It’s hard to think
back now, but 16 years ago in the year 2000 the superhero film didn’t really
exist in the form it does now. Along with Sam Raimi’s exceptional Spider-Man
film, Bryan Singer’s X-Men brought in
the comic book movie in a big way and started off something that’s grown larger
every year since. It’s a shame then that Singer’s own films during that time
have fallen short of the blockbuster smashes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
X-Men: Apocalypse is the second sequel
to the X-Men prequel First Class (a
sequel prequel?), following on from the second outing Days of Future Past which, through the use of time travel screenwriting
trickery, managed to completely destroy the existence of the original trilogy.
This outing sees our many mutants in the 1980s, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is
in hiding following his over zealousness in the last outing, and with the world
now comfortable with the existence of mutants Charles (James McAvoy) has
established his school for mutants. However things can’t stay ‘fast times at
Xavier high’ forever and after thousands of years buried in the earth, the
omnipotent first mutant, Apocalypse, wakes up from his nap cranky as toddler
and decides the world needs to be wiped clean to start over again.
Singer has
approached the X-Men films in the past as a parable for the way society treats
those who are different, as a gay man himself much has been commented on the
famous scene in X2 where a mutant ‘comes
out’ to his parents about his powers. Part of the problem with this latest X
outing is that that brilliant social commentary is all but lost.
Performed ably by
the poorly served Oscar Issac buried under prosthetics, is the titular villain.
In addition to being the most visually hilarious and least frightening of comic
book villains, is the added problem of him being one of the most miserably dull
antagonists. He possesses a collection of ambiguous powers, the most powerful
of which is his ability to mutate potentially interesting characters into lacklustre
statues in swanky new costumes. He’s also problematic in that his motives are
so unclear, yes he wants to destroy the world, but in all his mind numbing
philosophical ramblings you’re never quite sure why.
Apocalypse
surrounds himself with four horsemen, mutants whose powers he enhances, three
of these horsemen Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Angel (Ben Hardy) and Storm (Alexandra Shipp) are woefully
underserved by the script, collectively they probably share a page of dialogue
and the odd cool moment aside they essentially come out as glorified henchmen.
The fourth horseman is the usual big bad Magneto, though Fassbender is always
watchable, his arch in this film takes massive leaps in logic and whereas the
early stages don’t seem genuine whatsoever by the end his actions are depressingly
predictable. He does however deliver the greatest F-Bomb of the series.
The main strength
of this film, as you’d expect with the cast they’ve acquired, is the
performances. Recruiting young talent that have been impressing in film and TV
for a few years now, the film welcomes Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan and Kodi
Smit-McPhee in the roles of X-Men stalwarts Jean Grey, Scott Summers/Cyclops
and Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler. Sheridan is brilliant in the role of future X-Men
leader Cyclops, a character that’s been tragically wasted in the series up to
this point, Sheridan manages to capture the cocksure swagger of a young Scott
Summers and with blockbuster fare to match his other more independent work
Sheridan feels on the cusp of something huge. Another performance that elevates
the film is Smit-McPhee, his iteration of Nightcrawler is the most utterly
charming character in the universe so far, the visual contradiction between his
devil like appearance and his child like innocence is a consistent pleasure
throughout, and he also provokes some of the biggest laughs. Les
There are some
characters that a film series can rely on, to an extent where they can be added
to anything to give that film an extra 20%, Evan Peters Quicksilver is once
again the X universe’s 20%. There are moments where this feels like it might
take a nose dive off the high board into straight up gloom; it’s Peters that
often manages to pull it back, as with last time he has the standout scene of
the film and an exceptionally cool taste in fashion to boot. Other returning
players do what they do, McAvoy’s Xavier sits in a chair and says smart things,
Hoult’s Beast stands up and says smart things, and Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique
though never a bad character has decided to take a complete U-turn from the
good work they did in DOFP, gone is the sultry sleuth Rebeca Romijn had created
in the original series, here is a blue Katniss Everdeen, an apparent beacon of
hope to mutants.
The spectacular
climax unfortunately strays into levels of mindless destruction akin to a
Michael Bay film, there are some interesting character beats in the fights,
particularly from the boys in blue, Beast and Nightcrawler, but there aren’t
enough of them to save it from feeling a bit empty.
This isn’t a
disaster by any means, and it would take a film far worse than this to undo the
hard work that Singer has put in before this. What this has done however is
establish a direction that this series wants to go in, it has the characters
and, barring contract negotiations, the actors to carry it, but it needs to be
more nuanced and relevant, this was a series that opened with a scene of a
young Magneto discovering his powers whilst being separated from his parents in
Auschwitz, this unfortunately feels far removed from that great start. (3 Stars)
