*Will contain spoilers for the film*
As X-Men films go, they range from pretty cheesy to pretty good with no real inbetween. They are a little guilty pleasure of mine to be honest. Sure for the most part they aren’t as well done, in my opinion, as some of the Marvel films but they often give it a good go and casting is generally spot on (the less said about Vinnie Jones’ Juggernaut from X-Men Last Stand the better though).
The much more recent X-Men Days of Future Past was actually really good, the latter score on the X-Men rating scale, and ended up being a very clever set-up/reset for the X-Men franchise going forward. The film basically re-wrote history, allowing the writers and the studio at Fox, to basically have characters achieve different results and be at different places in their lives than they would have been otherwise. The newly settled down Magneto with a wife and child is living off the grid in Poland after being humbled and bested by his protégé Mystique in Days of Future Past. His country bumpkin lifestyle does not last however as yet more violent mutant-phobic behaviour sends him over the edge and once more proves to us that Magneto really is hard done to. You can almost excuse the guy for his utter contempt for the human race, we’ve put him through a lot.
Evan Peters proves that Marvel got casting wrong on Quicksilver as he puts in another fantastically witty and entertaining performance as the mutant speedster, the quintessential actor for the role if you ask me. The standout performances for me throughout this film were Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Evan Peters as Quicksilver and Kodi-Schmit McPhee as Nightcrawler. I also enjoyed Olivia Munn as Psylocke but she wasn’t in the film as much as I would have loved, being a fan of Olivia‘s since her days on Attack of the Show for G4. Oscar Isaac, who played Poe in the newest Star Wars film, did produce a great performance as Apocalypse and really brought the character, who was the big bad of the old Marvel Comics Uncanny X-Force series, to life. The casting and performances all round were solid and it was only some writing elements that bugged me in the end. For example, how easy it was for Apocalypse to recruit Warren (Archangel) who by all accounts in the comics is a goody two shoes (despite having darkness inside of him). The continuity of the X-Men films and how hard it is to follow have been a trademark of the franchise, and something that Deadpool parodied, but the changes put in place by Days of Future Past seem to be a positive step forward, like how Nightcrawler now joins the X-Men way sooner in life than he did before.
In all, X-Men Apocalypse is a good film (despite how much I dislike the character of Scott Summers A.K.A Cyclops). Great character and cool set pieces trump the intended importance of the relationship between Jean and Scott that seems dull in comparison. Although Sophie Turner does a great job as Jean Grey, I felt the relationship aspect of the story between her and Cyclops was a little crowbarred in and her sudden burst of power at the end seemed like an easy get out of jail free for humanity. I envisioned all the minions of Apocalypse turning on him for the greater good which would have made the film come full circle but it was Jean who really stuck the nail in his coffin. What did you think of the film? Tweet your thoughts @CelebrityCutout on Twitter.
