Too contrived and kinda awkward

Rating: 5/10 (10 September 2016)

When we are done dealing with the actual foes, we start fighting amongst ourselves. This has long been the case with the humankind, and now the superheroes are in for it too.
The thing is, while Batman fought Superman just briefly and the fight between Iron Man and Captain America was more like a friendly brawl, the mutants have been confronting each other from the day one, it's not a new ground for the X-Men franchise. So, to advance the story one step further, the screenwriters had to create some new kind of enemy, both entirely abysmal and at the same time integrated into the mutant universum. Enter En Sabah Nur, an ancient mutant superpower determined to wipe the current civilization off the face of the planet.
The biggest problem with such diabolical plans of total destruction is "Okay, let's say you've done it all and turned the world into rubble. What next?". And that's where it usually starts slipping, because beyond some maniacal delusions of "the new order" there is barely anything of essence and systematics. For which the main evil genius might be forgiven, since he's always somewhat out of this world, but his disciples, usually much more rooted in the current ways of living - not so much.
X-Men: Apocalypse is several notches down from Days of the Future Past not only because it's hardly fun to watch heroes fight a seemingly omnipotent villain whose powers come like trump aces off a sharper's sleeves. But mostly because the motives of the villain's aides, characters much more sympathetic and relatable, are either shallow or muddied. It's one thing to let such a confused and controversial antihero as Magneto be the bad guy, because he'd be bad (and hence good) at being utterly bad, and another to make it a powerful puppet in someone else's soulless hands.
But at least Magneto is still moonlighting as his human counterpart, Erik Lehnsherr. And, played by Michael Fassbender, he's one of the pillars of solid, albeit dumbed down at times, drama that upholds this film enough to let it stand till the end. He and James McAvoy, whose low stature is no obstacle for his high acting talents, are the true superpowers that make this film watchable.
Unfortunately, that is not equally so with the younger generation of the cast. Jennifer Lawrence, being an inherent vice of the modern cinema, is a tolerable exception, with her only facial expression solemn enough to fit the pathos of the plot. Evan Peters is also good at providing the much-needed comic relief as Quicksilver. But the rest of the kids are one big travesty. Especially the film's attempt to reintroduce Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan as Jean Grey and Cyclops. They are cute and all, but totally lack the gravitas and maturity which were there with Famke Janssen and James Marsden. So when X-Men: Apocalypse makes Jean go full phoenix, it doesn't look grandiose, instead, it much more resembles a little girl trying on her mom's makeup while she's not looking, and defiling in her high heels 10 sizes bigger.
And I'm not even talking about that totally awkward Wolverine cameo where the actor generations collide. It's Logan who's supposed to be immortal and forever young. But put a now almost 50 year old man next to a 20 year old girl playing Jean, and no make-up or CGI could steal away that difference. Considering the classic story between those two characters, that face-off wasn't just awkward, it was embarrassing.
I don't know where the X-Men franchise is going with all that vibe of rebooting and reincarnation. Right now it seems that Days of the Future Past was the highest point of the new wave. So we can only hope that Bryan Singer is not aiming to cook some sort of The Last Stand of his own.