X-Men: Apocalypse (Movie Review)

(This review will contain spoilers)

Summary:

Worshiped as a god since the dawn of civilization, the immortal Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) becomes the first and most powerful mutant. Awakening after thousands of years, he recruits the disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and other mutants to create a new world order. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Professor X (James McAvoy) and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) lead a team of young X-Men to stop their seemingly invincible nemesis from destroying mankind.

This movie has been long overdue. We've had countless of X-Men movies and yet this is the first one that discusses mutants having existed prior to the 20th Century. Evolution is great but it ain't that fast. It doesn't make sense mutants with incredible abilities popping up only in the past Century. I love having a glimpse into the past and seeing that mutants once upon a time were revered as gods. Evidently, humans weren't okay with that and they were the reason why Apocalypse were stuck in a psychic cocoon until he was finally released thousands of years later. It's amazing how he used a pyramid powered by the sun to allow him to transfer his consciousness and body hop from different mutant bodies and to steal their abilities. 

When Scott, Alex and Hank see Charles, Charles is overheard quoting an author to his class about obliterating the past and creating a new future without being held back. This a clever scene since it foreshadows Apocalypse's plan. And if that went over everyone's head then we have Jean shaking up the house saying that she dreamed of the end of world engulfed in fire. Her dream can also be a foreshadowing of the house being blown up and of the phoenix force being unleashed when she confronts Apocalypse. 

The school exploding has to be one of the best cinematic scenes I've ever seen! Peter using his superspeed, going through the entire school to save everyone he could find while from the audience stand point, it seems like everything is moving slowly. Whoever came up with this scene is bloody brilliant! It's tragic that Alex died since he was the closest to the explosion but the scene overshadows his death to the point where it's an afterthought. 

The kids sneaking into Stryker's compound to save the mutants and Moira that were abducted come across a very familiar face. Jean with her abilities allows Logan to escape his cell and finally escapes from Stryker. Watching him from the X-Men movies in the early 2000's I'm familiar with his story and it's hard trying to map out the timelines, and storylines. But needless to say, it was refreshing to see a very familiar face. And hopefully he finds the peace he has always been searching for. 

At the beginning of it all, I could understand Apocalypse's reasoning for wanting to take over world and make the humans suffer. He wanted to make it a better place for mutants. But of course, his actions are not as valiant as he appears. His greed and hunger for power makes him just like any other man. Nothing special about him other than his abilities. He is not about empowering his fellow mutants but to secure and reinforce his power and influence on others. He's just like any other mad man. 

No mutant could match and defeat Apocalypse, not even when the X-Men banded together. Phoenix force, however, is a cosmic entity that easily defeats Apocalypse. Jean Grey is a powerful mutant on her own but add in Phoenix force into the equation then nothing could stop her other than the Scarlet Witch. I'm hoping that some way the X-Men will be introduced into the MCU and we could see those two powerhouses go up against each other. I'm not holding my breath but I hope that the sun will finally shine upon that idea. 

I love that we got a comic book accurate character like Psylocke. Olivia Munn portrayed her very well and as seen towards the end of the fight she was never killed. She was seen walking away pretty much unscathed. I hope that we get to see her again in the future and given more screen time. 

I am looking forward to seeing the story of how she merged with the Phoenix force (the entity) or if the story line will be she simply becomes Phoenix after radiation exposure. I'm leaning more towards Phoenix force (the entity) versus anything else but who knows. The movies change and flip things on its head to have a bigger box office impact. I just don't like that we're not given insight on what will happen next for the team as a whole. Yes, both Logan and Jean have incredible and heavy stories but at least with the whole team it gives an opportunity to be introduced to more characters. 

Rating:

I am going to give X-Men: Apocalypse 4 stars on 5. While this movie was good and we had quite a few fantastic scenes I just felt that too much was going on. Two and a half hours for a movie is freaking long! Especially, with multiple story lines being set up for future movies like Logan and Dark Phoenix. This was good but it needed an extra kick to bring it to the next level. Hopefully, we'll be introduced to more mutants in the near future.