X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Poster for "X-Men: Apocalypse"

The third installment of Bryan Singer's X-Men prequels is here. James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender return to reprise their roles. New characters are introduced to the series making fans of the X-Men excited for the possibilities.

While there are some good elements to the film, it fell flat in other areas. The hype was high for this film, but once it premiered, nothing was said about it. "X-Men: Apocalypse" was not a bad film. The group of people I went to watch it with, all enjoyed it and they are fans of the characters and comics albeit they are not hardcore fan boys. I know nothing about the comics and while I do enjoy superhero films, if you've read my previous reviews, you know I'm not enthusiastic about them either.

This film was not memorable. Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse was okay, but most of his screen time was spent talking about how great and powerful he was. Isaac has proved to be capable of much more. The prequel trilogy had a good start, a powerful middle and an ending that didn't seem sure of what to do with itself. Overall, I found the film to be okay.

I promise I'm not bashing on the film as it did keep me entertained. However, the film was easily forgotten as it had none of the controversy (since that can be a good thing) of "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice", although this film is the superior of the two. "Captain America: Civil War" was an outstanding film and there's no way this film held a candle to its Marvel rival. This film's biggest crime was premiering when it had to compete with a hyped up DC film and an awesome (but different) Marvel film. It was easy for it to fade into the shadows.

Once again, Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender), switches from good to evil to back again just as he has done in the previous two films. Erik is living in Poland ten years after his failed attempt to take over the world. This film does introduce a lot in a short period of time and it does feel rushed. Anyway, it's while he is living in Poland that Erik experiences something that makes him go from good to bad. There are cool elements to the film, but small details like this make Bryan Singer's trilogy tiring.

The main thing the film does is introduce new characters and re-introduce the audience to old ones. It's cool to see new characters interact with fan favorites and think about the possibilities of future collaborations. In this film we are introduced to Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and we get more acquainted with fan favorite Quicksilver (Evan Peters). With so many characters to meet it's easy to see why Singer skips over their backstories and even quickens Erik's transformation.

Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) is back in this film, although I had forgotten she was ever in the series at all. Singer makes sure to show flashback to "X-Men: First Class", but those didn't help. Angel (Ben Hardy) and Psylocke (Olivia Munn) are in this film as well and they were disappointing additions to the film. This brings us to the main problem of the film: the villains. The only reason Magneto isn't as lame as Apocalypse and the other "horsemen" is because he's been in the series since the beginning with Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy).

At the beginning we see Egyptians succeeding in destroying the pyramid where Apocalypse is transferring himself into a new body. When he reawakens, he seems terrifying as the first act of evil we see him do is decapitate people with sand and bury them into walls of buildings. After that though, Oscar Isaac is only left to talk about how powerful he is. Isaac is talented and does it well, but it makes for an uninteresting villain. There was a lot of buildup for this guy as he had been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians and nothing exciting happened.

The Wolverine cameo was cool. The film was too, but it suffered from rushed character development and boring villains.