X-Men: Apocalypse (Review)


X-Men: Apocalypse is the latest film the X-Men series and the conclusion to a series that has been dragged out for too long because Fox still thinks it can compete with their former ally Marvel by using their own characters against them. They still seem to think by not having the X-Men, Marvel can't fully succeed with the MCU. The MCU has succeed without Spider-Man (who is now in the MCU), Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, so I hope Fox still isn't going by this logic. But I will give credit where it is due. Fox managed to relapse the X-Men series after shooting itself twice with X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The prequels have done justice to the series. X-Men: First Class was great and X-Men: Days Of The Future Past was phenomenal. So when I saw the early reviews for X-Men: Apocalypse, I was disappointed. I knew Days Of The Future Past couldn't be topped but I thought Apocalypse would still manage to be a satisfying conclusion. I went to see Apocalypse, I kept my expectations low after reading a lot of the reviews. When I walked out the theater, I thought "What were the critics thinking?!?! That was great"! Although Apocalypse is nowhere near as good as Days Of The Future Past was, it's still a very solid film and a satisfying conclusion. It's action packed, it's funny, and heartfelt at times.

THE GOOD
I thought the story was great and picks up where Days Of  The Future Past left off (10 years later) nicely. Once again, the prequel trilogy cast prevails (kudos the young actors here). Great performances from James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Holt, Jennifer Lawrence, Evan Peters, Oscar Isaac, etc. The film is also hilarious at times, with the funniest characters being Quicksilver (who steals nearly every scene he's in) and Nightcrawler. My favorite scenes in this movie include Cyclops destroying Xavier's favorite childhood tree when demonstrating his powers, Quicksilver saving everyone in the X-Mansion the entire battle scene, where Jean Grey unleashes the Phoenix force. That was awesome. Wolverine's cameo is probably one of the best scenes of the Canadian mutant we've seen in the entire series. It was pure awesomeness (but not without it's problems).

THE BAD
I felt like Apocalypse was trying too hard to show the characters and audience how bad he really is. He tries so hard to be above and beyond evil up the point where it becomes incredibly annoying. I hated Angel's portrayal in this film. Just hated it. I also hated how they killed him off in the end instead of reforming like Storm. Then there's Wolverine's cameo. Despite the fact how amazing it was (probably one of the best scenes we've seen of Wolverine in the entire series), his cameo felt completely unnecessary served no real purpose other than Fox wanting to just throw him in the movie because "well, he's freaking Wolverine"! I get that we should probably see where he is at this point in the past to set up for the next solo Wolverine film, but it just felt so unnecessary.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I gotta say, I disagree with the critics on this one. Despite it not topping Days Of The Future Past (which, no really expected it to do so), Apocalypse is still an incredibly solid film and a satisfying conclusion that I encourage you all to see. In all honesty, after Wolverine: Weapon X and Deadpool 2, it's time for Fox to either hang it up to just join forces with Marvel again. It's hurting them more than it's hurting Marvel (and it's not hurting Marvel at all).

FINAL RATING
8/10
GREAT

Ian "Spidey" Thompson

Some say he’s half man half fish, others say he’s more of a seventy/thirty split. Either way he’s a fishy bastard.

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