The waiting period of two years, after the release of Days of the Future Past, for Apocalypse can be said to be little more than eagerness and much of curiosity. The first two installments, including First Class, has only made me more curious like a cat in the box. Director Bryan singer has literally engineered the DNA for modern day comic movies. He has, finally, created the X-Men movie thats heading in the right direction. For goodness sake, there is no more human vs mutants fight in this flick, but more concentration on superheroes coming together for a much greater good(getting goosebumps while writing).
The movie begins in 1980s, where the students of Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters sneak out to watch Return of The Jedi. And Jean Grey startles us all by saying, “Well, at least, we can agree, the third one is always the worst”. That was bit of the truth there, considering The Last Stand, or a warning for this movie? Left me in a bit of a daze.
Apocalypse, mutant of past, awakens after a millennia and truly doesn’t like the color of the present days. He has the super power, I mean, true super power where he can change bodies and take on other person’s super power(so damn right awesome). That’s just enthralling enough to see and he decides to take everything in his hand. After whizzing through a time tunnel for thousands of years, he goes on to build his army of four horsemen, Storm, Psylocke, Angel and Magneto. Now it’s upon Prof X and his “gifted youngsters” to stop this dark force that will bring the world to an end as we know it.
The early shots opens with flashbacks and brief introduction of all the new characters. So the first hour of the movie is zapped with pace with immense number of characters to gather and new mutants to be introduced. Just because am X-men fan I could sit through but those who are not, this can definitely put them to sleep. The movie really takes time to settle in and becomes ever so wonderful once when Apocalypse alias En Sabah Nur tries to take on the world giving toughest times to Professor X and his abled-men.
Apocalypse played by Isaac Oscar looks amazing with green-colored armor(kind of reminded me of nasty version of teenage mutant turtle) and sounds million times better than what I heard from all those released materials and promos. His character is spaced out over complexity, unlike his motto, and that’s what keeps him compelling from start to the finish.
No mentions are required for James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence, though Mystique has very less stunts and total preachy scenes to deal with. Just a Katniss with super powers, which really disappointed me as I was expecting her kinks to kick in and it was needed as well. Micheal Fassbender or Magneto has turned a new leaf and become a factory worker, living an idyllic family life and singing lullabies to his daughter until his past catches up. Moira MacTaggert, CIA agent, looks all severe but with more glamour than before and has no recollection about Professor X but just the “kiss”.
Coming to the newbies, Tye Sheridan who plays Cyclops and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler are super charming. They are something to not be missed. Evan Peters as Quicksilver, literally pulls the limelight from all the other characters, because he was put in the best sequences in this movie. There were few who did not get much screen space and that’s actually quite sad, wanted to see more of every character. Psylocke, leading villainess played by Olivia Munn is a Mohawk-haired street punk street, but one of the casualties who couldn’t show-off much in this flick. Same goes for Ben Hardy or Angel, hardly made the cut which is not justified for this character. Just too many characters and too less time to show everyone.
I agree, X-Men:Apocalypse, isn’t upto the mark as I was expecting with bit of special effects aren’t that great, though the whole movie relies on CGI. Then there is one particular character back into human form, yes, Beast is back to his original form for major chunk of the movie. Kind of disheartening to see this after his transformation in First Class.
Tad bit of disappointment with the screenplay, but I know this will move in right direction as this movie promises more flicks to follow. Bryan Singer has finally realized that this is a superheroes comic book and now all characters being introduced, I hope they have a brighter future.