Butting Heads

Rating: 6/10 (25 May 2016)

It's the end of the world as we know it. Xmen Apoclypse completes(?) the pre-sequel trilogy of Xmen films with less of a bang and more of a meh. The film is alright but lacks that special moment/ scene that stands out and would make it memorable.
The cast as a whole were fine, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James Mcavoy and the rest of the original prequel gang resume their roles, slipping back into them seamlessly like a pair of old slippers. The newbies on the other hand never truly get their chance to shine in this film. Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan are given the most opportunity in the feature but others like Angel, Psylocke, Storm and Jubilee (especially) are given very little to do and overall serve very little purpose to the film. The film is 144 minutes so I would have thought there would be a little more of an introduction than what we actually get. Don't even get me started on the depleting relevance of Rose Byrne's Moira McTaggart and how Nightcrawler wore the Thriller Jacket first.
Wolverine makes a cameo appearance in this film because its Xmen, and no Xmen movie is complete without Huge Jackedman reprising his role again even if it is to tell our protagonists to f*ck off. Although aimed to be a cool little cameo it doesn't get the yay from the crowd it aims for due to how often Hugh Jackman has played Logan.
Genertic is one word that could be used to describe the story of Xmen Apocalypse. An Achient Evil Awakens with a plot to destroy or world. Yeah yeah yeah we have seen it all before. There just isn't anything really new about this film as it seems to follow basic superhero movie formulas and even recycles the Quicksilver scene so often that they even made a Sky Fibre advert doing it. Talk about overdoing something just because it was received well the first time. It was still cool to see but I do feel they have ripped away the wow factor it achieved in Days of Future Past.
So the film has a few too many characters to utilise properly and follows a generic end of the world plot, this all could have worked well if the film had that one unique point about it. Sadly it doesn't have Tyrion Lannister or that Quicksilver scene to really get people talking. The film feels like its keeping steady and it just needs that peak moment to make the audience go WOW.
Overall Xmen Apocalypse was a bit disappointing to be honest. Jean Grey's comment about the third film being the worst is a funny burn to Brett Ratner with Last Stand but ironically to me she is referring to this film as well, being the worst of the prequel trilogy. And the end credit scene is pretty crap, setting up for the next Wolverine film which on the bright side can only get better after the last two sucking but we shall have to wait and see Bub.