By the time that superhero movies weren't being planned one movie at a time, it was too late for X-Men. The original trilogy ended with a dud. The Origins movies stopped after one atrocious installment. So, the did a soft reboot, scored big with the casting, but had trouble letting go of the past. That resulted in the convoluted Days of Future Past, which featured the best of both generations of X-Men. Which brings us to Apocalypse: a movie released in an Avengers world, still using the dynamics of an earlier era.
Apocalypse is set in 1983, several years after Days of Future Past. Professor Xavier's (James McAvoy's) school for gifted children is doing well with teachers like Hank McCoy (Nicolas Hoult) still helping out. Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is in hiding with a new family in Poland. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is traveling the world, also in hiding, helping out the occasional mutant she sees being mistreated. There's a new student at Xavier's school. We'll get to know him as Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). He quickly bonds with Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), a troubled but gifted student. All is going well until one day Moira Mactaggert (Rose Byrne, returning from First Class and welcome in any movie I see) stumbles on some religious zealots in Egypt who awaken an ancient evil: the first mutant, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). Things fall apart quickly from there. Apocalypse assembles his four horseman, including Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Magneto, to destroy the world. Xavier assembles a team to stop them. You know the rest.
In essence, Apocalypse is X-Men trying to do what the MCU is planning with Infinity War in couple years, except condensed down to a single movie. That's why the already long 2.5 hour run time doesn't feel like enough. I'm almost shocked that Fox didn't break this into 2 parts. There's a lot that this movie has to do. The new students need to be introduced. Moira needs to be reintegrated. Apocalypse has to be established as well as his horsemen. Magneto needs to be given reason to go evil again. Mystique needs to be brought back into the X-Men. And then there's making time for an extended Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) cameo and the return of Quicksilver (because, after the last movie, how can you leave Evan Peters out?).
When you look back at the X-Men franchise, it's all been very episodic, which should play well in the current cinema landscape. Each movie tells a complete story while leaving openings for future stories. The problem has been that they have to reshuffle things after almost every movie. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is the face of the franchise, so they have to include him in everything, no matter how uncomfortable the fit. Jennifer Lawrence became the biggest star in the world shortly after First Class, so Mystique goes from an important supporting character to essentially, the leader of the X-Men. The harder they try to make all of the movies exist in the same universe rather than doing a hard reboot, the clunkier these movies get.
I apologize. This is becoming more of an essay than a review.
I liked X-Men: Apocalypse. There was almost no way that I wouldn't. They've assembled quite a cast by now. McAvoy and Fassbender do well finding a new way to have the same conversation about their philosophies in each movie, going back to Patrick Stewart and Ian McClellan in the early movies. While the use of Mystique in the franchise is questionable, Jennifer Lawrence does a good job with what's asked of her. The young cast of Turner, Sheridan, Shipp, Kodi-Smit McPhee (Nightcrawler), and Lana Condor (Jubilee, who is oddly absent in the last half of the movie) come together nicely. If things move more to them in the future, I won't complain. Oscar Isaac is so buried beneath the Apocalypse makeup that I can't really comment on his performance. I will say that the lack of development of Apocalypse is the most glaring weakness in the movie. It takes a while for the action to get going. Once it does, there are some satisfying battles.
I wish there was a way that the X-Men movies could just start over. Do a hard reboot with a specific end point in mind - stand-alones, sequels, multi-part movies, whatever. Since that's not going to happen - it would make no business sense to let go of all the talented, high-potential actors they have - I'm fine with the current movies that are easy to like, hard to love. I guess that's my final assessment of Apocalypse. I liked it in the way that I like X-Men or X-2 or The Last Stand or First Class or Days of Future Past. It's enjoyable, not exceptional.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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