism to the movie; I just don\'t think it ruins the whole). But the whole situation, as I explained above, isn\'t so shockingly bad.

The sequence in Stryker’s military base is just as bad: 1) the base *designed* for containing mutants didn’t have firewall-defences on *all* of its walls and doors, which essentially made it a victim of Swiss Cheese Security — another case of Oo C intelligence retardation.

Again, why would they need this? They have these fields on the walls of their cells, that\'s enough already. And for all we know, these fields are expansive and requires heavy ressources to maintain, so placing them everywhere in the base would be needlessly costy.

Wolverine — even with regeneration, adamantine toughness, claws, and speed — shouldn’t’ve been able to ignore so many people shooting at him, and the bullets should’ve taken him at least some time to recover from.

Eeeeh... based on what, now? Last time I checked there are no record explaining exactly how quick Logan heals from wounds and which weapons are more capable than others to hurt him durably.

Similarly, the soldiers should’ve additionally been shooting at him with paralytics, shockers, higher calibres, etc. The heavy-duty doors on his was should’ve been remotely closed to trap him in and buy the soldiers time for re-grouping and possibly changing weapons, etc.

... Okay, fair enough on that point. But frankly, if I should consider all the scifi movies where militaries are incompetent jackass with terrible security as B-movies, I would have no favourite scifi movie. And frankly, I have seen waaaay worse on the topic, so I feel like we can let it slide. Admittedly, it could have easily been fixed by a small Jurassic Parc excuse; like Cyclops and co using their powers to short-circuit the base\'s defense systems so the doors couldn\'t be used, thus making the camera unavailable and making it easier for Wolverine to hide and catch the soldiers by surprise so he could kill them even with prepared calibers. Unlike, say, the Indominus Rex\'s escape in Jurassic World, where you\'d have to completely rewrite the scene in every details for it to make sense.