Troubled end to X-trilogy
X-men: Apocalypse (12A) The X-men butt heads with their deadliest foe yet for their sixth big screen outing – not counting Wolverine’s solo adventures.
Oscar Isaac plays the world’s oldest mutant, Apocalypse, who awakens in the 1980s after thousands of years of slumber to wreak havoc on the entire planet.
During the course of this ‘threequel’, one character remarks “at least we all agree, the third one is always the worst” after a cinema trip to see Return of the Jedi.
This meta moment sums up many people’s perspectives on trilogy closers and, as Apocalypse is a companion piece to First Class and Days of Future Past, there were fears Bryan Singer’s fourth stab at directing an X-men flick could go the same way as Brett Ratner’s widelyderided The Last Stand, the third in the original X-trilogy.
And sadly Apocalypse falls short of the standards set by its two predecessors. It repeats many of the same mistakes found in The Last Stand, although, in fairness, it’s a better, more entertaining watch.
The blockbuster’s biggest weaknesses are an overpopulated plot and its disappointing antagonist. While a long way from Vinnie Jones running around in a rubber helmet, Isaac’s much-hyped villain is strictly one-note.
All he wants to do is see the world burn, and we’re never sure exactly why. The versatile actor’s talents are also tarnished by burying his face under a mountain of make-up and prosthetics and saddling him with a dodgy costume more befitting a Joel Schumacher Batman movie.
Speaking of the Caped Crusader, Singer and his team of writers’ attempts to juggle a vast array of characters are more in keeping with Batman vs Superman’s muddled, unsuccessful approach than the happy medium of marriage achieved in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War.
New cast additions like Olivia Munn’s Psylocke and ex-eastenders star Ben Hardy’s Angel do little more than stand and look cool, while Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) is handed her least satisfying story arc in the trilogy.
Thankfully, Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and James Mcavoy (Professor Xavier) are superb once again, with the latter finally embracing the shorn hairstyle of his character’s comic book incarnation.
Credit also must go to the new takes on Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-mcphee) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), with the young cast nailing the roles, and Evan Peters’ Quicksilver is back in film-stealing form.
The set pieces are among the X-series’ biggest and best, climaxing with whole cities being vaporised, and Singer learns from Batman vs Superman’s ridiculed seriousness by injecting plenty of humour and one-liners to cut through the tension.
Messy and majestic in equal measures, Apocalypse makes for a flawed but fun ‘threequel’.