REVIEW -- Logan (2017)

Logan is a 2017 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman. The film, distributed by 20th Century Fox, is the tenth installment in the X-Men film series, as well as the third and final Wolverine film, following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013). It is directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Frank and Michael Green, from a story by Mangold, and also stars Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant and Dafne Keen. The film follows a past-his-prime Logan embarking on a road trip across a dystopian future America for one final mission.

Development of Logan began in November 2013, when Mangold was hired to write a treatment that took inspiration from the graphic novel Old Man Logan, by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. In March 2014, Jackman signed on to star as Logan, in what is intended to be his final portrayal of the character, after having played the role for 17 years. The same month, Fox set a release date and officially brought Mangold onboard to direct. Green took over writing duties in April 2015, and by the following April, most of the supporting roles had been cast. Principal photography began in New Orleans on May 2, 2016, and moved to Natchez, Mississippi, before ending on August 19, 2016, in New Mexico.

Logan premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 3, 2017, in standard and IMAX formats. It received praise from critics, with some calling it one of the best films in the X-Men series, and has grossed $237 million worldwide against budget of $97 million.

Cast:

Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine/ X-24
Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X
Richard E. Grant as Zander Rice
Boyd Holbrook as Donald Pierce
Stephen Merchant as Caliban
Dafne Keen as Laura Kinney / X-23
Elizabeth Rodriguez as Gabriella, a nurse for Transigen and Laura's surrogate mother.
Eriq La Salle as Will Munson, the father of a family who helps Logan, Charles, and Laura.
Elise Neal as Kathryn Munson, Will's wife.

Additionally, Doris Morgado, David Kallaway, Han Soto and Krzysztof Soszynski appears as Maria, Danny Rhodes, Valet and Mohawk respectively. In the commentary to X-Men: Apocalypse, director Bryan Singer had stated that his film's post-credits scene would directly connect with the on-screen debut of X-Men antagonist Nathaniel Essex / Mister Sinister in Logan; however in January 2017, Mangold stated that the character would not be appearing in this film, a choice he made to keep the film's grounded style consistent. Though Mister Sinister does not appear in the film, Kinberg confirmed the scene has correlation to how Laura was created, and that he will make an appearance in a future X-Men movie. Ryan Reynolds makes an appearance as Wade Wilson / Deadpool in a pre-film scene, rather than the traditional placement after the credits, meant to be a teaser of sorts for the untitled Deadpool sequel. The short sequence, which plays before the opening scene of Logan, was directed by David Leitch who will also direct the Deadpool sequel.

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

In the year 2029, mutants are on the brink of extinction due to a virus created by the Transigen Project. Logan, who has aged greatly because his healing factor has begun to falter due to adamantium poisoning, spends his days working as a chauffeur and hustling for prescription drugs in Texas. He and mutant outcast Caliban live in an abandoned smelting plant across the border in Mexico, where they care for a senile Charles Xavier, who had inadvertently killed several of his X-Men in a seizure-induced psychic attack one year earlier.

Logan is approached by Gabriela, a nurse for Transigen, who asks him to escort her and an 11-year-old girl, Laura, to a place in North Dakota called "Eden". After reluctantly accepting the job, Logan discovers that Gabriela has been murdered. He, Xavier, and Laura narrowly escape from her killers — Transigen's Chief of Security Donald Pierce and his cybernetically-enhanced enforcers, the Reavers — but Caliban is captured and ordered to use his mutant powers to track them. Logan and Xavier learn through a video on Gabriela's phone that Transigen was breeding children with DNA samples from several mutants, but upon completion of the "X-24" project, the children were to be put to death. Gabriela helped several children escape from the Transigen compound before smuggling Laura across the border. Furthermore, Laura is revealed to be Logan's "daughter", as she was bred with his DNA.

From the way Laura took out those Reavers at the beginning, it's a hard sell at all that she
needs Logan's help at all. 

While staying in Oklahoma City, Logan develops skepticism over the location of Eden, as he discovers it being referenced in an X-Men comic book that Laura brought with her. The Reavers find their whereabouts, but Xavier suffers another seizure and freezes everyone at the hotel with a psychic blast, allowing Logan to kill them. Logan then injects Xavier with a suppressant before they leave the city. The trio is eventually given shelter by a local family, the Munsons, after helping them round up their horses during a highway incident. That night, while Logan is away, Xavier is mortally wounded and the Munsons are killed by X-24, a perfect clone of Logan, who then shackles Laura and heads to the Reavers' van. Caliban grabs two grenades and sets them off, killing himself and destroying the van while Logan and Laura once again escape. After burying Xavier, Logan reluctantly follows Laura's orders to take her to Eden.

Logan and Laura arrive at Eden, which is a safe haven run by Rictor and former Transigen test subjects. There, Logan learns that the children will make an eight mile journey across the forest to the Canadian border and entrusts Laura to them before departing on his own. However, when the children are located and captured by the Reavers, Logan uses a mutant serum given to him by Rictor to restore his strength and plows through the Reavers, but the serum quickly wears off before he meets Zander Rice, the head of the Transigen project, who sought to avenge his father's death during the Weapon X program by creating the virus. Logan kills Rice while the children overwhelm Pierce with their powers and kill him.

Logan confronts X-24, but is outmached and impaled through a tree during the fight, before Laura shoots X-24 in the head with an Adamantium bullet, which Logan had kept with him for years. After Logan succumbs to his wounds, Laura and the children bury him before continuing their journey across the border.

The Verdict:

It's been about days since I saw the Thursday night premiere and I'm honestly split on this movie 50/50 on whether I loved it or wasn't really crazy about it. For those who don't know, this film is loosely based on and influenced by the Old Man Logan and Death of Wolverine storylines of Marvel Comics.

Much like most fans, I got excited in anticipation in what would be the last film that Hugh Jackman has agreed to play this character in that he has played in every X-Men related film outside of last year's Deadpool for roughly the past two decades. The trailers definitely got people talking, along with the fact that this would be sporting an R-rating along with theatrical debuts of X-23, the Reavers, and Donald Pierce on the silver screen. With all of this, along with a new director to boot, one would think that this film has the formula for a great last hurrah doesn't it? Well, we're going to talk about that...

Narrative

You cannot deny that they weren't going for a The Last of Us vibe here...

From start to finish, this film feels like The Last of Us, whereas a grizzled old man is trying to run away from his past but somehow finds himself in the care of a young girl that's (technically) not his own offspring. The two are forced into conflicts and circumstances out of their control that force them to bond as father and child should.

My biggest issue with the narrative is that it doesn't really bring the whole Weapon X saga full circle. Sure, Rice is revealed to have ties to the program that made Logan what he is but at the same time, Rice is killed off so promptly during the film's finale that viewers don't even remotely care why he's there in the first place. He had a hand in wiping out what was left of mutantkind after Charles Xavier managed to wipe out majority of the X-Men following a seizure. That fact isn't clearly put out there as it's merely hinted at and glossed over between two different conversations first between Logan and Pierce and later with Logan and Charles. Even with that information, I can't fathom that ALL of the X-Men would be put down by that attack despite what William Stryker tried to do when he tried to weaponize Xavier's powers using Cerebro's technology in X2: X-Men United.

Even with Caliban's tracking abilities combined with Rice's virus, I still can't fathom that mutantkind would be wiped out completely too. You want proof of that? Look no further than in Marvel Comics post-M-Day and the current situation with mutants on the verge of extinction, thanks to Terrigen Mist proving to be fatal. Even if I did somehow believe all of that, there's a few things that I can't just react to like it's something new in this film.

One of the biggest revelations that is brought to the table is the fact that Logan is carrying one of those adamantium tipped bullets that Stryker had made in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. One thing that's inconsistent here is that how did Logan get hold of one of these when his memories got wiped back during that event and the fact that facility was destroyed after the events of X2: X-Men United. You can say that the timeline was corrected following X-Men: Days of Future Past, but the events of the X-Men: First Class films tend to exist in their own parallel universe away from this reality that these Wolverine-centric films have followed.

Logan has kept one of those bullets with the plan of an exit strategy to off himself if things got too hard for him to bare. That shouldn't come to be too much of a surprise for both comic book fans and casual fans as the previous Wolverine film, The Wolverine, had a narrative that was tailored around the idea of Logan wanting to die after finding out there was a way to "turn off" his healing factor after he was struggling to cope with having to kill Jean Grey following the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. The whole point of that film was that Logan would get through that pain and found meaning in his life again, so audiences are subjected to another story where Logan is moping around like a sad puppy for all of the horrible things that he's done in his life. I'm sorry, but the whole premise of that is lost when it wasn't him who killed the X-Men like the original Old Man Logan comic book that this narrative is loosely based off of throws that aspect out of the window. You would think it was Charles Xavier who would be riddled with guilt between his episodes of dementia.

Can someone explain to me why Logan is the one so distraught over with what happened when he wasn't to blame for his friends' deaths? Sure, maybe he wanted to join them in death or maybe he wishes that he could have stopped Charles before the fact, but the latter doesn't explain why he's going out of his way to keep Charles alive. That aspect is completely lost to me, coupled along with the fact that Logan doesn't want anything to do with helping Laura and the mutant children, especially when Wolverine went out of his way to protect the kids in almost every X-Men film to date - Rogue in the original X-Men, the children in X2, how he was convinced to stand with the remaining children and his peers in The Last Stand, the captive children that he freed in X-Men Origins, he stood with Yukio throughout The Wolverine from start to finish, and he definitely helped out his peers in Days of Future Past despite telling them to go fuck off in the previous film. Not to mention that he was convinced to help out the younger X-Men in X-Men: Apocalypse as well. It just doesn't add up. I guess you could argue that he's still convinced that everyone he cares about gets hurt in the end no matter what, but it's a bit extreme to tie that whole thing with the X-Men on his own shoulders. While we're on the subject of things not adding up, can anyone explain to me how Logan got adamantium claws back on that hand that clearly had them chopped off in The Wolverine. They really didn't explain that in Days of Future Past either...

I honestly can't knock Mangold's usage of Pierce and the Reavers here either as they were merely minor obstacles to Logan's greater conflict (much like their comic book counterparts most of the time) - the struggle against his own personal demons which was manifested into the deadly clone X-24 in a sick-twisted turn of irony that Logan's final opponent would be himself at his prime (not to mention, deadliest potential of all of his abilities). You can't get deeper symbolism than that when your protagonist has to face his own demons literally and figuratively like this. In that aspect, this film does the narrative beautifully well. From that horrifying moment where X-24 is introduced to his demise, his inclusion added a dimension to this film that would have been yet another boring "been-there, done that" entry of the X-Men universe, especially for these Wolverine-centric movies.

One thing that shines above anything else in this film is Laura and Logan's on-screen chemistry. Major props go to Dafne Keen for her portrayal of the character and Hugh Jackman's characterization of Logan. They took some cues from the current comics continuity where Laura and Old Man Logan met for the first time and they weren't too keen about each other. Logan wasn't willing to accept her has his "daughter" from his reality while Laura didn't want to accept him as the "father" she lost shortly prior due to the Death of Wolverine story event. In this film, Logan wasn't willing to accept this clone as his daughter while Laura was just looking to be accepted by someone much like her and saw a father figure in Logan. That moment of seeing a cowboy hold the hand of his daughter was etched into her mind for the course of the film with Logan rejecting her at every turn, much like how he refused to allow himself any happiness, until the final moments of his life when he realizes that he truly has lived.

I gotta say that moment where Laura turns the cross on his grave to a "X"  was a nice touch. That was a better grave than leaving the poor guy sealed up in an adamantium tomb like the comics did. By the way, Laura's eulogy was an excerpt from the film that her and Charles were watching earlier in the film at the hotel. The only reason I know that is that film was one of many I watched during my Westerns class during my film studies courses in college. That "X" on Logan's grave represents an end of an era of X-Men films as from this moment forward, the X-Universe will be continuing on without Hugh Jackman as the character.

Wonder what version of X-Men they were going with from those comics they shown here?
Those costumes look fucking awful.

Speaking of that scene... I'm still kind of let down that the film doesn't give viewers any sign that the kids made it to Eden or not. I still would love to know who is drawing X-Men comics in that universe when all of that stuff is supposed to be real instead of be stories of fiction.

As much as I like Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23, I think she would have to grow up or allow someone else to take the role if Fox is serious about her taking over the Wolverine mantle in this continuity.

R-Rating

Logan and Laura with the fastball special!

One thing that I couldn't get over during the premiere last night in my area were the sheer number of parents who were dragging along SEVERAL children to see this. From the first action sequence not even five minutes into this, Logan is tearing through guys like a hot knife through butter. The things he was doing to those guys would have been nightmare fuel if I was young as those kids that I saw going into this screening. About 30-40 minutes in, there's a random as hell boob flash moment that was just there just to warrant the R-rating. Everything else in this contributes the rating towards the language and sheer amount of violence Logan, along with X-23, inflict on their adversaries in this.

Is it justified? Yeah, definitely. I doubt X-24's debut at about the halfway point would have had as much impact if they went for the PG-13 rating. That would have been as bad as trying to watch those horrible TV edits to the original RoboCop when Peter Weller dies without the R-rating to show the extremes of the violence here.

Visuals & Influences

The biggest thing I can rave about this film is the obvious influence from Old Westerns and film noir with the approach of how this film was handled in terms of cinematography. From start to finish, director James Mangold stylishly weaved this film in a manner that respects and admires the tone of the comic(s) that this titular character originates from. I loved how this film didn't stick to one genre for it's cinematography, but blended aspects of several genres into one. The film opens with that gritty, old Western feel for its first act before dwelling briefly into horror for its climax and slowly winding down into a mash-up of noir and Western for the finale.

I noticed this on several occasions throughout the film, but there's at least 2-3 (there's probably more of these) fight sequences that are heavily inspired by previous X-Men films. Laura's first run in with the Reavers is reminiscent of Logan's assault on the guards breaking into the X-Mansion in X2 while almost the entire sequence in the woods is taken from The Last Stand where Logan ran through Magneto's guards in his attempt to take Jean away from Magneto's camp. Seeing these influences here gave me the same sense of nostalgia that the final boss fight from Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots did, whereas the protagonist of that game, Solid Snake, was forced to relive every encounter with his greatest adversary.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

For most people, this was the most heartbreaking moment of the entire movie...
For me, it was the most obvious thing to see coming. 

Throughout this review, it might seem like I'm knocking Logan, but for the most part, it's a good film. It has it's shortcomings as there a LOT of inconsistencies in terms of the time table and continuity lining up and making sense here (I'm sure other comic book savvy fans like myself will be picking this film apart for years to come...), but I have a feeling that director James Mangold wanted this film to exist in its own space without ties to the rest of the X-Men film universe that his been established to date. For casual fans and comic book fans alike, I recommend watching this film. Logan serves as a Hugh Jackman's formal goodbye to fans and the X-Men film universe as a whole after playing the Wolverine character for roughly two decades. It's heartbreaking to some to see him go, but I can't say that I didn't see the emotional ending to this film coming. Logan represents what we all have to come to grips with eventually, no matter if we have superpowers or not - our own mortality, the struggle to confront and conquer our own personal demons, as well as what legacy do we leave behind when our lives come to an end.

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.