And you know what? I still enjoyed this film! Apocalypse was a far better film than I expected. It was fun. I actually would say the series' never been better as it is today, it's only getting ever closer and more faithful to the actual source material over the years. (WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!)
X-Men: Apocalypse is a pretty decent adaption of the original Apocalypse storyline - this is not the post-apocalyptic "Age of Apocalypse" Cable's been trying to prevent in comics for ages, but it actually came close to it at some point. I even thought they would use time travel again to solve the situation during the film.
Prior to watching the film, I rewatched the 1st X-men film - which I didn't remember much and that one was actually pretty good - as well as Days of Future Past, which remains my current all-time favorite X-Men film with X-Men 2.
And, to be honest, this new one X-Men: Apocalypse is maybe just as good, or real close to it. This is maybe as comic book as ever, with several parallel storylines culminating at the climax of the film. I can get why some random critics may feel lost in there. But it was just a really fun and enjoyable film, and I wasn't expecting much from it to be fair.
Compared the absolute lowest entries in the series, namely X-Men 3 and Wolverine Origins, this was miles better.
The story was coherent. Most of the characters had their own story arcs and developments.
And yet the film perfectly fits the now-complicated timeline of the series, alluding to the other films that took place around the 80s (Wolverine Origins for example), and the rest of the series (there were some nice littles nods towards the first X-Men film, specially were it leaves Magneto and Xavier at the end. Plus it made a few jabs at X-Men 3 ("the third film of a series is rarely as good as the other two"... but, this is technically the 3rd film of this new X-Men trilogy to???)
I was really captivated by Apocalpyse's story, somehow. It felt like watching a -good- Mummy movie. And the plan to defeat him at the beginning of the film was pretty creative. Once Apocalypse was trapped in the 80s, I admit, it felt a bit goofier.
The film was pretty well made, with some great memorable set pieces. Fox's Quicksilver keeps to get awesome depictions of his powers compared to Marvel's Quicksilver. His main iconic scene was absolutely amazing, it started a bit too similar to DoFP but then started getting funnier and more creative. I also liked how they let him have a crack at the villain there at the end, everyone wanted to see that in the previous film.
The story works nicely as both the end of this "retro" trilogy started with First Class, but there's enough nods to the original trilogy, placing the right cast more or less where they were at the beginning of X-Men 1.
This series is as much about Xavier as it was Magneto's and Mystique's. I know it's kinda odd to have so much screentime for Mystique (specially in her Jennifer Lawrence-esque form), but I got over it. Yes, we know she's the most "box office" face of the cast, even more so now with Hugh Jackman about to leave the franchise. Why not rely on Fassbender now? He's a pretty big name too?!
I found Magneto's storyline over the course of these three films pretty compelling.
I like how mid-way through the film the young new X-men recruits Cyclops, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler totally hijacked the story and stole the whole show in my eyes. Also this new Storm is just the cutest - even though she’s a bad guy for most of the film.
Apocalypse was a decent villain for the film. It's nice to have someone else that Magneto as the main bad guy for once. Plus, while he didn't have much motives beyond "survival of the fittest!!!", he served as a nice remained to Magneto's possible outcome following his current path.
What I found funny is that with this movie Wolverine Origin is now completely forgotten and retconned. (The Wolverine cameo-sequence was AMAZING!! This film’s best surprise!!)
Not we now have a proper Deadpool out there, but also a much better rendition of Weapon X on the big screen, the way every fan always dreamed to see. Striker's past was also explored.
All we would missing out "taking out" Origin is Logan's actual origins from the beginning of that film as well Gambit, but that later one is comingsoon.
X-Men: Apocalypse is a pretty decent "epic" X-Men film that totally made me forget the least bits from this fairly long-running franchise.
And this is perhaps the X-Men film that ended with the most perfect status quo there at the end, I can't wait to see a follow-up using that setup! Finally, colorful and comic-appropriate suits! (I didn't like this film's black armors, but they made perfect sense in context of the plot.) Even the previous films ended with Jean Grey dead, Magneto captured or Cyclops annihilated!
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait for the next one!
Speaking of, it probably will be either the third Wolverine spinoff film in March 2017, or the long-delayed Gambit spinoff. There's also apparently a dozen other X-Men films in different states of production at Fox, among which: a rescheduled X-Force, a fairly certain New Mutants, the (Cable &) Deadpool sequel and the proper next installment, an X-Men film set in the EXTREEEME 1990s!
I like to go in movies "blind", with only maybe a couple of trailers in my mind.
ReplyDeleteI hated Batman V Superman without hearing any of the negative backlash on the internet!
Maybe I liked it because I honestly came into the film without expecting anything. And it surprised me.
I do think it would have been better received had it been released just before Civil War - CW is still a lot better in comparison.