The Sunday Mail
“X-MEN — Apocalypse” is by no means a classic. The odds of Oscar glory, or of the film receiving any critical acclaim, are virtually non-existent.
But before watching, understand that this is not a stand-alone film and it has to be appreciated as part of a series.
Bryan Singer has stated that he regrets not having had the opportunity to pen the third X-men movie, “Last Stand”, back in 2006.
Judging by the stand-up job he did on “Apocalypse”, the guy has a point.
It’s almost a decade since “X-Men — Last Stand” was released and I still haven’t completely washed off the sour taste it left.
In 90 minutes, Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn completely undid six years’ of work and millions of dollars on investments.
Thankfully, Marvel decided to reboot the entire franchise and start afresh with a completely different cast and storylines. So afar there have been two X-Men instalments: “First Class” (2011) and “Days of Future Past” (2014).
The way they knitted the rebooted series and the fact that they managed to keep Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine through all five movies was pure genius.
Back to “Apocalypse”.
It starts some years after “Days of Future Past” and almost everyone has settled back to normalcy.
Erik Lehnsher/Magento (Michael Fassbender) has a wife and child; Raven Darkholme/ Mystic (Jennifer Lawrence) is still trying to save the world one mutant at a time; and Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has opened a school for the extremely gifted.
However, a new threat arises when En Sabar Nur (Oscar Isaac) — rumoured to be the first mutant — is awoken from a deep slumber.
Disenchanted by what he sees, En Sabar Nur sets out to build a new world in his own image.
That’s where the X-Men come in.
However, CGI voodoo is all over the place and watching the movie in 3D doesn’t help either.
There are way too many bright lights for my liking and at times I thought I would go blind, get a seizure or drop dead from the sheer overload of it all.
That side, the story and character development are the work of artistes.
This is more or less an origins film. “Origins” not in the reboot sense, but in how the X-Men truly came to be.
As far as performances go, Oscar Isaac’s take on En Sabar Nur is quite riveting: that demi-god complex is played to perfection.
As always, Fassbander and McAvoy embody Charles Xavier and Magneto, much like Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian Mckellen did in the franchise of the early 2000s.
Both are well-rounded characters, exceptionally portrayed and rumour has it that their meeting on set, back in 2000, has spawned a true friendship between them.
Another stand-out performance is Evan Peters and his take on Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver.
