Review: X-Men Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse does not quite plumb the depths of awfulness as prodigiously as X-Men: The Last Stand but, coming off the franchise's high point of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the latest entry into the hugely profitable X-Men series can't help but disappoint. It also serves to reinforce the increasingly inescapable fact that when it comes to nurturing and expanding a cinematic superhero universe, no one does it better than Marvel.

Apocalypse spends time doing both too much and too little. The film takes place in 1983, ten years after the events of Days of Future Past in which Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) inadvertently exposed mutantkind to the rest of the world. She's been a fugitive since then, but she has also become an idol for the current crop of youngsters enrolled in the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Among the notables, the telekinetic Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan), whose ability to emit laser beams from his eyes has finally come to the fore. Both struggle to understand and control their gifts, which they regard as a curse, but Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and brainy blue beast Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) are on hand to guide the two (and occasionally exercise literal damage control).

Jean has been plagued with visions of the end of the world, which brings us to the other main storyline, that of the titular villain (Oscar Isaac, encased in prosthetics), a recently resurrected demagogue, and his mission to cleanse the world of the weak. To that end, he recruits four disciples: storm-brewing African orphan Ororo (a striking Alexandra Shipp), warrior with a whip Psylocke (Olivia Munn, who looks supremely uncomfortable in her character's skintight costume), winged bad boy Angel (Ben Hardy, forgettable in the film's most underdeveloped and dispensable character), and the powerful Magneto (Michael Fassbender, intense and giving good yell), who has been living a quiet and content life in Poland until tragic circumstances force him to reluctantly embrace his dark side once again.

X-Men: Apocalypse dwells far too long in the gathering of its characters both new and old and, once assembled, proceeds to strand them in a smorgasbord of special effects and terrible dialogue. Marvel is a master in integrating new characters without sacrificing any given film's central dynamic. Here, director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg, cram so many characters into the narrative that it dilutes the continually fraught relationship between Xavier and Magneto and Mystique, the woman caught between their warring ideologies. It's understandable if the filmmakers want to emphasise people like Jean and Scott since they evolve into two of the most integral figures in X-Men history, but they are given nowhere near the more considered treatment bestowed upon, say, Mystique and Hank when they were introduced in X-Men: First Class. As a result, Jean and Scott are irritating distractions and it doesn't help that Sheridan and especially Turner are dull and underwhelming. It's all too easy to scoff at actors playing comic book characters, but there is a skill required in transcending the inherent silliness of being in costume and showing off your particular party trick. Which is why it's a bit perverse to basically bench your star players - McAvoy, Fassbender and Lawrence, all of whom combine charisma, a certain gravitas, and not taking oneself or the character too seriously - for the sake of giving the second string team time in the spotlight.

That said, if you're going to showcase secondary characters, then choose the right ones. Kodi Smit-McPhee as the blue-skinned Nightcrawler is most welcome as is Evan Peters, who reprises his role as Quicksilver to equally scene-stealing effect. Quicksilver's "Time in a Bottle" sequence from Days of Future Past is one of the all-time best moments in film, and Singer stages a similarly elaborate scene that has Quicksilver saving Xavier's students from an explosion to the tune of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by the Eurythmics. It may be the sole instance in Apocalypse where the special effects are deployed with wit and energy of being utilised to depict the destruction done in the name of Apocalypse's remodeling project.

X-Men: Apocalypse

Directed by: Bryan Singer

Written by: Simon Kinberg

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Josh Helman, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Lucas Till, Kodi Smith-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, Olivia Munn, Lana Condor, Hugh Jackman