Not terrible but also not good

Rating: 5/10 (20 May 2016)

Similar to "Batman v Superman" opinions divide greatly on "X-Men: Apocalypse". While Rotten Tomatoes is not fond of the movie, audiences and a great many people love it. In the end all this does not matter since everybody has to decide on their own whether they like a movie or not. And after all it is good that each person has a different opinion on a piece of art because it is fun to discuss and learn other people's views.
"X-Men: Apocalypse" is set in the 80ies and adds a lot of new character portrayals to the franchise. The movie starts out with the awakening of Apocalypse, him learning about the present world and recruiting his four horsemen. A young Scott Summers discovers his powers and arrives at Charles Xavier's school for gifted youngsters, where he meets Jean Grey. Meanwhile Mystique grew to be a role model for many mutants since the events in the 70ies while Eric lives secluded with his family in Poland.
First of all, there are many aspects I loved and enjoyed about this movie. The performances in this movie where overall good. Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender prove again they are fantastic in their roles and we witness some good character developments. Especially Magneto has some emotional moments. Evan Peters stays the greatest Quicksilver ever put to screen, this time receiving more screen time and another outstanding scene even better than the one from "Days of Future Past". Olivia Munn is great as Psylocke and it would be cool if we get to see more of her character in the future. Nightcrawler was awesome as well!
Unfortunately there were some performances that were not as great. Sophie Turner as Jean Grey was not my favorite part of the movie. I respect her as an actress but there were some moments in the movies when I could not help but see Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones on screen. Also Apocalypse left me disappointed. Oscar Isaacs is a great actor and one can tell he did his best but to me En Sabah Nur is another generic villain. He had some cool powers but I was not fond of his design and most of the time he was more annoying than threatening. In general the look and design of some characters bothered me (looking at you Angel and Storm).
Additionally there is a section in the middle of the movie that felt forced to me, even though it is understandable why they had to put it into the movie but still this could have been handled better or left out and it would not have changed a lot about the plot. In general the plot is the main problem of the movie, since some parts felt unnecessary and forced and sometimes the movie is slow, though I would not describe it as boring. Furthermore some scenes were way over the top! Especially the end battle with a great amount of it involving Jean Grey. It felt stupid.
As much as I hate to say this, but "X-Men Apocalypse" is my least favorite superhero movie this year and ranks rather low on my list compared to the other installments of the franchise. It had great moments and was enjoyable but it still had too many things bothering me about it. Stay in your seats for the post-credit scene though!