Average, average, average

Rating: 5/10 (24 May 2016)

The short: Average. Lots of SFX, a dull villain, a convoluted story-line and none of it matches previous films.
The long: The X Men franchise has been quite disappointing overall. X1 & X2 were both good, and then a dramatic nose-dive with X3. First Class was pretty good, and Days of Future Past was as well.
The film suffers from an uneven quality of writing. Magneto. He's clearly a sociopath, but is he good? Is he bad? Is he even the same character from the first films? The same could be said for a few of the characters. Mystique, for example. Good? Bad? The mutant with wings: the same guy from X3? Who knows? For all his twisted character contortions, Fassbender does a good job as Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence is okay, but not great. James McAvoy again does well as Xavier. Olivia Munn looks smoking hot as Psylocke, but doesn't get much screen time.
The villain is bizarre, purple and dull. And he wants to destroy the world. I'm getting a bit sick of world-ending villains. What's the sun-powered technology? Why is he a 3000 year old techno-looking mutant? Who knows? Maybe that's what he looks like in the comics, but it doesn't translate well to screen.
Unfortunately, the franchise has also decided to go down the modern path of casting kids in big roles. I don't mean that kids can't act, but that it's now all about children and teenagers saving the world. Hollywood has had a taste of YA market money, and it's addicted. Whilst films with kids who save the world aren't necessarily bad, they're very light and shallow.
So yeah, it's okay, but it's a bit crap too. Whilst you have to hand it to the writers for swinging for the fences, it falls short. We've seen it all before. Mutants vs humans. It's getting a bit stale as a plot line. Some good SFX. The really big scenes are a bit overblown.