In storytelling, size doesn't matter

Rating: 6/10 (23 July 2017)

Here's the thing about telling a story: size doesn't matter. A small-scale personal drama -- even without any dialog (!) -- can be utterly gripping (e.g. "All is Lost'), and contrarily a planet-smashing tale can be totally boring (e.g. any "Transformers" -- and I'm looking at you, "Independence Day" sequel).
I'd really like to rate this X-Men instalment higher, because I'm fond of their series of movies and their characters, but I have to recognize that X-Men: Apocalypse has fallen into a trap of its own making. They seem to feel that every one of their outings has to be Bigger Than The Last Time to keep people coming. Wrong! You just need a good story to tell, and characters we can care about. The fate of the planet doesn't have to be at stake every time around. "First Class" was good overall and "Days of Future Past" might even be described as great. But "Apocalypse" -- a step back.
To be fair, there's lots to be positive about in many scenes. The new X-Men characters now seen in the past at a young stage are fun to see. The CGI is all fine and there are some excellent set-pieces such as Quicksilver's retrieval of all of the mutant kids *while* the school is blowing up, and the fight in Charles' mind between him and Apocalypse. The buildup to Jean finally hitting the big baddie with full power is also a good payoff for what we were all waiting for -- she cuts loose as Phoenix with the full light show and a great, blood-curdling primal scream to boot. Good stuff.
But on the other hand: some things are just too much. I couldn't really go with Magneto disassembling structures everywhere around the world at once (sorry folks, but the inverse-square law works for magnetism too). Or Apocalypse blowing away Cairo with a few gestures (how many million people was that?). This is just too big to feel involved with. And sadly, some of the actors looked sort of uncomfortable. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were reliable, but I felt that Jennifer Lawrence, who's really a great actress, was kind of phoning it in here (as, frankly, she did with the Hunger Games).
Once you've destroyed the Earth there's nothing obvious left to Make It Bigger but to go interstellar, which seems to be what's up for their next round in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, based on one of the top story lines from the classic X-Men comics. We'll see if they can get back on track. I hope so.