Hazel says...3.5 stars

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2016)

As taken from: http://www.beyondvalwood.com/#!A-review-of-the-movie- XMen-Apocalypse/c218b/574e38200cf209161af623b0
WARNING - some spoilers ahead!
Hello dear readers,
Yesterday, Hazel and I watched X-Men: Apocalypse. If you know anything about me, I am a HUGE X-MEN fan. So I had HIGH HOPES for this movie and HIGH EXPECTATIONS, while Hazel just wanted nice special effects and lots of mutants. Silly dog.
So Hazel gives this movie 3.5 stars out of 4. I agree with the little dog in that the movie was visually stunning, believably acted as they all are, and very entertaining. We are both thrilled that Quicksilver got to play a larger part, and just like he did in Days of Future Past, he stole the show whenever he appeared :) The best scene in the movie goes to Quicksilver again, he did not disappoint :)
But I also have some big problems with this movie. I understand the Days of Future Past erasing the time line of the first three movies (and thus making them null, void and pointless), but I do not think it went far enough in its explanations. Apocalypse compounds on this problem in its failure to bridge any connections in the prior story lines at all (Weapon X cameo? I guess?).
Inconsistencies with Night Crawler's abilities are not resolved or explained. In X2 (which would have been his future if not for Days of Future Past), he refuses to teleport into a building he's never seen before, but does it into the Helicopter with no difficulty. This is a minor nitpick, but it seems the movie scaled certain mutants powers as it needed to fit the plot. Cyclops, in an emotionally unstable state, delivers an optic blast to a high school student about 2 feet in front of him behind a bathroom stall door, yet the boy is left relatively unharmed. A few days later when showing Xavier his power, in a calm controlled setting, he unleashes a blast that scores the ground and splits a giant tree like it was balsa wood.
My largest problem with the movie is Magneto's character arc. The ramifications of Magneto's actions are never addressed (and thus he is never forced to confront them), which gives the entire film a hollow and shallow feeling. As we see Magneto level skyscrapers and bridges all across the globe in the film's climax, one has to assume a few (possibly thousands if not millions!) humans are also being killed. This is glossed over by a news report stating Magneto assisted with defeating Apocalypse, Magneto and Jean rebuilding the mansion, and Magneto and Xavier having a chuckle between old friends. However, how would this actually look? Mutants got into a fight...cities all across the globe were almost torn to pieces...not exactly a plus for human and mutant relations. The basis of Magneto and Xavier's conflict, which is a HUGE theme in any X-Men film, is living harmoniously with humans. This is undermined greatly by not even acknowledging Magneto may have shredded up countless humans in thousands of jagged, metal death-tornadoes.
A plus and a minus was the villain, and title's namesake, Apocalypse. I felt Apocalypse's power was captured on screen perfectly. He's a very powerful mutant, possibly one of the most powerful, and he was portrayed this way. But although he spoke with grandeur and zeal, he didn't really say much. "Must destroy humanity and rebuild!"...over and over again...okay? Why again? By leaving the viewers in the dark about what Apocalypse's true motivations are, they have also left us without tension and focus that this movie desperately needed.
I will say that even though the ending may not stand up to scrutiny, it was splendid. It wrapped up the entire movie together nicely, while leaving room for the next one. It's an odd movie, in that although it had some problems, we left the theater thoroughly satisfied and enjoyed myself quite a bit. I give it a solid 3 out of 4 stars. We'll round up towards Hazel, and give it a nice 3.3 stars. It's what a summer blockbuster should be, entertaining and visually cool.
-Jessica, author of Beyond the Veil