X-Men Apocalypse

what the hell!

Ya guys not great really. Was looking forward to it all along. Very little action in it. No point in the Horsemen being there, apart from Magneto. And is anyone getting a little annoyed with Professor X- he seems to be given the same script in every film. Liked Jean Grey but hoping they don't rush the whole thing. Don't bother staying for the after credits scene either it's not worth it. Just google it!

EoinMcLovin

Just after seeing this. Terrible cross promotion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBiI_OFsX70

Optimalprimerib

I must have watched a different film than everyone else, because I loved this. There was a sense of menace from apocalypse and the action was actually kind of graphic.

I'd class that as probably the best of the new trilogy and arguably better than civil war.

Bowlardo

Optimalprimerib wrote: »

I must have watched a different film than everyone else, because I loved this. There was a sense of menace from apocalypse and the action was actually kind of graphic.

I'd class that as probably the best of the new trilogy and arguably better than civil war.

I really enjoyed and can't understand the hate it getting.It was no world beater but it was sold and it laid down scott summers orgins story. Thought magneto scenes were good. It was a bit of the same old sameo but still good

hopefully we see abit of sinister in gambit

OwaynOTT

It was grand. Probably needed another film to set it up to make for more of an emotional impact. Give some characters room to breathe.
Some woeful dialogue in parts though and some shoddy effects.
Wouldn't mind if it was the last singer directed xmen.

really do love the X-Men but the 90s cartoon is still best.

Ben Gadot

I thought the film was good and disagree with the critics on a couple of things.

For one I really enjoyed the Xavier and Eric dynamic once again. I've seen a common criticism that the film focused too much on them, but this trilogy belongs to them and always has. McEvoy and Fassbender were brilliant in their roles again and have set themselves up nicely to hand over the reigns to the younger generation next time around.

Speaking of the younger generation, I had no problem with their acting. They might of had limited screen time but I thought that the film did the job it set out to: establish these guys for the next trilogy.

The criticisms I would agree with is while McEvoy and Fassbender will never outstay their welcome, Hoult and Lawrence seemed a bit jaded in their roles. They're also blatantly shoehorning Lawrence into the centre of the universe to the possible detriment of future instalments.

I also agree that Apocalypse just didn't seem to have the gravitas and effect on the universe that he should. Apocalypse should not have been

introduced and dealt with all within the one film. This is a villain who could have potentially dominated a trilogy so I was unhappy with his treatment.

That being said, Isaac didn't do anything necessarily wrong and was very menacing, the story just let him down.

All in all though an enjoyable experience and a worthy addition to the franchise. Quicksilver gets the scene of the movie for me while Jean gets the line of the film referring to the 3rd movie in a franchise.

Fysh

I saw this last night and thought it was good, not great. Not as good as DoFP, but it edges out First Class because the more I rewatch that the more little things (almost certainly the result of it being a rushed production) annoy me.

Good things in Apocalypse:

• The least annoying version of Scott Summers so far. He's always been a prat, but at least in this version there's some sense of there being more to his personality than a stick up his backside. (Even if that is accomplished by
  trying to make him Ferris Bueller
  ).
• Quicksilver is once again great. A good casting choice and his scenes are once again the most inventive, possibly because the nature of his power forces the writers to actually put more thought into how it would work and be most effective.
• Nightcrawler is back and handled well, with another good casting choice.

Minor irritations in Apocalypse:

• A few too many characters to juggle - Storm and Jean get little depth despite being important to the story, and Archangel and Psylocke felt crowbarred in for no real reason.
• The running time was longer than I'd have liked for the story, most likely because of all the characters that we needed to keep up with. No worse than any of the Marvel Studios films, though.
• Oscar Isaac wasn't really used to any effect as Apocalypse - the character as written had no depth or sense of purpose. Oh well.

PhiloCypher

This film perfectly illustrated how ****ed up the continuity of these X-Men films are. Lucas Till's Havoc(Alex Summers) must be at least 40 considering he was in his late teens in First Class which is set in 62 , yet he looks like he is merely Scott's college aged older brother here. Equally both Xavier, Moira, Magneto and Beast have weathered the last 20 years remarkably well. Tho presumably the ravages of time do eventually catch up with them as within 10-15 years they look like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

Would have far prefered if they had gone with the lower key but thematically more interesting Mr Sinister for this film , rather then stick to the traditional trilogy model of the third one having to up the stakes. Didn't work in X-3 doesn't work here.

McLoughlin

PhiloCypher wrote: »

This film perfectly illustrated how ****ed up the continuity of these X-Men films are. Lucas Till's Havoc(Alex Summers) must be at least 40 considering he was in his late teens in First Class which is set in 62 , yet he looks like he is merely Scott's college aged older brother here. Equally both Xavier, Moira, Magneto and Beast have weathered the last 20 years remarkably well. Tho presumably the ravages of time do eventually catch up with them as within 10-15 years they look like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

Would have far prefered if they had gone with the lower key but thematically more interesting Mr Sinister for this film , rather then stick to the traditional trilogy model of the third one having to up the stakes. Didn't work in X-3 doesn't work here.

That is the problem with X men films poor continuity and each film feels like a soft reboot with the same cast and i guess the cliffhanger from Days of The Future Past won't be resolved either.

Ben Gadot

Continuity can't be defended alright, Quicksilver still looks the same at 17/18 that he does at 27/28.

Nightcrawler and Storm if you assume they're 18 can get away with the canon established but Angel no chance. Speaking of Nightcrawler I'm not impressed with how the trailers misled people with the "you're her" line. Bad form for those who are fans of the comics.

Dempsey

I went to see it just for Olivia Munn. Wasnt disappointed! 9/10!!

It was a decent film but they focussed on cgi than character development. Magnetos rage and confliction should have gotten more attention. Hard to see where the story goes from here though bar the typical us gubberment tries to control them only to realise they cant style that we've already seen in civil war

BMMachine

Isaac was great.
far too long in the wrong areas and Apocalypse should have been different - the whole evolution thing instead of "I just want to rule" its touched on but there could have been more there.

Did you know Jennifer Lawrence was in the film? Shes great. I think they should just have 50 of her running around and when shes not on screen everyone should be going "where's Jennifer?" and they should have more characters talk to her and go "YOU ARE THE BEST I WANT TO BE YOU" I know only like 5 people say that to her in the film but it really could have been more as people need to know to be like Jennifer Lawrence.



999/10 because Jennifer Lawrence is in it.



remember to always be like Jennifer Lawrence. She is the best.

BMMachine

Nervous Wreck

Here are the problems I had with the film:

[*]Beast not being Beast cos they'd rather have Hoult be his handsome self than be true to the character

[*]Mystique looking like JLaw instead of Mystique cos they'd rather placate her than be true to the character

[*]Mystique being in a leadership role because JLaw sells tickets (despite being a shît actor)

[*]Apocalypse not being in any way menacing (waste of a great actor)

[*]Runtime could have been comfortably cut by an hour

[*]Angel's new wings electric guitar solo (wtf?!)

[*]Angel was useless

[*]Psylocke was useless

[*]Psylocke was half dressed for no reason (Munn is stunning obvs but c'mon)

[*]Storm was useless

[*]The whole main cast look the same age they did in First Class which is set, what, 20 years earlier?

[*]Boring CGI Cairo being destroyed

[*]Too many boring scenes where Magneto destroyed stuff

[*]Emo Nightcrawler is ten years too late

[*]"Here's some flight suits!" - why? Did we really need everyone to have silly black matching suits for the final battle? Did it add anything? Nah.

The good things:

• McAvoy was great
• Hoult was great
• Peters was great
• Quicksilver was mostly great
• Cyclops wasn't awful

Slydice

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

Cyclops wasn't awful

WHAAATTT!?!?!?!!

Singer actually figured out how to do Cyclops?!?!?!:eek::eek::eek::eek: even if only not awfully?!?!?:eek::eek::eek:

Nervous Wreck

Slydice wrote: »

WHAAATTT!?!?!?!!

Singer actually figured out how to do Cyclops?!?!?!:eek::eek::eek::eek: even if only not awfully?!?!?:eek::eek::eek:

Well part of my reasoning for this is he plays a relatively small part so not too much to mess up. I also always felt that one of Singer's biggest missteps with Cyclops in the past was under using the extraordinarily talented James Marsden, who was sold so short in the original trilogy. But, I mean, he wasn't kidnapped for most of the movie or killed right near the start so that already means his portray in this was better than X2 and The Last Stand...

Hercule Poirot

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

Well part of my reasoning for this is he plays a relatively small part so not too much to mess up. I also always felt that one of Singer's biggest missteps with Cyclops in the past was under using the extraordinarily talented James Marsden, who was sold so short in the original trilogy. But, I mean, he wasn't kidnapped for most of the movie or killed right near the start so that already means his portray in this was better than X2 and The Last Stand...

The fact that Marsden's Cyclops was killed off screen was criminal - this Cyclops was bearable but by no means brilliant

FunLover18

So many scenes with characters (mainly the horsemen) just standing aimlessly in the background.

The Horsemen were shockingly underused to the point where I had no idea why Apocalypse needed/wanted them.

Way too many characters and their powers and limitations of said powers or so poorly defined. I know it's a difficult thing to do in a 2 hour film, maybe that's why X-Men are more suited to TV where each character has an hour episode to explore and develop. But seriously, is Cyclop's beam a heat beam or a power beam and does he get tired using it? I thought it was a constant thing but

in the final confrontation he puts his glasses back on as though he's absolutely knackered, then pulls them off again few minutes later and has another go. I have no idea what Jean Grey did to beat Apocalypse, she walked on air and screamed really loud

The writing is really, really bad at times. The first scene between Jean and Scott is awful. Magento's arc is really lazy and unoriginal while some of the comedy just rfelt forced and unnecessary.

And Jesus the continuity is so maddening. No reason at all for this to be set ten years later. Magneto and Charles and Mystique should be in their fifties. Fair enough Mystique can change her appearance but watching a 25yo Jennifer Lawrence say 'I was your age' to a 20yo Sophie Turner in relation to an event that happened twenty years ago in the the film-verse is so frustrating.

SirLemonhead

The foreign version of A flock of seagull's I ran and Metallica's Four Horsemen were brilliant touches, I thought

Mr E

Jesus you're all harsh critics, lads. Saw it tonight and absolutely loved it.

I was fascinated by Olivia Munn's swimsuit too (despite her not doing ANY swimming at all).

jamesbere

My two favourite characters in the x-men universe, phoenix and apocalypse and I still believe they've not been really shown properly.

Still enjoyed the film but was a bit disappointed

Also way too much Jennifer lawrence.

smurf492

Characters were meant to be mostly teens...thought the whole introduction of pheonix was weak considering jean grey didnt have full control of her powers! Angel/Arcangel was wasted. And why have jubilee as a background character

Ben Gadot

The Horsemen were indeed brutal. Says it all that the Horsemen at the beginning of the film were far more intriguing and menacing, and that was achieved through one bloody scene.

Hercule Poirot

Ben Gadot wrote: »

The Horsemen were indeed brutal. Says it all that the Horsemen at the beginning of the film were far more intriguing and menacing, and that was achieved through one bloody scene.

That's because they didn't have to be sexy - how can we take Olivia Munn seriously as a Horseman (Horselady? Horseperson?) unless we can see her cleavage? Surely you should know that a cleavage is the most menacing thing in the world to a teenage boy

But the problem is that the film was blatantly aimed at a teenage audience (twas rated 12A after all) and not at the people who had grown up with the McKellan/Stewart X-men - we were given a slight pandering to with DoFP but then told to feck off on this one and leave it to the kiddies

BlitzKrieg

Honestly its a poor film, but its an interesting piece because I'll say unlike Batman Vs Superman where the failure is so firmly ingrained in every pore of that film that it is clearly a flaw birthed well before the film even started shooting (even before Man of Steel) I find X-Men Apocalypse mostly fails in terms of filmmaking, the editing is very off, particularily in terms of pacing, there is clear issues in terms of cinematography and the acting was very inconsistent. But scrape away these fundementals and you see underneath a good idea. You could likely salvage a half decent film with some editing and possible a great film with a few reshoots.


I get the feeling someones chain got pulled during production and a lot of corners had to be cut or rushed and it shows. It shows that the script feels like its still on draft 1 at times, it feels that some of the performance varies between cuts indicating that there limits in what was available (Hank and Professor X in particular suffered this with their performances. Sometimes James Mcavoy looked like he didnt care and sometimes he looked like he was giving it all and this would be in single scenes.) It also showed in some of the VFX too.

The Result was a film where I feel I could have liked it *if only* *if only* which is lukewarm praise.

Though some calls I have to slap them for.

Psylocke being the only character to get a and exact match to her comic costume really hits home that it has been better across the board to let costumes be redesigned for screen. She looked so out of place compared to everyone else in the film and it just did not work on screen. Elizebth Olsen doing an interview just before the release about how they decided very early not to do the scarlet witch costume in avengers feels way too well timed to burn how awful Olivia Munns costume looked on screen.

Rethreading ground. 2 scenes in particular are rethreads of earlier scenes. One if visually good but feels unncessary to the plot. If it had been that characters reintroduction (and we didnt get a scene with him just before) it might have been fine. And then the other scene, which has already been repeated in the x men films twice... Was just awful. Poorly shot and way overlong, feels very much like filling for another franchise.

The Ending. This honestly feels like Singer feeling burned after how he left X-men 2/X3 and he didnt want to be subtle again and instead play with the power he wanted to play with originally and not have another director have it instead. If they announce that Singer is not in the next film then I know exactly why it went the way it did, frankly though it was too much.


EDIT: I actually liked young Nightcrawler. I was a fan of the x men evolution series that had young nightcrawler in it and it worked for me. though the bamf sound was wrong which is weird since they had it right in X2.

josh_96

I went to see xmen apocalypse on friday, not the worst from the franchise certainly better than the last stand some good performances though i did think apocalypse himself was a bit meh even though i think oscar isaac is a very good actor, not the worst superhero film to be released this year.

constitutionus

my biggest problem with the film was its tone.

its all over the place. the film looks like its trying to be the avengers, but feels too fecking serious to pull it off.

i did enjoy it, and i LOVED how apocalypse gets taken out as thats another movie in itself down the line. hopefully done right this time.

its just weird that while theres some great fanboy servicing going on they missed opportunities where they couldve cut loose. xavier fighting apocalypse on the astral plane for instance. its the ONLY bloody place he has a chance and its basically just a fist fight. im not saying they shouldve gone the sword fighting route theyve done in the comics in the past, but they shouldve done something to amp up the professors rep as "the most powerful mutant mind on the planet". as it was anderson from dredd did more imaginative stuff.

plus apocalpyse himself didnt really seem to do much. the horsemen (magneto in particular) seemed to do all the work. albeit after a powerboost but still for a "god" he really just went about making speaches and to me didnt realy display much to deserve his rep till the final battle.

his whole motivation seemed to be "used the rule the planet, went for a 3000 yr nap, woke up- want to rule again"

now in fairness theres fun ya can have with that, but i just got no real idea what kind of world or civilisation he wanted to bring about.

im also in the camp that really dont like mystique and the focus she CONTINUES to get. at least in this one i can understand the postion she now holds in the mutant comunity, and its nice to see she doenst want it / feels deserving of it. but at least it makes sense. ive no prob with her not being blue all the time either. i just wish these x men films would finally get around to focusing on the members that traditionally matter. scott STILL doenst feel like their leader. i mean jesus were six films in !

still i suppose thatll get sorted down the line. its just mad to be seeing something the equivilant of a star trek flilm that refuses to deal with kirk mcoy and spock, and instead focuse on nurse chapel and the engineering division. at this stage only macavoy and fassbender are bringing me back. the end of this at least looks to address that.

im gonna go again to see if a second viewing helps as theres alot in this i really liked , particularly the uniforms finally starting to appear comics accurate along with some great action sequences, its just strange to leave what shouldve been a great film and only think its good. i just cant put the finger on why its not.

Nervous Wreck

FunLover18 wrote: »

But seriously, is Cyclop's beam a heat beam or a power beam and does he get tired using it? I thought it was a constant thing but

in the final confrontation he puts his glasses back on as though he's absolutely knackered, then pulls them off again few minutes later and has another go. I have no idea what Jean Grey did to beat Apocalypse, she walked on air and screamed really loud

So, Cyclops's optic blasts are concussive. I'm guessing they can explain away the tiredness with him being new to his powers etc. In some versions of the comics, he gets his powers from the Sun and can use them all up and have to 'recharge' by absorbing more sunlight etc. but I reckon it was just a plot contrivance. Jean

used the Phoenix Force to beat Apocalypse. It's basically the X-Men comics' get out of jail free card whenever they come up against something really powerful. It's incredibly annoying and it's pretty much the reason I don't read much X-Men. "How will we ever get, ah we'll just use the Phoenix Force."

Tbh, as far as I'm concerned, this movie is worse than The Last Stand. Sure, TLS was silly but at least, for the most part, it was true to the characters. This movie featured Mystique not being in her true form for most of the film because JLaw wasn't arsed with the make-up. It featured Beast being able to not be the Beast by taking some medication, which is NOT Beast. It, yet again, played Magneto as one of the good guys

"Are you sure I can't convince you to stay? I mean, you just destroyed Cairo, killing millions of people but you're obvs free to go cos we're mates."

as well as Mystique being a defacto leader to the X-Men (again, because JLaw). Pain in the arse to watch all that stuff, tbh.

BMMachine

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I'd really not like to have my entire post blocked out in grey so I'll just say it at the top. Do not continue reading if you want to know nothing about the film.

***********************



Heres the thing, so Jennifer Lawrence (All Glory to Her Magnificence) isn't bothered with the makeup routine - I can understand that, it must be a right pain in the hole. So instead of doing all this crap with her and having her hang around like a square peg in a round hole, why not kill her? You want to get Apocalypse over as a bad guy? Have him kill Mystique. Do it quickly and violently and do it in the first act. Magneto then joins with Apoc (for better reasons than his 5 minute family getting killed by the most powerful wooden arrow on the planet... christ...) and you can have Magneto turn in the final battle when he finds out how Mystique died.

I see this so much in these superhero films. They have the opportunity to make some really great films that have depth and meaning but they always seem focus grouped and micromanaged to all hell. "kill Jennifer Lawrence? are you mad?! thats the best god damn person on the planet!" Mystique was ALWAYS a fringe character in x-men, comics, movies, cartoons. She was around alright but she was a sub-villain normally to a guy like Magneto or Sinister or Apocalypse himself. In the new films, simply due to the fact that its Queen Lawrence (everyone should want to be her) they put this character in a f*cking lead role on the good guys team. The studio and director really have 0 balls when it comes to making a truly quality film. What actually happens in this "Apocalypse" film? Havoc dies and Cairo is destroyed - who cares about any of that. Then they just sell out Apocalypse in the last battle. He stands there with a shield thing up, doing sweet f-all and Jean Grey roasts him. Where is the "oh ill just grow to 100 feet tall and start f*cking wrecking the joint" guy I know from the endless amount of source material? Where is the guy hell bent on evolution? where is the guy that does, can and will kill mutants?

Once again we have this weak, limp and overcooked (144 minutes, about 40 of those don't need to be there) superhero film thats trying ever so hard to get actors over and not characters. Fassbender and Isaac are for my money two of the best young(ish) male actors on the planet and in this they are given this confusing nonsensical script in which elements are just completely shoehorned in as they don't know how to make sense of anything properly. No ambition is being showed by the studio or director who just seem to be phoning it in truth be told. I'm sure the action and effects and all that was backbreaking work and yeah, they did well there, but who cares about that stuff when the film behind it is so god damn weak? Here they have a chance to do a 2-part x-men film where there really are high stakes involved but instead of making two lean and well thought out films they shoved everything in one where nothing happens and no one gets over and its all just flat. And christ, some of the decision making script wise... so Magneto is literally taking apart the world. His son and former ally run up to try and stop him. Magneto asks Quicksilver why hes there. MIGHT BE A GOOD TIME TO TELL THE GUY DESTROYING THE WORLD THAT YOU ARE HIS KID. IT MIGHT STOP HIM. nahhhhh, ill just go over here a bit. Like wtf is that. To me it all adds up to the laziness. Even the fact that Days of Future Past is not referenced at all (oh sorry, it is. Everyone and their f*cking dog is going "THATS MYSTIQUE SHES THE BEST I WANT TO BE HER" (are they saying this about the character or the actor? jees, I wonder...). They could have gone "well the timeline is now f*cked up because of what Wolverine did and blablabla" ya know so there is a sense of risk and a sense of being able to rectify the massively distorted timeline of this franchise, but nah... too complicated, leave that alone. Don't have the most powerful mutant ever wake up due to the distortions in time or anything like that, have him wake up due to the (not-scottish, thats too confusing. Imagine someone being Scottish in a film. MADNESS) Moira MacTaggert (pretty regular Washington DC name) accidentally making the sun shine on golden pyramid thing which none of his followers ever f*cking thought of doing. Lazy lazy lazy lazy.

Unfortunately all this is par for the course in superhero movies and unfortunately they make dumptrucks full of money so they will keep being made and unfortunately we are at that point now where standards are so distorted and so low that people will do all sorts of mental gymnastics in their heads to make chicken-sh*t look like chicken salad. Objectivity is gone and individual opinions are the new facts when it comes to moviemaking and entertainment. But wasn't Deadpool great? He makes funny noises and acts like a retard and I do that too so its an excellent film 10/10

Dravokivich

You can't kill mystique in these series of movies because she's an integral part of Magneto's team in the movies set at a later time.