The most recent X-Men movie came out a few months ago, and seeing as X-Men is my favorite group of supers, I just had to see it. Upon seeing it, I can tell you right now, it wasn't good. It wasn't terrible, either. It was just serviceable. There to rake up some money but other than that, it was nothing special. How could such a promising trilogy get ruined like this? First Class was amazing, and Days of Future Past was good too. That’s when I got to thinking, what makes a good superhero movie? Why is the first of this trilogy, "X-Men: First Class," so much better?
The main difference is how the characters are treated. In Apocalypse, there are too many characters, all of which are pretty much one-dimensional, there to simply beat the bad guy. Many new characters are introduced, and they get little to no development - Scott, Jean, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Storm and Arch-Angel being the worst. All of them were shoehorned in and did virtually nothing. The only one that actually did something was Jean, and that was just so they could set up the Dark Phoenix saga. Mystique is there, but doesn't do anything except walk around, being Jennifer Lawrence instead of mutant and proud, but we'll get to her later. The only one that gets fully developed is Magneto, who gets put through tragedy after tragedy, with ultimately no payoff at the end. It's like he was the only one the writer cared about.
In First Class, the main cast each go through trials and tribulations regarding their powers, and the three mains, Erik (Magneto), Charles (Professor Xavier), and Raven (Mystique), are all given proper backstories and motivations. It deals with the importance of friendship and shows that nothing is black and white, which many hero movies usually fail to do. It also explores the themes of individuality and learning to love yourself. In this verse, Mystique hates looking different, and slowly learns to love it. Not only that, but it actually includes the real history of this time, and integrates the story seamlessly with the current Civil War.
Apocalypse fails to do so, and nothing that happens is shown to impact the world besides a destroyed city. There is no sign of any change with the public's view on mutants, how the many deaths impacted the world or how the military will want to up their ante against mutants. Nothing is added, whereas First Class clearly shows that humans are not only afraid of mutants, but are going to do something to stop them. Mystique, in this movie, also never turns into her normal, blue self, and completely back pedals from being mutant and proud, to hating herself again. Why would the writers make her regress?
The motivations of characters is unclear in Apocalypse, as the main villain just wants to kill humans because… reasons. It’s never really explained. Magneto has the same, rehashed reasons as First Class. He was wronged by humans yet again and wants vengeance. His arc was the best, as he begins trying to be normal and powerless, and still ends up with a dead family and hated. However, there is nothing new to gain from his character with this angle, as it’s already been covered in the first movie.
And that’s probably the worst part about Apocalypse. It’s a safe movie where nothing particularly new happens. It's simply serviceable. In a world where the Avengers movies exist, this movie needed to do more, be more, but it simply doesn’t. First Class offered amazing characters that were fleshed out, with themes deeply explored. Apocalypse had none of that. That’s why First Class is a great movie, and Apocalypse is OK.
