(Spoilers from “X-Men: Days of Future Past” below)
It’s hard to believe that the first “X-Men” film was released 16 years ago. Fresh off the campiness of ‘90s films “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin,” moviegoers deserved a new kind of superhero film for the new millennium. This came in the form of “X-Men,” starring Hugh Jackman as no-nonsense Wolverine.
At the time, “X-Men” was the answer to all the fanboys’ needs. It revitalized what it meant to create a superhero film. There was a dark, realistic environment that symbolized discrimination and prejudice. Our heroes didn’t spew cliché lines trying to be cool. They just were. Plus they wore all black leather (which was for some reason stylish back then).
“X-Men” became so successful that it spawned eight sequels (nine if you count this year’s “Deadpool”). This brings us to the latest installment, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” which takes place in 1983.
You’ve seen the ads. Apocalypse, played by Oscar Isaac, is screaming to the heavens, proclaiming, “From the ashes of their world, we’ll build a better one.” It all sounds very scary, but when you think about it, should we really be scared?
Chances are, you’ve already watched “X-Men: Days of Future Passed,” released two years ago. At the end of that film, Wolverine wakes up in the near future to find that Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is safe and intact. All the heroes from the original “X-Men” movie are alive. Everything is all right.
So when an ancient mutant awakens and makes it his mission to destroy the world in 1983, do we, as the audience, have any reason to believe that he’s going to succeed?
Don’t get me wrong. It's not that I want to see the world destroyed. Half the fun is finding out how our heroes bring a stop to all of this madness and destruction.
Unfortunately, there are so many mutants fighting for the spotlight that none of them get the character development they deserve.
This is a real shame considering that the young actors and actresses that portray Jean Gray, Cyclops, Jubilee, Storm, and Nightcrawler show so much potential. The problem is that they’re not given enough screen time to develop their motivations or characteristics.
The villains suffer from the same problems as the heroes. Apocalypse chooses his four horsemen to help him destroy the world, but he convinces them at such a fast pace that it’s unbelievable why four strangers would go along with his plan in the first place.
One positive aspect about the film is that Quicksilver gets another slow motion scene that fans loved so much from “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” It’s a humorous and stylish visual spectacle. Just ignore the fact that the writers forcibly put this scene in for fan-service.
By the end of the film, there’s explosion after explosion, falling debris after falling debris, followed by a conclusion that makes you wonder if anything truly substantial even happened.
If you’re not doing anything one evening and want to kill some time, you probably won’t mind watching “X-Men: Apocalypse.” There’s mindless action here and there, which is sure to entertain young kids. Just don’t expect too much out of it.
