REVIEW -- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

X-Men: Apocalypse is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics characters of the same name, and is the ninth installment in the X-Men film series. Directed by Bryan Singer, with a screenplay by Simon Kinberg from a story conceived by Singer, Kinberg, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, the film stars an ensemble cast, led by James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn and Lucas Till. In X-Men: Apocalypse, the ancient mutant Apocalypse awakens, and plans to cleanse the human race and take over the world, leading the X-Men to try to stop him and defeat his team, the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse.

Cast

James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier / Professor X
Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto ("War")
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkhölme / Mystique
Oscar Isaac as En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse
Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast
Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert
Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers / Cyclops
Sophie Turner as Jean Grey / Phoenix
Olivia Munn as Elizabeth Braddock / Psylocke ("Pestilence")
Lucas Till as Alex Summers / Havok
Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe / Storm ("Famine")
Josh Helman as William Stryker
Ben Hardy as Warren Worthington III / Angel / Archangel ("Death")
Lana Condor as Jubilation Lee / Jubilee

Additionally, Hugh Jackman makes an uncredited appearance as Logan / Wolverine, in his Weapon X form. Tómas Lemarquis portrays Caliban, a mutant with the ability to sense and track other mutants. X-Men co-creator Stan Lee and his wife Joanie Lee make a cameo appearance together, in a more serious role than any of Lee's previous cameos, as bystanders witnessing the launch of nuclear missiles worldwide. The Blob makes an appearance in the film as Angel's opponent in an underground fight club, portrayed by wrestler "Giant" Gustav Claude Ouimet. Carolina Bartczak and T.J. McGibbon portray Magneto's wife Magda and daughter Nina respectively. Archive footage was used of Caleb Landry Jones, Éva Magyar, Georg Nikoloff, and Bill Milner as Sean Cassidy / Banshee, Erik's parents Edie Lehnsherr and Mr. Lehnsherr, and young Erik respectively. Alison Baire / Dazzler makes a brief cameo appearance on a record album which Jean and Scott are shown holding at a music store. Kinberg confirmed that the after-credits scene mentioning Essex Corporation by name will affect and set up the upcoming Wolverine sequel, as well as Gambit, and the next X-Men film following those.

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

En Sabah Nur, a powerful mutant believed to be the first of his kind, rules ancient Egypt until he is betrayed by his worshippers, who entomb him alive. His four lieutenants die preserving him.

En Sabah Nur awakens in 1983, and believes humanity has lost its way, without his presence. He decides to destroy the world and remake it. He recruits Cairo pickpocket Ororo Munroe, who can control weather, and upgrades her power.

In East Berlin, shape-shifting mutant Raven investigates an underground fight club and discovers mutant champion Angel, who possesses a pair of large feathered wings on his back, and Kurt Wagner, who can teleport. Raven rescues Kurt and employs the services of black marketeer Caliban to safely transport him to the United States. En Sabah Nur recruits Caliban's enforcer Psylocke, who leads him to Angel. En Sabah Nur enhances both their powers, transforming Angel's wings into metal.

Alex Summers discovers that his younger brother, Scott, is manifesting his mutation for shooting optic beams. Alex takes Scott toProfessor Charles Xavier's educational institute in Westchester County, New York in hopes that Xavier and Hank McCoy will teach him how to control his abilities. Scott meets the telepathic and telekinetic Jean Grey, and the two develop an attraction. Raven brings Kurt to the institute, and informs Xavier about Erik as she learned about his attack in Caliban's hideout. En Sabah Nur's powers cause disturbances around the world, leading Xavier and Alex to consult with CIA agent Moira MacTaggert, who has been researching the legend of Nur.

In Poland, the metal-controlling mutant Erik Lehnsherr lives with his wife and young daughter, Nina. He uses his powers to save a coworker, prompting policemen to come capture him. When the policemen accidentally kill Erik's family, he retaliates by murdering all the policemen. En Sabah Nur later approaches the disheartened Erik and takes him to Auschwitz, where Erik's power first manifested. Erik destroys the camp and joins En Sabah Nur.

En Sabah Nur hacks into Xavier's mind while Xavier is using the mutant-locating computer Cerebro, and co-opts Xavier's powers to force all global superpowers to launch Earth's entire nuclear arsenal into space to prevent interference. En Sabah Nur and his lieutenants arrive at the mansion and kidnap Xavier. Attempting to stop them, Alex accidentally causes an explosion that destroys the mansion. Peter Maximoff – having learned that he is Erik's son, and hoping that Xavier can help to find him – arrives in time to use his super-speed to evacuate the students from the mansion, but Alex is presumed dead as he was closest to the blast. Colonel William Stryker's forces subsequently arrest Hank, Raven, Peter, and Moira, and take them to a military facility for interrogation. Scott, Jean and Kurt covertly follow and liberate their comrades with help from Stryker's mind-controlled and brainwashed experiment, Weapon X, whose memories Jean partially restores.

At En Sabah Nur's behest, Erik uses his powers to control Earth's magnetic poles, causing widespread destruction across the planet and mass casualties. Nur plans to transfer his consciousness into Xavier's body and use Xavier's telepathy to recruit all mutants into his army. Xavier secretly sends a telepathic distress call to Jean, and the others travel to Cairo to battle Nur and his lieutenants. They rescue Xavier, but Xavier loses his hair as the process was nearing completion. Angel is defeated and incapacitated in the battle. Erik and Ororo are convinced to turn on En Sabah, keeping him occupied physically while Xavier fights him telepathically in the astral plane. Finally, Xavier pleads Jean to unleash the full extent of her powers and appears to disintegrate Nur to death. In the ensuing chaos, Psylocke flees from the destruction.

In the aftermath, Xavier and Moira begin a relationship, while Erik and Jean help reconstruct the school, but Erik turns down Xavier's offer to stay and help teach. Under Raven and Hank's tutelage, Scott, Jean, Ororo, Kurt, and Peter become the new X-Men and train for the battles ahead.

In a post-credits scene, the Weapon X facility is visited by suited men retrieving data on Stryker's mutant research, including an X-Ray and a blood sample marked "Weapon X", on behalf of the Essex Corporation.

The Verdict:

I said this on Facebook about two weeks ago, but I feel the same way about this film like I did about the X-Men: Evolution cartoon. In both cases, the creator(s) took a popular concept, bastardized it to their own machinations but in the end, it produces mixed reactions with some things that people will absolutely adore, others people will loathe, and things that fans and critics alike will unanimously agree that was fucking stupid.

Casting

Jennifer Lawrence has to be fed up of putting on the Mystique body paint as you can count on one hand how many times she actually appeared in this film with it on her entire body. She was in this movie under her "normal" guise than her natural appearance and that really soured the vibe of the film for me for the most part, especially she was the main one preaching about mutants should be accepted for who and what they are. Low and behold, Mystique's the one not being herself for the duration of this film. Ironic, huh?

James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are staples at this point as Charles Xavier and Magneto; no complaints there. Lucas Till comes back just to get killed off in this continuity as Havok without even really putting up a fight. Nicholas Hoult is just there - just like he was in Days of Future Past but with little more character development as his character urges Lawrence's Mystique to embrace the role as instructor for this new class of X-Men. Rose Byrne returns from First Class reprising her role as Moira MacTaggert. Much like Hoult, she's just here for the ride among her mutant co-stars.

Alexandra Shipp as Storm was easily forgettable, but she was okay with the few lines that she was given in this film. I guess we'll see what she is capable of in the inevitable sequel. To be honest, Halle Berry didn't set any high standards for playing Storm, so to her credit, Shipp didn't have much to go on here.

As for the rest of the newcomers, I felt that they pulled their weight for the most for what they were given - more or less for the new members of the X-Men and the Four Horsemen/villains. For one film, they really weren't given much to work with here, much like Hoult was in Days of Future Past. Sophie Turner (Jean Grey/Phoenix) was the standout among the newcomers, while Tye Sheridan (Scott Summers/Cyclops) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler) weren't bad either. Seriously, what was the point of casting Jubilee in this movie? Lana Condor was just there to collect a check for no reason.

That being said, it was worth to have her around for that single best line of the entire movie concerning how the third movie is always the worst one in a trilogy, which ironically sums up this movie in a nutshell.

Narrative

I think the biggest thing against this film in terms of its narrative is that Apocalypse's plan wasn't even really that catastrophic. Compared to what the character is known for in the comic book continuity, the villain came across lower on the totem pole than one of the villains on an episode of Superfriends. Hell, it's even as absurd as Gorilla Grodd's master plan here...

Off-topic, I know but I wanted to get a laugh in the middle of this review.

Seriously though, I don't get what was the deal with Magneto's "family" in this. Was the girl supposed to be Scarlet Witch? And what happened to Quicksilver's kid sister that he was holding during the final moments of Days of Future Past?

To the people complaining about Storm's mohawk... Clearly, Cyclops bondage fetish
outfit is a LOT worse than Storm's haircut so get over yourselves...

I found it a little silly for Apocalypse to be recruiting mutants and "unlocking" their full potential like he was some crazy hybrid of the Pied Piper and Guru from Dragon Ball Z. His "enhancements" aren't even really improvements. It's just stuff that those mutants would have learned on their own over time anyway. He was merely speeding up the process. Magneto had to be a colossal dumb ass if he didn't consider tapping into the Earth's poles to control the planet's natural magnetism. The film doesn't give a clear clarification on exactly what is his powers. They just throw a lame duck excuse that he's got a collection of powers from all of the mutants that he has encountered in his past. This brings up another plot hole as Apocalypse has been in "hibernation" for centuries, so when did he have time to pick up more abilities when even his original Four Horsemen couldn't keep themselves alive?

Remember that teaser trailer for this movie at the end of Days of Future Past? En Sabah Nur is shown as child - HUGE continuity error there. To be honest, that's the theme of this movie - continuity errors galore to say they went out of their way to fix all of that in the previous film.

Why doesn't she just make a hurricane and just throw Cyclops into the next state?

I know that a lot of my friends had an issue with how Storm was portrayed in this movie. I didn't have a problem with the actress they went with here. I didn't even have a problem that they went with the "mohawk" look for Storm in this - much to chagrin to many fans. That really didn't bother me as they went with just about every Storm hairstyle BUT that in these films, so it was about time in my honest opinion. If you didn't like it, get over yourselves as it's part of the characters' history if you can even call yourselves fans of the character. My issue with Storm in this movie was the fact that they gave Professor Charles Xavier and the Shadow King's role in her origin to Apocalypse.  She was born with snow white hair, so I don't know what they were thinking with Apocalypse "unlocking" that potential of her powers. Here's how absurd the battle with the Four Horsemen was. Storm could have - no, should have been able to deal with everyone on her own outside of maybe Jean Grey and Nightcrawler. I guess Apocalypse didn't teach them any imagination to go with those fancy upgrades to their powers. Nine movies in and Bryan Singer is still just looking at comic book covers instead of actually reading them before making these movies.

I wonder how much of her so-called "training" took her to do that...

Another offender to fucking storylines and origin stories up was with Psylocke. I literally busted out laughing in the movie theater that Olivia Munn calls herself a geek/nerd and signed off to this role yet didn't point out that it's not even remotely close nor accurate outside of her costume. Psylocke's base powers couldn't even utilize the "psychic knife" and she didn't even develop the "psychic sword" until a few decades later in the comics continuity. It wasn't until after her mind was transferred into the assassin, Kwannon's body was until she learned the new applications for her powers. Maybe I'm being too hard on Singer and he possibly wrote this so that Psylocke's already at that point - BUT Psylocke shows like no telepathic abilities here.

What was even more strange with Psylocke's backstory in this film is that she's working for Caliban, who is pretty much is trafficking mutants for profit, but Caliban ends up being one of Apocalypse's minions in the comics continuity. I don't understand why Apocalypse does not recruit this guy who could find even more powerful mutants

I have focused on a lot of negatives so far, but let's focus on a few positives.

Quicksilver has hands-down one of the best sequences in the entire movie where he evacuates the entire X-Mansion to the sound of "Sweet Dreams" after Havok's misfire blows up the entire mansion after Professor Xavier is kidnapped by Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen. I wouldn't mind seeing the film again in 3D just to see that sequence in all of its glory. Quicksilver's other great moment was fighting Apocalypse one-on-one in slow motion.

About time we get the proper "Weapon X" in a X-Men movie...

A few minutes of runtime after the first Quicksilver sequence, we FINALLY get to see Wolverine cutting loose in a berserker rage in the Weapon X facility, in his full Weapon X garb. I'm surprised it took Singer NINE movies to get this into one of these movies. I thought for sure it would have been in either X2: X-Men United or X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but nope. Better late than never I guess.

While we're on the subject of Weapon X, how the fuck did William Stryker get Wolverine? At the end of Days of Future Past, it was Mystique posing as him, so what, did Singer forget he left that in there? Goddamn this movie and it's plot holes and continuity errors... I'm not even going to bother to figure out where Stryker went to during Wolverine's murderous rampage. Couldn't he just pulled out another one of those adamantium bullets and blast him with that again like in X-Men Origins: Wolverine or is he not old nor smart enough to think of that yet?

Holy cow... I couldn't believe that they introduced the Mindscape/Astral Plane in this continuity. When they went there, I KNEW they were going to let Jean beat Apocalypse with the Phoenix. That was so obvious to see coming that even Ray Charles could see it. It was even worse that the TV spots for the film spoiled that less than 24 hours before the theatrical N. America release to say that was the finish of the entire damn movie. After spoiling that and Weapon X's appearance, I don't see why else people would go see this in theaters unless you're a really hardcore X-Men fan.

The final moments of the climatic battle against Apocalypse made me think of Dragon Ball Z yet again though. Remember when Perfect Cell is holding off ALL of the Z fighters while keeping his focus on Gohan and the Final Kamehameha? That's EXACTLY what I was thinking of when Apocalypse was able to hold off attacks from Cyclops and Magneto simultaneously while fighting with Charles Xavier in the Mindscape. Charles' "Unleash your power!!" line was essentially the same trigger as Goku's "Now's your chance!!" to Gohan to deliver the final attack.

All jokes aside, I enjoyed that part of the final confrontation more than anything else from Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen. It's one of those rare moments that we see the X-Men doing what Charles Xavier has envisioned - mutantkind working together for the greater good. About time Singer got that right instead of one mutant (namely Wolverine) hogging all of the glory. I can applaud Singer for getting that right for once. Jean Grey/Phoenix may have dealt the fatal blow, but it was a combined effort to take Apocalypse down by the X-Men together.

Nightcrawler, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey/Phoenix, and Quicksilver with Mystique
and Professor Xavier in the background. 

I felt the film ended on a strong note too, with this newly formed team of X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Storm, Quicksilver) training in the Danger Room with Beast and Mystique acting as instructors - even though that's so odd to see Mystique as an instructor. Then again, stranger things have happened in the X-Men universe, Lady Deathstrike and Juggernaut were briefly members at one point, so anything is possible at this point. The film ends with the team getting ready to square off in a simulation against a squadron of Sentinels - the same models from Days of Future Past. I wish Singer would quit teasing this and finally do it in a future film. Days of Future Past doesn't count as those "Sentinels" were barely passable as such. Those were more closer to Nimrod or a Super-Adaptoid than anything else. I applauded for the proper costumes for once. Once again - it took Singer NINE movies to get the costumes right?

Controversy

Bad product placement there, FOX...

I agree that it was in bad taste to post ads for the film with a guy strangling a woman, but the reaction to it was a bit much in my honest opinion. People were acting like it was plastered in every location like this but the ads and posters I saw for the movie locally had the group images of the X-Men and villains, so I guess that was just a regional thing. Someone in advertising definitely needed to be fired over that one.

Seeing Rose McGowan pointing it out just screamed that she wanted to be relevant again or just was jealous that she wasn't having kinky submissive foreplay with Marilyn Manson...

Where do we go from here? 

The post-credits teaser shows the Essex Corporation taking samples of Weapon X's blood. For those who don't know, Essex Corp obviously points to Nathaniel Essex aka Mr. Sinister. I'm guessing that Sinister ends up creating X-23. I'm not sure whether they plan on telling this story in the "final" Wolverine film or saving it for whatever is the next X-Men sequel, but I'm actually intrigued to see how they would pull off Mr. Sinister in this continuity. That's a character that it would take a LOT to mess up, even for Bryan Singer, so I have faith in that debut for once.

If Old Man Logan is truly the "last" Wolverine tale for Hugh Jackman then I'm completely fine with a reasonable adaptation of that story for Laura Kinney/X-23 to take over from there as Wolverine until Singer recasts the character. If they don't go with that story, I wouldn't mind them adapting a mock version of the Death of Wolverine storyline to give Hugh Jackman his last hurrah as the character.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

If you have kept up with this franchise up to this point, you might as well watch this one. Everyone else? Save your money and don't bother. This film has essentially no character development following Days of Future Past and just revisits familiar territory from previous MUCH better movies in this franchise. The few good scenes (Weapon X's slaughtering soldiers in the Weapon X facility, Quicksilver's awesomeness, Jean Grey channeling the Phoenix Force briefly, and this team of "New X-Men" squaring off in the Danger Room against Sentinels) from this film will more likely be ripped and uploaded to YouTube a few weeks anyway.

It's a far cry from being the "worst" X-Men movie, but after the good note this series ended on after Days of Future Past, most are better off skipping this outing altogether.