X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Review

"Just because there's not a war doesn't mean there's peace."

-Mystique

An ancient mutant, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), is freed from his slumber of several millennia and recruits four powerful mutants to be his Four Horseman.  As they start to destroy the world, it's up to the X-Men, now composed of mostly young and inexperienced members, to find a way to stop Apocalypse.

What Works:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Michael Fassbender is absolutely incredible as Magneto.  The rage and pain this guy feels is utterly palpable.  He's been through so much already and in this movie he watches his wife and daughter die in front of him.  It's the best scene of the movie and brutal to sit through.

James McAvoy also continues to be great as Charles Xavier.  His charisma is through the roof and I love every second he's on screen.  It is a little silly to watch him have a fistfight with Apocalypse inside their minds, but I'll admit I still enjoyed it.

Quicksilver (Evan Peters) was an absolute blast in his limited screen time in Days of Future Past and he is given way more to do here.  All of his fight scenes are great and watching him single-handedly save everyone in Xavier's Manor is awesome.  Peters gives an awesome performance and is a lot of fun.

Finally, the 3rd act is very entertaining.  There are a lot of characters and moving pieces, but I could always tell what was happening and it gives us a lot of fun moments.  Everyone gets a moment to shine and watching Magneto, Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) team up to take down Magneto is pretty satisfying.

What Sucks:

This film feels pretty bloated at times and some aspects could have cut out.  We really didn't need any of Colonel Stryker's (Josh Helman) side-quest and Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) appearance felt unnecessary.  This valuable time could have been better spent elsewhere.

Apocalypse and the majority of the Four Horseman could have much better developed.  Apocalypse is great on paper as a mutant who thinks he is God, but they don't have him interact with our heroes enough to have a great impact.  He's on his own for too much of the movie.  Storm, Psylocke (Olivia Munn), and Angel (Ben Hardy) are woefully underdeveloped and we're never given much of a reason for any of them to join Apocalypse.  Angel is the biggest question mark of them all.  Why did he get recruited by Apocalypse?  Cool, he can fly, but there are way more powerful and useful mutants to recruit.

Finally, Cyclops and Jean Grey are given some pretty bad dialogue at points in the film.  Pretty much everything they say at Stryker's base is cringeworthy and the scene where they see Return of the Jedi is just the worst.

Verdict:

X-Men: Apocalypse is an entertaining movie with great performances from Fassbender, McAvoy, and Peters and a really fun 3rd act.  The villains are underwhelming, the film is bloated, and some of the dialogue is pretty weak, but, for the most part, this movie has got it going on.

 7/10: Good