"And From the Ashes of Their World, We'll Build A Better One!"

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2016)

As this is Singer's 4th addition to the X-men franchise, it's hard to watch it without making direct comparisons with his previous instalments and whether he's still able to add anything else to the franchise. Whilst Singer does cover familiar ideas in this film, it never feels stale with the themes of social acceptance resonating as strongly here as they always have before and Singer still succeeds at creating new exciting sequences in to the franchise.
Taking place after the events of Days of Future Past and still using cast of First Class, a new enemy awakens after resting for thousands of years known as Apocalypse, played by a very intimidating Oscar Isaac whose presence constantly dominates the screen. He's a being who believes he's a god, as he has become seemingly omnipotent having gained many mysterious powers over his several lifetimes including the ability to increase the powers of other mutants. He uses these powers to attempt to bring together four followers and destroy the world in order to start a new empire where only the strongest survive.
In many ways Apocalypse is the polar opposite to Xavier (James McAvoy). Whereas Xavier unlocked the potential of mutants like Magneto through helping them reach serenity, Apocalypse uses their pain and suffering to mould them in to warriors he can control to bring the earths destruction. It's Apocalypse's want for control and his power to destroy that unites the X-men to stop Apocalypse and once again save the world.
The first 30-40 minutes of the film are quite clunky, with the film jumping all over the place to introduce all of the various characters in to the story. It has to catch us up with all the older heroes after a 10 year gap between films, whilst also introducing an entirely new young cast for some of the most iconic X-men like Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). Because of this the first act of the film does feel rather slow, but once the film gets going it never slows down until the end credits, being well paced whilst moving swiftly between action set pieces and combining multiple story lines.
Fans of Quicksilver (Evan Peters) will be glad to know his role is much larger than it was in the previous film and once again he ends up delivering some of the biggest laughs in the entire film. There are also several great new additions to the franchise. Tye Sheridan re-establishes Cyclops in to the franchise at a point where he's far from the natural leader that we saw from the original X-men trilogy and adds some much needed charisma to the role. Whilst Sophie Turner doesn't have the same hypnotic element that Famke Janssen bought to the role, she does bring to life a far more timid and uncertain Jean than what we've seen before, with the film also setting up some groundwork to redo the phoenix saga in a future film.
Also Fassenbender once again has another great outing as Magneto, whose own hatred further sets himself down the path to villainy that he's been forced down since his parents were first murdered. He goes on a very painful journey within the film, with Fassenbender adding a great deal of anguish and tragedy to his character once again. His story also has several great stand out moments, including one incredible sequence where he destroys the remains of Auchwitz, another reminder of how those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
However with such a large cast to use there are some characters who don't get the time that they needed. For example, whilst Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is funny and has a few good moments in the film, there's nothing near the scale of the Whitehouse sequence in the introduction of X-2. Also this is probably the weakest outing for Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). Whilst her character arc was one of the strongest aspects for both First Class and Days of Future Past, here in spite of her prominent screen time her role seems so tagged on and unnecessary that she probably could have been removed from the film and it would have been none the weaker because of it. Similarly, new characters like Jubilee (Lana Condor) and Angel (Ben Hardy) feel entirely unnecessary and receive absolutely no character development.
Once again there's another show stealing Quicksilver sequence (this time to the tune of Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams) which is just as funny and creative as the one in Days of Future Past, but also adds a dramatic element in to the mix. Singer also found a great way to visualise Xavier and Apocalypses battle of the minds, in one thrilling sequence that see's Apocalypse grow in to a giant to overpower Xavier.
(POTENTIAL SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE 3rd TRAILER) However the biggest show stopper in the film is in the weapon X facility and Wolverines (Hugh Jackman) escape sequence. Whilst he's only in the film for a few minutes, this short time does better justice to the character than the entirety of Origins was ever able to, finally unleashing feral Wolverine in a brutal hallway fight that leaves a mass of dead bodies left in Logan's wake.
Though one drawback of X-men Apocalypse is that it is a film for those familiar with the franchise only. Unlike Days of Future Past, which could appeal to both fans of the franchise and newcomers alike, Apocalypse relies a lot on its audience knowing about plot lines from past films, such as being already familiar with characters like Stryker and Mactaggert. But so long as you're familiar with the franchise, this film delivers with some great action pieces whilst following in the tracks of Days of Future Past by adding new life in to the franchise.