X-Men: Apocalypse where did it all go wrong? Or was it a-okay?
In this installment of the franchise, the X-Men team up against a mega-mutant named En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) who recruits four off-siders (cue the four horsemen analogies), one of whom is Magneto (Michael Fassbender). Cue CG destruction on a massive scale.
But when you start seeing headlines comparing X-Men: Apocalypse to DC’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice then you know you might have trouble.
While the Bryan Singer 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past was outstanding, most critics have damned his next attempt.
On the upside Hugh Jackman does at least make a cameo appearance as the iconic Wolverine and at least the trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse looked great.
But we found some okay reviews, a few which are below in the mix (including a video review).
JUDGEMENT
“The entire film feels like a Prozac ad, where everything has gone emotionally gray, and the world is waiting for a serotonin hit. But at least these characters get to talk. Storm, Psylocke, and Angel barely get a word in. They look terrific in costume — finally, the X-Men movies have a Storm with a little energy and attitude, and the iconic mohawk look — but they’re breathing set décor, and Singer has no interest in what drives them. That makes their inevitable climactic fights rote and empty.” Tasha Robinson, The Verve
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“Narratively jumbled and jammed with so many characters that you give up keeping them all straight while simultaneously lamenting not seeing more of those you might actually want around, Bryan Singer’s fourth entry in the enormously profitable series he inaugurated 16 years ago undeniably builds to a cataclysmic dramatic reckoning. But mostly it just feels like a bloated if ambitious attempt to shuffle as many mutants and specially gifted characters as possible into a story of a resurrected god ready to take over the world.” The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy
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“Better than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but not by an awful lot, and vastly less entertaining than Marvel’s current Captain America smash, it’s also curiously more sadistic, and seemingly less bothered about large-scale human fallout, than this once-spirited series used to be. Apocalypse isn’t quite the end of the world for X-Men fans, but it might be the end of the line.” Tim Robey, The Telegraph
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“It is certainly spectacular. There is no sense at all that audiences are being short-changed or that the franchise is petering out; if anything, the film feels re-energized by the introduction of several new ‘mutant’ faces.” Geoffrey Macnab, Independent
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“With X-Men: Apocalypse, however, Singer seems to have acquired a new mutant power of his own: monotony. Whether it’s the lack of an interesting villain, or the fact that the series’ time-travel element is forcing these mutants to meet each other (and the audience) all over again for the first time, this latest entry marks a shocking letdown from Singer’s earlier contributions; what once soared now slogs.” Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
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“You know a franchise is getting tired when you go, ‘Yawn, there’s that narrow ramp thingie in that vault that could still really use some guard-rails, where Charles puts on his elvish helmet and peers at the collective souls of the world. Oh, yawn, there’s Wolverine tri-clawing people. Oh, yes, yawn, there’s Jean Grey blasting telekinetic energy with her face’.” Mark Jackson, Epoch Times
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“There are huge nits to pick elsewhere. Like Jurassic World last year, ultimate responsibility for releasing this titan actually lies with one of our ostensible heroes, although no-one ever acknowledges it. And the appalling climax of the film, when whole cities are blasted to swirling, bloodless CG dust and their populations apparently vaporized, results in the death of millions of people who don’t warrant so much as a momentary look of horror. In a film that makes a point of recalling the Holocaust, that shows spectacularly bad taste.” Helen O’hara, Empire Online
What about you? How do you rate X-Men: Apocalypse?
Watch a positive X-Men: Apocalypse video review by Chris Stuckmann: