X-Men: Apocalypse

Here lies my take on X-Men: Apocalypse, the latest chapter in the longest running superhero film saga to date. When I reviewed the film's predecessor Days of Future Past back in 2014 I like many other fans declared it pretty much perfect. I revelled in the way it was done, and I also expressed great optimism for a potentially broad and open future direction for the characters and the franchise.
Whilst I wasn't expecting an even bigger and better film this time around, I think I was expecting something a bit more dynamic. Yes it was a great X-Men film still, but unlike previous ventures in the franchise, it didn't really excite me with anything new.

The key plus point of this film for me, lied with its ability to rest on and run with what had gone before. I think Bryan Singer knew what had been done right and what perhaps might have been evolved as much as possible up to a point, so he just seemed to build on that. This may also be seen as quite an arrogant move on director Singer's part - in that he seems to have just pointed to all the films gone before as evidence of how great this next one and he are supposed to be. Many of the brand new elements (of which there aren't that many) fall distinctly flat in originality and impact, and it is the building upon of X-Men key elements which saves the film, and indeed which makes it appealing in my view.

Yet we must mention the plus points of which there are many. Namely, the cast and characters we now know and love. No original X-Men this time (apart from an epic if slightly diversionary cameo from Hugh Jackman as Wolverine) so we rely on the younger generation to entertain. Whilst the idea that another ten years has supposed to have passed without really ageing anybody wasn't fooling anyone, it was still good to see some familiar faces. Jennifer Lawrence still managed to captivate as Mystique, and seeing James McAvoy become even more immersed into the role of Charles Xavier was a joy (including him finally becoming bald!). Michael Fassbender's Magneto and Nicholas Hoult's Hank McCoy/Beast did not really progress further, but seeing their trademark characters in the roster still felt reassuring. The re-introduction of Rose Byrne as Moira McTaggert and Evan Peters as Quicksilver again was nice but in terms of impact it just sort of felt like window dressing; and killing Lucas Till's Havok off just after he was brought back definitely felt like a misconceived and poorly judged clanger. We also got a repeat of the X-Men: First Class formula - namely giving us new actors playing younger versions of classic characters. It worked with First Class and on the face of it so too this time. It was fun to see new versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Angel and Nightcrawler, though the former two did appear superficially mismatched in terms of their character development (again it didn't seem clear where their characters were going - especially Tye Sheridan's Cyclops being a shy underdog one minute then a brash wannabe-jock the next). And sadly for me the latter three were reduced to barely more than embodiment of special effects and a chance to show off diverse mutant power sets. Yes it was visually impressive and yes it sets up for the potential future, but to see X-Men staples reduced to poor bare bones did not sit well with me.
It was interesting to see an X-Men film yet again expand on the massive cast of characters - featuring the first appearance of the likes of Caliban, Psylocke, Jubilee, and of course the titular villain - Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse.
Yet because of the poorly executed story (which is a shame as the original comic book could have been fashioned into gold) a heavily clichéd villain, and not much in terms of character development overall, none of the new or old faces were really able to carry the film to greatness.

It sounds like I'm slating X-Men: Apocalypse - I'm not. Plenty of action, plenty of great X-Men moments, and plenty of homages and expansions of what had gone before, all coming together quite well. It is a very good X-Men film, but mixed plot direction, not enough new impact and a seemingly lack of coherent thought towards the overall tone of the film does not render it stratospheric-ally brilliant for me.