Enjoyably Mediocre

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2016)

I'm quite torn about this movie, as it is quite a 'different' movie. It has an intriguing enough story line, with mostly convincing characters and impressive visuals...I certainly enjoyed it while watching it, but after the fact I could not find a reason why I enjoyed it so much.
It is certainly a film with many flaws. As an 'action movie', the action scenes were not too innovative or even impressive. The fights are largely what has been seen before in the X-Men franchise, just less of it compared to Days of Future Past. As a 'superhero ensemble piece', the fact that it was an 'ensemble' definitely took away from individual story arcs. With nobody really developing from the start of the film to the end of the film, at least not clearly. As a movie, the plot was incredibly cliché without many stakes.
Superhero movies don't necessarily need heroes to die in order to have stakes, it just needs emotional weight and connection between characters, and these connections being morphed or broken (like Captain America: Civil War). Apocalypse however, had no such stakes, only the threat of world destruction...which obviously would not be accomplished.
Though character arcs were lacking in this film, performances by the leads were mainly good. With the clear exception of Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, who continues to feel like she has no connection with the character whatsoever. Both McAvoy and Fassbender gave great performances as usual, with great chemistry between them as usual. Especially with that one scene of Fassbender in the woods, the emotional layers in his performance were incredible. All the new X-Men also gave good performances, though the ensemble element drowned them and cut their development short.
All up, Apocalypse wasn't the worse X-Men movie, but it is far from the best. It's still worth a watch for X-Men franchise fans, but I doubt it will entice any new viewers.