Autistic Reviewers Opinion Of This Movie.

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2016)

I forget how many X-Men movies there have been but this latest version is a strong return for the franchise and is close to being with the best as First Class (my favourite film of the franchise to date), X-Men: Apocalypse is a character driven, emotional and yet entertaining comic book movie that will indeed keep not only the fans happy but the audience either entertained or bored.
Pretty much continuing after the events of Days of Future Past and while connecting to First Class, Charles Xavier leads the path for all mutants to be taught to control their powers and live in peace among the human race. We see the younger versions of the telepathic Jean (Turner), 'Nightcrawler' Kurt (Smit-McPhee), 'Cyclops' Scott (Sheridan) and especially the return of 'Quicksilver' Peter (Peters) who was in DOFP. Their chances of peace are tested when an ancient figure known as Apocalypse aka En Sabah Nur (played by Oscar Issac, who is unrecognized with so much make up on) awakens from an deep slumber to see that the world now doesn't rely or turn to the gods as his time had, so he recruits other mutants including Magneto and plans to destroy and rebuild life in his image, thus setting Xavier and crew to reunite and confront him in an ensuring battle for peace.
What I loved about this film is that 'character' is taken to levels that made FC a worthy film. In particular the performances of McAvoy, Fassbender, Issac, Turner, Peters and Byrne are great and showcase the ranges of emotion and development to make their presence in the plot worthwhile. Lawrence was good as usual but there's not much for her to expand unlike FC and DOFP. The supporting cast handle well as well.
In terms of story, it does balance itself with the themes of religion, faith, redemption and choosing our destiny and it does follow wisely in a 2 1/2 running time. The action doesn't kick in till the 2nd half of the story but it does take at least under an hour to make up for the 1st half of dialogue and character development (I say this only if you are expecting something that Civil War had done much better, but this is not the case). The moments of Magneto's story were pretty much spot on, we have seen the past of his life in the previous films and his established character but here we are given to how he copes in the world, where is often in a battle to fight to know where he stands in the world.
Overall, it doesn't beat Civil War by a long shot (to phrase that, the best comic book adaptation of the year) but it does prove itself to be a better installment following DOFP and using the key elements of FC to make this a rare return to the strong point of the franchise. With some key strong performances, emotional tone and a lengthy climax it's worth a watch for the die hard fans of X-Men.
Nick - 3.5/5 Jay - 3/5