Possibly the best X-Men film to date; I cannot remember the story of any others.

Rating: 5/10 (16 June 2016)

The film starts strong; amateur-Egyptologists will be creaming their jimmies as the villain of the piece and his cronies hand out MK fatalities like clementines at Christmas. In truth, I cannot remember the story of literally any other X-Men instalment going in to this, despite having ostensibly viewed them all at some junction. This one, I feel, will stick in the memory. It stands in stark contrast to it's recent super-hero competition in the form of Civil War, which suffered from a very disjointed and poorly-edited jaunt into comic book obscurity. Apocalypse feels congruent and the through-line is easy to follow – light touch references to Reagan and the Empire Strikes Back accompanies a tasteful display of 80's fashion – the 80's aesthetic pays dividends. Dialogue is often hokey but forgivable when you consider the subject matter and it's comic origins. Overall, it was a decent 2-hour time sink that hit more often than miss.