Satisfactory But Not Superior To Any Other "X-Men" Movies

Rating: 7/10 (29 May 2016)

"X-Men: Apocalypse" is the third film in the prequel(ish) trilogy that began with "X-Men: First Class". Because of "reset" that the ending of the previous film, "Days of Future Past", set in motion, those of us who have followed the series since the original 2001 "X-Men" often found ourselves scratching our heads during this one. To avoid any spoilers, I won't elaborate on any specific scenes. But the X-Men franchise has always been plagued with inconsistencies and Swiss cheese plot lines. So that was no surprise here either. "Apocalypse" does its best to begin a new storyline while clinging to familiar characters and origins. I'm not sure it was hitting all of the marks it was striving for, but it is still quite entertaining and will surely appease its mutant-loving fanbase. I can't say that I loved it or, even that I hated it. It was satisfactory, but in no way superior to any of its predecessors. It was probably about 20 minutes too long due to drawn out sequences that added nothing to the plot or pacing. After a high-energy opener, there quite a lull before the action picked back up and that caused some impatience about halfway through. None of the characters (except for the villain) really carried the story so you had a lot of people to keep up with throughout. Quicksilver continued to steal every scene he was in and it made me wish he could have played a bigger role. And the Wolverine cameo was a disappointing and lackluster sequence. It felt like a vain attempt to put him in the movie at the most opportune time. Like finding the keys in a random getaway car, it was just too convenient. Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy the movie. I just felt that it was lacking in areas where it could have been greater.