"At least we can agree that the third one is always the worst"

Rating: 5/10 (2 March 2017)

Michael Fassbender. Certainly one of the three best actors working today, an absolute force of raw emotional power and complexity. Any film can safely put it's faith on his shoulders, as he is the sort of actor that can single-handedly make a film work. With how little screen time he actually has in this film, I can't help but make the sad realization that the producers, writers, and Bryan Singer himself don't know who their best horse is. Every scene featuring Fassbender peaked my interest, as his performance alone carried me through the clunky writing. He's a star, and a film focused on him is the sensible direction to take this franchise, not pushing him into a corner. Let your stars shine, Fox.
X-Men: Apocalypse isn't very good. There are a host of problems that plague it, but the most appalling would have to be the terribly confused storytelling. It's worth noting that this is the first X- Men film with an actual emphasis on the villain. In the past, it's always been focused on the Professor X/Magneto conflict, racial tension, the plight of being a mutant and other, more internal conflicts centered on coming to grips with mutants in society. Apocalypse, one of the X- Men's biggest foes, is an enormous presence to capture on film. I feel the film actually nailed the persona of Apocalypse, Isaac giving an intimidating, somewhat powerful performance and lending an astute physicality to him to establish that presence. What the film absolutely failed to do, however, is establish the sheer power of Apocalypse. A man who has existed for millenia, something of a god- figure whose power is virtually unlimited. He is immortal. I can't stress this enough, in the comics he is a damn force of nature, something the X- Men could really never hope to defeat in straight up battle. The film does not capture any of the profundity inherent with Apocalypse's past, really glossing over the fact that he has turned the wheel of civilization's past, allowed people's to rise and willed others to fall. He is God, always worshipped by the peoples of his time, seen as a divine power and feared as one as well. Apocalypse makes no effort to establish this deity dynamic, instead just making him out to be a sort of charismatic leader to whom conflicted mutants will flock. His powers are woefully undefined, and during the climactic fight, I couldn't help but wonder why he couldn't just snap his fingers and end it all. The final fight is fun, but very clumsily constructed and ultimately pretty drab. Multiple characters that are hyped throughout the film don't actually do anything, and the "plans" put in play make no sense what so ever. Character motivations feel derived from simply a desire to progress from point A to point B, not natural or authentic at all.
Jennifer Lawrence is bad here. She sleepwalks through her role, and I really can't conceive why Singer decided to explore Mystique further. At this point, she seems to follow the same pattern in every film. It begins and she has little faith in humanity's tolerance of mutants, and she tends to be either a fringe figure or embedded within the villainous organization. Professor X and Beast proceed to reach out to her, convincing her of the merits of peace and instilling a hope within her for a better future. Regardless of plot progression, she always recedes back to her original state, pessimistic, kind of whiny and simplistically conflicted. She was compelling in Singer's original trilogy and I tolerated her in the first two entries within this trilogy, but at this point nothing new is added. Now I just wish they'd just leave her to her own devices, or at least give her a defined and confident worldview. She's not some all-powerful force that could endanger the entire world, nor is she a scared little child who knows little else. She's an adult woman, and she's made her choice. Can we move on?
X-Men: Apocalypse, when it comes down to it, is a film of shallow delights. For the most part, I really enjoy the cast of these films. There's loads of starpower that generally aren't in these sort of stories, so it's a delight to see them hamming it up at heroes. I also was fascinated by half of the Apocalypse character, as I think some of his ideas play nicely with the general concerns of the X-Men franchise. Jean Grey is effectively constructed as a character, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Quicksilver not as much. On even shallower level, I had quite a bit of fun with Olivia Munn as Psylocke, purely because she's attractive and I'm a guy. Magneto's time on screen was the film at it's best, and Singer's visual style as always is exemplary. Suffice to say, I had a good time with this film, despite it's overwhelming issues (hence my decent-good rating). I've been a comic-book nerd all my life and i don't see the personal utility in criticizing these sort of films, because on a basic level I appreciate them all. This film is not good, and if you are not at all a nerd in that way, you rightfully will hate this film. The writing is awful, direction scattered and the finished product just feels messy. It's a flailing effort to enter the traditional superhero film racket, with a narrative focused on a hero vs villain rather than heroes vs themselves, and it seems evident that this route may not be the best one. Apocalypse does not hold up to scrutiny at all, but the sad fact of life is that I will still see this three more times. I have more to say, but I feel bad trashing on this film, which I admittedly enjoyed quite a bit.