Not The Grand Finale We Hoped For

Rating: 6/10 (18 May 2016)

X-Men: Apocalypse is a jumbled and sometimes confusing mess of a movie. From the unbalanced CGI, to the one-dimensional title villain and the dreadful, mismatched pacing throughout, this is a car crash that you cant help but to watch. Not because of the gripping story or its characters but because you're waiting for something to happen to make you care about this movie. This film (as well as the previous 2 films) are carried and driven by Michael Fassbender's portrayal of Magneto. You see and feel his pain of wanting to do right and live a normal life but is always thwarted by some circumstance that causes conflict within himself. Oscar Issac's Apocalypse is a character that is limited to one- dimensional views of a world he left behind and has now rejoined. One of the most intelligent and fearsome of all the Marvel foes, he has been reduced to basically giving his outlook on humanity but really has no substance as to why he wants to cleanse the world for only the strong to survive. Arch Angel doesn't do much until the end fighting scene. Psylocke basically followed suit but did the best with what she was given (Which wasn't much at all) and Storm portrayed as she was in the comics and Alexandra Shipp just might make you forget about Halle Berry (even with a believable African accent) The introduction of the new timeline X-Men characters are a fresher take on the ones that we have come to love and trust. Jean Grey is solid and Cyclops is actually played with some kind of conviction. Problem with this is, in an ensemble cast they get taken out and re- added to the shuffle when its convenient to push the plot forward which doesn't give you much time to get acquainted with the new actors much. Of course the person who stole the show in the last movie does it here again. Quicksilver holds it down in all his scenes and the "Mansion Run" is going to be the most talked about scene of the whole movie, ITS THAT DAMN FUN TO WATCH.
The thing is this: Its not a bad movie, it was average at best. First Class and Days of Future Past raised the bar for a grand finale that was severely underwhelming. In a series of movies, you build up to the finale and it has to end with a bang. The movie had a couple good action scenes but it cant make up its mind as to what it wants to be and focus on. Is it actually about Apocalypse? Does it want to focus on Mystique trying to find her place in the world? Erik and Charles not seeing eye to eye due to different ideals again? Jean and Scott learning to understand each other? Quicksilver's revelation? There are too many different stories that are trying to be told and if feels like a mess. A bunch of scenes with little or no cohesion. You could see what they were trying to do but the execution was severely flawed.
Sad to say that this doesn't look or feel like a Bryan Singer movie, but more like an ensemble of directors that lacked any kind of cohesion with the scenes. The dry attempts at humor and way too much cheesiness only cheapened what could have been a solid send off. This movie didn't end the trilogy with a bang, not even a whimper. It was more like "Meh". Make sure you stay for the end credit scene because marvel fanboys and purists might geek out quite a bit. 6/10