The franchise is dying with every release

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2016)

Either the X-Men films are getting worse, or I'm just too old and too cynical to invest in the farce anymore.
I still maintain that "X2" is the best film in the series. It had a dynamism and a smartness of pace that has been severely lacking in the latest installments to date. I had hoped Singer's return would bring back those punchy, high octane, humorous elements which I enjoyed.
"Days of Future Past" almost managed it, with some terrific action sequences, and a real sense or threat, but the time travel story was messy and only created confusion. Its saving grace was Hugh Jackman's performance as Wolverine, which has certainly carried the series a good deal of the way so far. This latest installment unfortunately suffers from his absence.
Overall I found "X-Men: Apocalypse" to be dull, predictable, devoid of humour, cliché-ridden and embarrassingly hammy in parts. The dialogue is often childish and silly, Professor Xavier's sophomoric slobbering over Moira MacTaggart is one cringey example of a 'dumbing down'.
Oscar Isaac's performance as the titular villain is believably threatening, but he is betrayed by a ridiculous costume and makeup that gives him the appearance of an 80's glam rock diva. His 4 horsemen are also woefully unimpressive, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the many shots of them posturing around together in what was supposed to be an imposing death brigade, but looks more like a bunch of awkward misfits at a rainbow party.
Sophie Turner does not convince as Jean Grey. Perhaps it's the throaty, whiny tone to her voice that means I just can't see her as anything but Sansa Stark doing a generic American accent. She certainly doesn't look like she could grow up to be Famke Janssen, who played the older Jean, and that bothered me too.
The movie clearly wants us to be wowed by the effects. The action is more bombastic and world-ending than ever, yet manages to feel stilted. Landmarks explode and spiral in a whirl of cluttered CGI, yet none of these sequences have any real impact, or sense of danger, since no actual people are visibly caught up in the destruction. There's just no reason to care.
We also have a bullet-time montage literally copy and pasted from the last film where Quicksilver zips effortlessly through a building to save the inhabitants from a creeping explosion, all set to "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics. It feels so out of place tonally, and ultimately lazy and arrogant for expecting people to laugh at the same goofy gag all over again.
Throughout the whole film I just couldn't shake this seen-it-all- before feeling. A mixture of bemusement and boredom. I fear it can only get worse from here.