The 427th film I have seen in theaters…
This one is receiving many mixed reviews. We thought it was one of the best in the series.
Thousands of years ago, En Sabah Nur is the first mutant. He rules Egypt as their God for ages and ages. Then, he is betrayed and is buried underneath the ruins of his pyramid. Thousands of years later, in 1983, he is awakened. He gathers 4 mutants to serve as his “horsemen” and plots to destroy the world and rebuild it as the God-King of Earth. Only the X-Men can stop him!
James McAvoy returns as Charles Xavier. He is continuing to pursue his dream of co-habitation with humans. Apocalypse wants to be reincarnated in his body so that he can mind control the world. He is solid, as always.
The luckiest casting in this film series continues as Raven must deal with being a mutant “icon” after stopping Magneto in Days of future past. She comes out of the shadows, joins the X-Men to stop Apocalypse. Lawrence did not have much to work with here. She did well though, and I was happy to see her not die. (I figured she would be killed off to save on salaries for part 4).
Eric is living in Poland, trying to have a normal life. He has a wife and child, and it all goes to hell when they are killed in an attempt to arrest him. Broken, he is easy prey to join Apocalypse as one of his horsemen. He was stellar in his opening scenes, but vanished for the rest of the movie into moping and being a tool to destroy the world. Fassbender, even when under utilized, is still amazing.
Nicholas Hoult (Witness me! Siny and chrome!) returns as Hank McCoy- Beast. He has a few good scenes, but is not used all that much. Noticing a trend?
Oscar Isaac vanishes into the role as Apocalypse. He plays him as a straight up one dimensional 1990’s villain. Which is exactly what Apocalypse should be. His youthful reincarnation however….(spoilers lol)
Ben Hardy appears as Angel! Then he is recruited as Archangel- my favorite iteration of the character! Then he dies. So much for that. Under utilized.
Olivia Munn is Psylocke, and she is physically perfect for the role. The costume is 100% correct. She is little more than muscle in this though. The ending leaves some hope that she will pop up again. Under-Utilized.
Josh Helman returns as William Stryker, the man in charge of the Weapon-X project in Canada. He is a welcome sight…wait a minute. Weapon-X?!
Yes, thank Christ, Hugh Jackman appears as WEAPON-X! With the helmet and everything! this movie shows his escape from capture and his rampage through the facility. A highlight of the film.
Rose Byrne returns as Moira McTaggert, CIA. Having no memories of First Class, due to Xavier’s mind wipe, she is sucked back into their world in the fight against Apocalypse. It was good to see her back, but was also under utilized. Wait a minute, How can almost everyone be “under-utilized” in a 2 hour and 40 minute film?
Oh… yeah.
Tye Sheridan makes his debut as Scott Summers, the future Cyclops! This guy hit it out of the park. He truly shined as Scott at the beginning of his journey.
Although only briefly appearing, Lana Condor is in the mix as Jubilee, and she looks EXACTLY as Jubilee should. Jacket and all!
Alexandra Shipp is Ororo Munroe, STORM! While not a huge role, she has an important scene at the end as she watches her “icon” about to be killed by Apocalypse. She also has the Storm Mohawk. Yes.
While not “new” to the series, Evan Peters truly joins the X-Men in this one as he searches for his father- Magneto. Once again, he steals the movie with his slo-mo scene.
Although he does not posess the awesomeness that is Alan Cumming, Kodi Smit-McPhee is a fine Nightcrawler. He fits in with the team and was terrific casting.
Finally…Sansa Stark. Sophie Turner, you just owned the role of Jean Grey. Spoiler, obviously, but when the chips are down and Apocalypse is about to win, Jean lets go and allows her powers to explode for the first time. Yes, she goes full Phoenix on Apocalypse…and it was glorious. I nearly shed a tear when the phoenix flames grew around her. Fantastic. I never really got the sense, other than the terrible part 3, that Jean was the most dangerous mutant on Earth. This movie 100% sells that idea.
The returning cast, while important to the story, take a back seat to the new cast as they get the meatier bits of character development. Some are not liking this, but I think it was a great idea. We know who the other characters are. We’ve had 2 movies with this cast already. This was about the future. This was about establishing the X-Men so that part 4 can be set in the 90’s and dovetail right into the original series (sort of, due to the timeline changes in days of future past). This was a strong entry into the franchise and is a favorite, right up there with DoFP and X-Men 2.
The Skinny from the Fatty 