X Men Apocalypse had an uncommon advantage among superhero franchises. The previous movie had not only done a great job of revitalising a 16 year old film series, but it had pressed a reset button on everything. Apocalypse had a blank canvas to work with and a captive audience to present to. What we end up getting is a 140 minute movie that chooses to crib from goddamn X-Men 3.
Apocalypse is crammed with characters who get far too little time to do anything. Firstly, you have a villain, an ancient Egyptian mutant who wakes from a deep sleep and wants to destroy the world for dimly established reasons; maybe he just wants to wipe it clean for the strongest. Or he wants to kill everyone. Or he just wants to rule it. It's hard to tell. But to do it, he has have his four riders of the apocalypse, because apparently whilst being unconscious for five millennia he had time to learn up on Christian theology. It takes ages of screen time for him to do this, despite never really establishing any character arc for the horsemen & women. Instead they focus on designing coordinating costumes, and posing on top of mountains.
Then the movie introduces the old cast, who outside of new haircuts haven't aged a bit in twenty years. They've realised something is wrong, and they're very slowly trying to do something about it. Thankfully there is a CIA agent who I keep forgetting was a thing in these movies who eventually guides them in the right direction.
Finally there is the new group; the teenage versions of all the characters you loved and cared about, like Nightcrawler. Hell yeah! And Cyclops. Fine. And Jean Grey. Oh, okay. And Jubliee. Oh dear. Well, if its anything like ''First Class', it can surely show us that even the less respected mutant characters can be made likeable.
Unfortunately they are sadly neglected in what should really be their movie. I get the impression Apocalypse was originally written as a handing-over-the-baton style movie, with the "First Class" being too old and knackered to keep fighting, and the young bloods having to find their feet. But that story is stripped away because the makers wanted to cram in fan-service: "Stick in another Quicksilver scene, exactly like the last movie! People liked the last movie!" and later, "Oh, lets shove Wolverine as well! Kids love Wolverine!" The movie is full of these distractions. It increases the cast count and run time, but don't give us any more to care about.The last twenty minutes of Apocalypse is just heroes yelling "AAAARRRGHH!!" and shooting each other with CGI. Meanwhile the entire of Cairo is obliterated, assuredly killing more civilians than any other superhero movie combined, but the movie doesn't reflect on it once. That's Apocalypse in a nut shell; its all loud and showy but it doesn't care one bit about people.
Overstuffed, Unfulfilling
X Men Apocalypse had an uncommon advantage among superhero franchises. The previous movie had not only done a great job of revitalising a 16 year old film series, but it had pressed a reset button on everything. Apocalypse had a blank canvas to work with and a captive audience to present to. What we end up getting is a 140 minute movie that chooses to crib from goddamn X-Men 3.
Apocalypse is crammed with characters who get far too little time to do anything. Firstly, you have a villain, an ancient Egyptian mutant who wakes from a deep sleep and wants to destroy the world for dimly established reasons; maybe he just wants to wipe it clean for the strongest. Or he wants to kill everyone. Or he just wants to rule it. It's hard to tell. But to do it, he has have his four riders of the apocalypse, because apparently whilst being unconscious for five millennia he had time to learn up on Christian theology. It takes ages of screen time for him to do this, despite never really establishing any character arc for the horsemen & women. Instead they focus on designing coordinating costumes, and posing on top of mountains.
Then the movie introduces the old cast, who outside of new haircuts haven't aged a bit in twenty years. They've realised something is wrong, and they're very slowly trying to do something about it. Thankfully there is a CIA agent who I keep forgetting was a thing in these movies who eventually guides them in the right direction.
Finally there is the new group; the teenage versions of all the characters you loved and cared about, like Nightcrawler. Hell yeah! And Cyclops. Fine. And Jean Grey. Oh, okay. And Jubliee. Oh dear. Well, if its anything like ''First Class', it can surely show us that even the less respected mutant characters can be made likeable.
Unfortunately they are sadly neglected in what should really be their movie. I get the impression Apocalypse was originally written as a handing-over-the-baton style movie, with the "First Class" being too old and knackered to keep fighting, and the young bloods having to find their feet. But that story is stripped away because the makers wanted to cram in fan-service: "Stick in another Quicksilver scene, exactly like the last movie! People liked the last movie!" and later, "Oh, lets shove Wolverine as well! Kids love Wolverine!" The movie is full of these distractions. It increases the cast count and run time, but don't give us any more to care about.The last twenty minutes of Apocalypse is just heroes yelling "AAAARRRGHH!!" and shooting each other with CGI. Meanwhile the entire of Cairo is obliterated, assuredly killing more civilians than any other superhero movie combined, but the movie doesn't reflect on it once. That's Apocalypse in a nut shell; its all loud and showy but it doesn't care one bit about people.