This has brawn and brains and a whole lot of dazzle

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2016)

Gotta hand it to Bryan Singer. He knows the subject matter like it is the back of his hand. You may be watching a full-on superhero romp about mutants, but you can also feel it in your bones that the movie transcend to a different plane subversively. Just substitute mutation with the current hot-button issues like xenophobia and racism you will see a very different movie. Singer understands ostracism and social prejudice so well that his X-Men movies feel like veiled shout-outs of misunderstood people. In X-Men: Apocalypse, he has made another entry in the franchise that has brawn and brains and a whole lot of dazzle. I had a feeling that I wasn't just watching a summer popcorn movie but something relevant and important.
The script is whip-smart and manages to juggle so many characters, both old and new. In one funny moment it takes a clever dig at Brett Ratner's abomination. The characters have link to the past and the future. There is pathos of the Shakespearean level and tragedy of the Greek magnitude. This is yet again a Defcon One "End of the Earth" scenario with the Adam of all Mutants, Apocalypse. The chap may be buried under a ton of blue makeup and housed in a blue strait-jacket, but his quiet menace shines through. This is a villain with a capital latter "V", well-established, religious connotations all around and his motivations thoroughly well-drawn.
The action set-pieces are well done with no hint of repetitiveness. I mean we have all seen Magneto and Prof X strut their stuff but it never feels old with the tweaks incorporated. For example, Gotta love how they up the ante with the Quicksilver scene, easily one of the highlights again.
If I do have some quibbles I would have to say the runtime could have been shorten (I really felt the full 2h 24min) and the final climatic smack down is exhausting to watch (it felt like it will never end). I have read some of my favourite critics' reviews and nearly all of them didn't dig the movie. Their reasons are exactly the polar opposite of what actually worked for me. This isn't as effortless and fun as X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it comes real close.
3.5 / 5