X-Men: Apocalypse is the ninth film in the X-Men franchise. It's directed by Bryan Singer and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Oscar Isaac. In this film an ancient mutant is awakened and plans to take over the world, so the X-men have to stop him and his followers, The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse.
X-Men: Apocalypse had a lot to live up to, specially since it's the follow-up to X-Men: Days of Future Past (which is without a doubt the best X-Men film yet). Unfortunately this film was a big letdown. One of the main problems is the small amount of screen time McAvoy and Fassbender share together. Their scenes together were the highlights of X-Men: First Class, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. You only get a couple of scenes between the two of them here. With that being said though they both have great scenes on their own, with my favorite scene being one focusing on Magneto early on. The rest of the cast was great as expected, with Tye Sheridan actually being a good surprise as Cyclops. Sophie Turner was great as Jean, even though it took me a while to warm up to her. Evan Peter is once again fantastic as Quicksilver, with a great sequence here that manages to surpass the one from Days of Future Past. There is one big exception to the great performances, and that is Jennifer Lawrence. She delivered every single line flatly, and never showed any emotion at all.This wouldn't have been a big problem if she had a smaller role, but the film focuses on her a lot. I don't know what was up with her, but it really felt like she just did not want to be in this film.
Then we have the horsemen. Fassbender did a great job as always, and you understood why he would side with Apocalypse. The other characters though not so much. Storm and Angel join Apocalypse for a really simple reason, but then there's Psylocke. She joins Apocalypse for what seems to be the fun of it, and the character has about 2 lines in the whole movie. There was nothing interesting about her at all. Rose Byrne is also in the movie, reprising her role from X-Men: First Class. She was fine, but her character could have been written out and the movie wouldn't have changed a bit.
Another big letdown is the action itself. The big finale was extremely disappointing, and it just didn't have the big scope that it should have. Something that bugged me too was the sense that only the X-Men were truly in danger. You do see the world being destroyed, but after a couple of shots showing this, the whole focus turns to the X-Men. There should have been more focus on the world and humanity as a whole than just the X-Men during the finale. There's also the subplot of Magneto being Quicksilvers father, which was completely wasted. I was hoping for some really good scenes between the two of them, but it never happens. Wolverine is also in the film. It was cool to see him in action here, but it wasn't really necessary. Apocalypse himself started out very very menacing, but as the film progressed I felt like that menace started to diminish.
The film is actually really good during the first 2 acts though, with the story being engaging since the beginning. You understand why Apocalypse wants the world to end, and why he would need four mutants following him around. Some of the action was really well done (with the exception of the finale), and the cast was mostly great (except for Lawrence). The film just really dropped the ball once the final act kicked in. X-Men: Apocalypse is still worth a watch, just don't get your hopes up for a great X-Men film since this one is mostly just an O.K film. 3/5
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