"X-Men Apocalypse" is technically masterful and fun to watch, but feels like too much of a good thing.

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2016)

Call 2016 "The Year of the Superhero Battles". After the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel went at each other in "Batman v. Superman" and the Avengers divided (then reunited) and conquered in "Captain America: Civil War", "X-Men Apocalypse" (PG-13, 2:24) features mutants fighting each other. They're fighting over a mutant's mutant named En Sabah Nur. But you can just call him Apocalypse. That name reveals this film's tie-in with another cinematic superhero trend of the 2010s – world domination. After the Avengers prevented a sentient A-I baddie named Ultron from destroying mankind and rebooting the world in 2015, an ancient mutant who is actually named for the end of the world tries to do the same in 2016. Or is it 1983? Heck, these movies' own characters have trouble keeping it all straight – even within the X-Men universe. In a meta reference in 2016's "Deadpool", as Colossus drags the title character across a bridge and says, "You will come talk to Professor Xavier", Deadpool understandably and hilariously responds, "McAvoy or Stewart? These timelines can get so confusing."
I'll try to keep from confusing things further with my plot summary, by limiting character references for simplicity's sake. (To read more about who's in this movie, God has given us IMDb and Wikipedia.) In "X-Men: Apocalypse", a variety of human beings with special powers continues their magical mystery tour of the planet, as the supremely psychic mentor and do-gooder Professor Xavier (that's James McAvoy in this one, Mr. Pool) tries to bring out the good in all mutants - even the bad ones. Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is trying to live a quiet country life in Poland when something happens that REALLY makes him mad and he's not inclined to be magnanimous towards his enemies. We then meet three other overseas mutants who are morally ambiguous and/or evil to varying degrees. We also see the sometimes-but-not-currently-blue-hued Raven Darkhölme / Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) traveling the world and recruiting (for Xavier's academy) young mutants like the teleporting Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
Meanwhile, back at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester, New York, Professor X is working hard to help a growing number of resident mutants. They include the telekinetic Jean Grey / Phoenix (Sophie Turner) and Scott Summers / Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), whose eyes have just started shooting out extremely destructive laser beams. The Professor has help from the also sometimes-but-not-currently-blue-hued Hank McCoy / Beast (Nicholas Hoult), but X becomes distracted by the re-emergence of his memory-impaired old flame, CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), who is in Egypt investigating the legend of an ancient mutant, who's also part of this movie's 50 Shades of Blue.
Back in ancient Egypt, about five and a half millennia ago (give or take a century), En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse (an unrecognizable Oscar Isaac) continued his habit of transferring his consciousness into the younger bodies of other mutants, and, in the process, adding their powers to his personal super power arsenal. When some mutant-haters betray him, and even his current generation of four helpers (later called "The Four Horsemen") can't save him, he's buried underneath a collapsed pyramid and forced to take a very, very, very long sand nap. As one summary of this movie has said, "Fast-forward to 1983 (10 years after the mind-bending, time-travelling events in 'X-Men: Days of Future Past')." Some present-day believers unearth the king of the mutants, utter some chants, and release En Sabah Nur into the modern world. He catches up on everything he has missed (and learns to speak English) by touching a TV set and immediately begins gathering another team of mutant minions. He has decided that mankind has gone astray without his guidance and he plans to wipe out nearly all humans (whether they're evil or not) – and he doesn't even provide any of them with an ark! This harsh latter-day Darwinist will only allow the strongest to survive, destroy everything man has made, and then rebuild.
"X-Men: Apocalypse" is impressive and entertaining, but seems like a little too much of a good thing. Its visual effects, action set pieces and hair-make-up work, taken as a whole, represent the most creative and best executed that I've ever seen in a single movie. At first blush, those sets of accomplishments seemed destined for some serious awards season love (with more than a few wins). However, the film's extraordinary technical achievements are symptomatic of what's wrong with it. Although Movie Fans who are new to the X-Men franchise will be unable to appreciate the layered character development and the references to the previous films, the plot of this film does stand alone and isn't hard to follow. It's fun and awe-inspiring to watch but has too much going on. This movie naturally brings to mind previous X-Men installments, along with movies in which several (or all) of the Avengers appear. If this trend continues, Stan Lee himself (who, of course, has a brief cameo in this Marvel film, with his real-life wife) may have to develop a super power and pick up a shield or something.
Come to think of it, I wonder if I'm the only one who would be interested to see Ultron and Apocalypse go up against each other. Of course, they'd both have to still be "alive" for that to happen, but the way the X-Men franchise plays fast and loose with timelines, anything is possible. Then there's the possibility that Ultron and Apocalypse, with their different but complementary skill sets and mutual penchant for destruction, could join forces. In that case, all the X-Men AND Avengers joining forces might still be unable to stop that dastardly duo. Even if such a battle were to be fought, the resulting movie (with cameras naturally there to capture every crash-bang-boom) would be even more cluttered than "X-Men: Apocalypse" which I'm giving a "B+".