Mummy Resurrected Meets the X-Men

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2016)

"Why be different when you can look like everybody else?" Nightcrawler (the blue-hued teleporter) questions Mystique (the also naturally-blue-hued shapeshifter) in X2, to which she pointedly responds, "because we shouldn't have to".
In The Last Stand, Storm, at learning that non-mutants have developed a cure that permanently suppresses the Mutant X-gene, cries, "a cure for all mutants? But we don't need a cure. Since when have we become a disease?"
And yet, yet there are others who feel quite differently. Those who will give anything to feel 'normal' and are only too willing to give up that which makes them special. Because just as there is no doubt that innate (and often intimidating) extra-ordinariness renders a mutant as formidable, so too it is certain that it makes one aberrant in the eyes of others, such power-possessors only just about managing to outpace vilification, then rejection, social ostracization and even the threat of extermination.
Which path then should the gifted choose for themselves? Should one live as a proud pariah or eternally condemn oneself to the fate of inert impotence? The question itself poses a seething paradox, because even if one were to pick the former things won't ever grow easy, the risks attendant with pacifism or aggression, the only two approaches available, then springing to life, accentuated further by the one immutable dimension to the mutant conundrum: the inability of humans to rise above their prejudices.
It is these emotionally resonant thematic threads that have since its inception set the XMen series apart from other superhero productions, interwoven as they are through deftly layered and penetrating allegory: the omnipotent thesis being the trials and inner conflicts of social misfits, the discrimination and dilemmas faced by minorities, be they ethnic, sexual, religious or whatever.
Should a people assert the right to coexist under the umbrella of a proud and distinct identity or should they always aspire to blend in with the mainstream? Is society hardwired to fear those who look and behave differently? Is it possible to convince people to think in a manner that runs counter to their primal instincts?
Apocalypse is a great spectacle, as are all the XMen movies without exception. But let's be honest here. Really honest. It is not the best film of the franchise, the thus far unsurpassed one being Days of Future Past followed closely by First Class and X2.
And this is chiefly down to the fact that this latest instalment, save for Magneto's backstory, which in retrospect appears tired and stale, fails to pose any searing questions or to explore the though- processes and predicaments of the characters.
Instead we're served just another superhero movie populated with a galaxy of CGI-enhanced mutants, whose motivations despite the actors' tremendous performances (especially from the latest entrants), fall emotionally flat.
What's more, whilst the previous two instalments in the series drew on historical events in the time-period in which they were set (Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam War), Apocalypse could well have occurred at any time period. The film is none the richer for being set in the 80s.
The plot is straightforward. In 1983, the mutant Apocalypse, having amassed the powers of many other mutants over millennia, awakens from a slumber and vows to destroy mankind and take over the world. With the help of his Four Horsemen, Psylocke, Storm, Archangel and a broken Magneto, Apocalypse plans to create a new for mutants-only world. As the earth convulses in doomsday throes, the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier work together to prevent Apocalypse and his team from succeeding.
The performances are as usual all superb and the CGI eye-arresting. But the two performances that stand out are those of Jean Grey, whose perceptivity and latent vigour were brought alive to pitch-perfection by Sophie Turner, and of Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, whose comic relief was so good that I will re-watch the film for just his scenes. I had high expectations from Oscar Isaac, but it seemed like his acting talents have been overmasked by CGI, so much so that he appears as generic a villain as any and his actions are the less menacing for it.
Nevertheless, the closing battle scene is as grand and edge-of-the- eat nerve-racking as one might expect of an XMen movie; but do note that its enjoyment and understanding, as of that of the film's as whole, will be compromised on for those not familiar with the events and characters of the previous XMen films.