X-Men: Apocalypse can’t compare to Days of Future Past. But it’s not the worst X-Men movie too.
X-Men: Apocalypse Synopsis
En Sabah Nur, an immensely powerful mutant believed to be the first of his kind, ruled Ancient Egypt till betrayed by his followers and imprisoned in a tomb. Awakened in 1983, he determines humanity to have lost its way and decides to remake the world. To do so, he recruits a group of mutants to be his horsemen, in the process enhancing their already formidable powers. His final recruit is Erik Lehnsherr i.e. Magneto. Vengeful from the death of his new family, Erik uses his heightened powers to manipulate the Earth’s magnetic poles. His actions result in catastrophic destruction throughout the world.
Snappy Review
Before watching X-Men: Apocalypse, I did something I’ve long told myself not to do. I read the reviews beforehand.
This was a correct decision, for the lukewarm reviews moderated my expectations. They also reminded me how the last movie in trilogies is often the weakest. The short of it, I quite enjoyed X-Men: Apocalypse because I expected no more than a superpower brawl. In fact, I’m enjoyed it enough to consider watching it again.
It’s like, yeah, it’s flawed. The plot is seriously … ?!?!?, and the returning leads are apathetic at best. But to be fair, how different is that from all the X-Men animated series over the years?
Yes, the movie also ended very much like an extended story arc from those series, with a classic X-Men god device saving the day within a few minutes. This being a much-hyped, big-budget blockbuster feature, one could, of course, condemn this as a major let-down.
But given most fans were willing to religiously follow the animated episodes for months, each time in a measly chunk of 20 minutes, what reason do we have to grouch about 143 minutes of classic X-Men fracas? Meaningless deaths, poor CGI efforts, lacking character developments, or not?
One other thing. I didn’t expect X-Men: Apocalypse to be on the same level as Days of Future Past. Neither should anyone. The previous movie simply had too many advantages.
While it was the middle episode in this trilogy, Days actually had SIX movies leading up to it. (The first trilogy, the two Wolvie movies, and First Class) Simply seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan together again on screen was joy itself.
X-Men: Apocalypse, on the other hand, enjoyed no such advantage. The only thing it could do was to resort to standard action storytelling. As in, an OTP enemy, lots of colourful characters … Bang. Over and out of the cinema.
Again, this might be a disappointment to some. But for me, I don’t see what else could be expected.
Click here to view the trailer.
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