Still the best version. |
Note: Spoilers follow for X-Men: Apocalypse.
The general critic
consensus on X-Men: Apocalypse has
seemingly been a big “meh,” which as I reflect on how the movie sits with me, I
can’t disagree with. While it was a fun flick to watch in the moment, it’s one
of those movies I’m probably not ever going to feel the need to see again.
The “problem”
is that there are so many good to very good superhero movies now that something
just OK like Apocalypse easily slips
through the cracks. It doesn’t reboot the series or offer fun twists on the
superhero movie like First
Class and Days of Future Past did.
And, it’s not a really competent continuation of a series like Captain
America: Civil War was.
Instead, Apocalypse feels like a throwback to
older comic book movies, ones that largely squandered some really cool ideas
with bloat. In both the animated series and the comic books, Apocalypse the
villain is one of the X-Men teams’ greatest foes, mixing a combination of
immortality and advanced technology to be a persistent thorn. However, in the
movie he’s seemingly reduced in power – he doesn’t even grow in size – and scant
attention is paid to his background beyond “he’s old and from Egypt!”
When it
comes to the X-Men, the cast is just getting a bit too unwieldly. It’s tough to
care about the budding romance between (a surprisingly not crappy) Cyclops and
Jean Grey when they both barely get screen time. Likewise, the 23rd
hour unleashing of Jean Grey’s Phoenix power seems rushed. I thought they were
setting something up for a future movie, instead of using it as a plot cudgel
in this one.
Of the
recent X-Men movies, First Class worked the best to me
because it had the smallest cast. There was a sharper focus to all of the
characters, which was wonderful, since it meant plenty of standout scenes with
Professor X and Magneto. Of course, the elephant in the room – Jennifer Lawrence
has been given a bigger role in each new movie, but her character isn’t really
that interesting. It’s like the creators of these movies realized that she had
become a Big Effing Star, and gave her more screen time, but didn’t really work
on the quality of what she had to work with.
Anyway. If
you like superhero movies, then this is a perfectly capable, but not fantastic,
superhero movie. It’s certainly better than those dreary Superman movies, but Guardians
of the Galaxy, The Avengers and Captain
America’s solo movies are all better entry points than the X-Men series as a whole.
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