X-Men: Apocalypse Review

X-Men: Apocalypse is the third movie of the "reboot" of the X-Men series.  In this movie, there is a scene where the writers and director of the film pretty much say what they think of the film before it was even released.  In this scene, four of the young mutants go to the mall to see the movie Return of the Jedi.  As they are walking out of the movie, two of them argue which Star Wars movie is better: A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back, then another one chimes in and says "At least we can all agree the third one is always bad".

X-Men: Apocalypse starts off in ancient Egypt where a powerful mutant named En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse) is betrayed by those that worship him.  Apocalypse ends up being trapped within a tomb deep underground only to be discovered in 1983 by a new group of worshippers.  Apocalypse soon discovers how humans have been destroying the world with weapons and fighting and decides he needs to rebuild the world.  To do this, he recruits four mutants that are called the Four Horsemen.  Charles Xavier learns of Apocalypse's plan and knows he must do whatever he can to stop Apocalypse.

I wouldn't say X-Men: Apocalypse is terrible, but it has a lot of problems.  One of the things that bothered me the most about the movie is the CGI and the way the movie looked.  There are some scenes in this movie that are terrible looking.  In one scene, Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen are standing on a mountain side and it looks like they are standing on a soundstage made of styrofoam.  Near the end of the movie, when Apocalypse is destroying the world, the CGI looked extremely amateur and something I wouldn't expect from a big budget summer blockbuster.  Also the costumes the Four Horsemen wear are tacky and impractical, especially Psylocke's.

In the previous two X-Men movies, the focal point of the story has been the relationship between Charles Xavier and Magneto.  Xavier feels mutants and humans can get along but Magneto feels mutants need to stand up and be the superior race.  The emotional pull of that conflict really made the first two movies succeed.  In X-Men: Apocalypse, that relationship is pretty much missing.  It is there in brief moments, but it is not enough to leave an emotional impact.  The more I think about the story elements in X-Men: Apocalypse, the more annoyed I get with the direction the writers went.

Where X-Men: Apocalypse succeeds is in being a big budget summer blockbuster comic book movie.  The action scenes are great, especially one involving Quicksilver.  If you have seen the previous X-Men movie, Days of Future Past, you know that Quicksilver's scene in that movie was fantastic and the one in this movie is just as wonderful to watch.  It was also enjoyable watching the mutants use their powers to fight against each other.  There are also plenty of little nuggets that fans of the comic book series will love.

X-Men: Apocalypse is a decent summer blockbuster comic book movie, but overall is fairly forgettable.  The CGI in the movie is distracting and the story will not impact you emotionally.  I think if you are a fan of the X-Men comic book series or have enjoyed the previous movies in the franchise you will enjoy X-Men: Apocalypse.  Plus it's no where near as bad as X-Men III and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.