Does Not Live Up To The Source Material

Rating: 5/10 (27 April 2018)

Being a fan of X-Men and the Marvel Universe growing up will only hurt your opinions of this film as the characters are but pale translations of their counterparts in the comics and Fox cartoon.
Case-in-point: the eponymous villain himself. Apocalypse is one of the most powerful villains in the X-Men stories with a vast array of powers. Yet, here, none of those powers are portrayed. The character himself is bland, lacking presence, and not nearly as bombastic as the Apocalypse I remember and loved as a kid. That version, the authentic one, spoke in big, deep, booming voice with menacing tones and a hint of something technological. His monologues and dialogue in the cartoon were among the most memorable part of that experience, speaking in biblical language and with a God-like demeanor. None of that drama makes it into this film.
Most of the movie is not only predictable, but boring. With a few exceptions, it is both unengaging and formulaic, whereas the Marvel Cinematic Universe titles have since proven to at least avoid being one of those two things. The flashiness of the X-Men series is also unfitting for the darkness of the plotline here.
While X-Men Apocalypse is still much better than the previous titles from the early 2000's, it still falls quite short of being able to capture the imagination the way or bring the kind of authentic laughs, drama, or depth that Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, or Deadpool were able to achieve.