Many years have passed since the events of Days of Future Past. Now mutants are recognized among ordinary mortals, though it’s only a formality. Secretly, they become victims of attacks, slaves, and fighters for fun. But you’re not being chased by robots anymore. What are the problems?
The world is at peace. Charles has accepted the role of mutant mentor and kindly offers them shelter. Erik has settled into an ordinary life in Poland. However, Mystique was not calmed by this phantom truce. On top of that, she has become a new symbol of freedom (after shooting Magneto in front of the Capitol) and a liberator of her fellow human beings.
But in the world of comics, there is no such thing as “all is well. The Apocalypse is coming. En Saba Noor, the first of the mutants equivalent to God, has been accidentally awakened. After watching two minutes of cable, he decides to destroy the world.
To be honest and frank, the plot of X-Men: Apocalypse” is barely breathing. In short, the situation is similar to the seventh episode of Star Wars: everything you see now has already been shown before. Bryan Singer tried to entertain the audience as best he could, but his ideas were questionable, to say the least. Due to Wolverine’s time travel, the events of the entire universe began to unfold differently. That’s why the writers came up with the idea to make a cut from the previous films in the franchise. You will see the famous base from X-Men 2, Logan’s transformation as in X-Men: Origins. Wolverine”, a certain self-repetition of the previous part (admit it, you missed Pietro), and the plot itself is suspiciously reminiscent of “X-Men: The Last Stand”. Seriously, the authors even subtly hint that the next installment will touch on the Dark Phoenix arc.
For me, the story is really sluggish. The filmmakers tried to standardize the crumpled X-Men universe with this movie, but it was a huge mistake. It’s like being invited to your grandparents’ house for New Year’s Eve, and you have to pretend to be surprised and delighted by a banal sweater in a huge box – that’s my impression of the plot. The screenwriters took on too much, tried to fit too much in, and it backfired on them. Even in Deadpool, the existence of the X-Men looked simple and organic. And here, you have a bunch of unnecessary characters who appear and disappear, too many loud phrases from the main villain’s mouth, and ‘unexpected’ plot twists (have you seen the trailers? Then it is not difficult to piece together the story while watching). Sometimes the amount of self-repetition (not to mention self-plagiarism) is infuriating.
Seriously, you kill people close to Magneto once again, and then he gets kinder again? Or the fact that the Professor only realized to train his students after several wars, a huge number of mutant chases, and the destruction of the world by the Sentinels? And Logan doesn’t remember anything again. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Wolverine recognized Jean Grey, whom he loved and killed? Why am I thinking for you, Bryan Singer? Where is the originality, maybe fresh ideas?
The main thief deserves a special mention. My God, how many transformations he has undergone, how many abilities he has taken on, but he hasn’t learned to think. He was once betrayed by his own subjects, and do you think he changed his strategy? Dzuski. Once again, Apocalypse is gathering a dream team to oppose him. But there are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Bible, the canon, and so on.
It’s sad to look at his idea. He wants to destroy the weak so that the strong can rise. Only with such methods, even his horsemen will not be long for the end. The “diversity” of his thoughts is unpleasantly surprising. Judge for yourself, most of his remarks boil down to “we will destroy the Earth,” “we will build a better world,” and so on.
Look at the motivation: to kill all living things because… think for yourself. For me, the Apocalypse remained completely unnoticeable, because it’s like a pale copy of Ultron, only Stark’s creation thinks well, jokes and hates its rivals. The oldest of the mutants has none of these traits. He’s like a lone wolf – he’ll smash everyone, but he hasn’t learned to use his powers rationally. En Saba Noor decided to move into Charles’ body to master his powers. Indeed, he needed a clear head.
What made me happy was the actors. Michael Fassbender did the best job, no doubt about it. His performance is really great and truly conveys Magneto’s pain and suffering. James McAvoy impressed with his hairstyle and got into the character. Evan Peters is a revelation for the X-Men (more on that later), and Lawrence is as good as ever. Oscar Isaac did a good job with the character, but there’s almost nothing for such a talented actor to play here. Among the newcomers, it is worth noting Sansa Grey as Jean Stark, who organically merged into the X-Men universe.
And now for the best part of the movie. It’s no secret that it’s Mercury. Every time he appears, he wows, to put it mildly. His benefit is the best moment of a superhero movie ever! It was worth going to the theater three times to see this movie just for his run through the school. It was so awesome, fun, creative. Every time he appears, he invigorates you like Red Bull. The movie even becomes interesting and exciting. His fun with the Apocalypse alone is worth it (it would have been more fun if the movie ended there).
As for the technical component, everything is good, but there is nothing outstanding. The special effects are good, though, except for the time dilation, which is just a standard set for such a movie. The music is pale – I don’t remember a single song from this movie (Sweet Dreams doesn’t count), although Is she with you from the B-side is still playing in my head. The costumes look interesting: the usual outfits are stylized in detail as the eighties, and the X-Men costumes are surprising. They are too canonical. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Superman was able to wear underwear under his pants, and everyone lived. The design demonstrates that the creators are stuck in a bygone era, as if the audience is living in the mid-nineties again.
