With the Marvel Cinematic Universe as ubiquitous as it is,
it can be easy to forget just how important the X-Men films have been for the
common conception of comic book movies. At the start of the millennium, the
genre was in a pretty bad state: Vanguards of the art form Superman and Batman
had both fallen on legendarily bad times, the kitschy ways of the 80’s were sticking
around for god knows what reason like with Captain America and the unreleased
Fantastic Four film, and to make matters worse, we weren’t even getting that
many of them that were worth noting. Blade was pretty much the one and only
comic book superhero film that was watchable. And then noted filmmaker Bryan
Singer teamed up with Solid Snake (seriously, the OG voice actor for Solid
Snake wrote it) and up-and-coming actor Hugh Jackman to make history for the
format. Pushing the surface badassery of Blade into mainstream-recognised
maturity, it changed the landscape from then on; it set the groundwork that the
MCU went on to flesh out. No question, even in the wake of negative reviews, I
was looking forward to the next instalment in this legendary series,
especially given how amazingly well Days Of Future Past turned out. This is
X-Men: Apocalypse.
The plot: En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), a mutant who has lived
since the days of ancient Egypt, has awoken from his slumber in 1983, ashamed
at how humanity has turned out in his absence. Recruiting like-minded mutants
to his cause, he sets out to turn the world to rubble and rebuild a new civilization
from the remains. Sensing the presence of a new threat in the world, the X-Men
team up once again to save the day, but it seems that even they may have met
their match.
Our returning cast are still as strong as ever: James McAvoy’s
learned pacifist, Michael Fassbender’s scorned freedom fighter, Jennifer Lawrence’s
matured emblem of the mutant cause, Nicholas Hoult’s inventive tinkerer, Evan
Peter’s cheeky speedster, even those coming back from First Class like Rose
Byrne and Lucas Till; they all check out. As for the newcomers, Tye Sheridan,
Sophie Turner and Kodi Smit-McPhee give nice turns as younger versions of the
characters of old, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp and Olivia Munn give an
appropriate amount of rightful menace as Apocalypse’s Horsemen, and Oscar Isaac
himself imbues his mutant progenitor with a very godly air, not to mention
coming across like someone with the ambition and capability to re-write the
world.
Even amongst its fan base, the X-Men films have garnered a
reputation for being films about Wolverine with the rest of the mutants as the
support. As such, this film has a real mission on its hands to be able to prove
that it can deliver a satisfying story without relying on Wolverine to deliver
the drama. Well, while he does play a smaller role later on in the film, this
isn’t his story. Instead, this is about the X-Men as a team and mutantkind as a
species, what the series has always been about at its core; it’s just that
here, it’s pushed right into the foreground. As a depiction of the starting
days of the original team, it builds up a decent amount of rapport between them
that it gives the feeling of the origin of what would become the chemistry of
the beginning trilogy. As for the characters set up during the prequels, they
have long since developed into respectable characters in their own right,
pretty much ensuring that they can carry on this film without the metal-clawed
berserker tying everything together.
Much like Days Of Future Past, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2
if we’re being honest, this has the structure not necessarily of a film but of
a colossal-scale event comic: Large cast of characters, most of whom get their
mutual time in the spotlight, combined with a large scale story and stakes
within that story. Also much like Days Of Future Past, I have no real issue
with the narrative here because, for as many characters as it tries to juggle,
it does an admirable job with all of them. The narrative splits its focus
between Xavier and the X-Men gradually learning more about the oncoming threat,
and the threat itself gaining power both in the literal sense and in its
numbers. Now, admittedly, some characters don’t quite live up to their
potential or even what the filmmakers set out for them: Nightcrawler isn’t
exactly the comic relief that the hype pre-amble has set him up to be, and some
characters like Angel and Jubilee are still
being underutilised for no real reason; yeah, even though one of those is one
of Apocalypse’s lieutenants, he’s still kind of bland. But for the most part,
especially where it concerns Professor X, Magneto and Apocalypse, the action is
grounded enough to make the grand scope of the events still feel like they can
be contained in a single film.
While still continuing with the prejudiced minority themes
of the other films, and building on Cold War-era nuclear fear with part of Apocalypse's ultimate plan that turns one of Superman IV's dumber moments into something palatable, this story also
delves into elements of philosophy and fate. Through the inclusion of
Apocalypse, we get a more literal depiction of the relationship between man and
their creator. This is where Magneto’s character arc reaches a certified
crescendo, as his personal history combined with what Apocalypse shows him and
allows him to do creates what feels like a natural apex for the themes of
personal power. Good god, Fassbender only seems to be getting better with time,
because this is the kind of intensity and poignancy that makes him dangerously
close to besting Ian McKellen in the same role. Then again, knowing Magneto’s
actions further on the series’ timeline, it would make sense that a large
portion of that mentality would be inspired by what Apocalypse showed him. I
don’t know what it is, but films this year featuring the main characters
fighting what are essentially their gods? Sacrilegious or not, it has resulted
in some damn good drama.
All in all, this was honestly really good, if a bit
inconsistent in places. While it may not measure entirely to the tremendous
effort of Days Of Future Past, it has more than enough merit between its
acting, characters and effects work to make for a satisfying conclusion to what
is essentially a trilogy starting with First Class. Maybe it’s out of knowing
that, even with this film’s faults, Simon Kinberg is capable of far, far worse, but the divisive reception
this has gotten so far seems a little off to me.
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