The Apocalypse of the X-Men Franchise? - X-Men: Apocalypse Movie Review

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2016)

With the 2016 summer-movie season kicking off with Marvel's Captain America: Civil War, Fox's X-Men: Apocalypse jumps into theaters this Memorial Day weekend. In 2014, Fox struck gold on Memorial Day with X-Men: Days of Future Past, receiving remarkable reviews among critics and audiences and earning over $100 million over the four day weekend. Fox wishes to do the same this year with Apocalypse, but I am ambivalent if the latest installment in the X-Men franchise can achieve the same success that it mustered two years ago with Days of Future Past. The movie centers around the X-Men's battle with Apocalypse, the first mutant in X-Men history. Apocalypse is reborn in 1983 and sees that the mutants and people of the world follow blind leaders and they are distracted by the increasing globalization, cosmopolitanism, and militarism of the world. I thoroughly enjoyed these themes and how they were implemented into the film. Who would have thought that a superhero flick would deal with themes like this? Additionally, I enjoyed the continuous theme of how the X-Men are supposed to fit in with society and how this relates to minorities and the civil-rights movement of the real world. One of my main issues with the movie was the film's run time. With a length of nearly two hours and thirty minutes, I was constantly checking the time on my phone to see when the film was over. This X-Men movie was a pretty rudimentary film and followed the same formula of the other movies. The final fight scene of the movie was very entertaining even though it did not make a lot of sense. Furthermore, while there was fan service from the comic books that I deeply enjoyed seeing, most of it was unnecessary and only prolonged the movie. The new members of the X-Men in this film felt wasted, some of which are vital to the story in the comic books. I was disappointed with the overall story of the movie considering the previous installment was one of the best comic book movies ever created. Yet, despite the rigid story line and the lengthy run time, movie was probably the most entertaining comic-book movie I have ever seen. I do not think this movie is the apocalypse of the X-Men franchise, I suggest Fox takes a hard look at what they will be adapting next and make sure they focus more on the story rather than the aesthetics. Final Verdict: B