The problem with introducing a nearly indestructible and immensely powerful villain at the beginning of a film is that he/she has to be defeated by the end of it. In turn, this causes the impact of said villain to be softened, as they are defeated as quickly as they appear. They either cause a lot of damage immediately yet are easily vanquished or take their sweet time in causing chaos with the tradeoff being they have a big final fight. The villain in “X-Men: Apocalypse” falls into the latter category.
Apocalypse (an unrecognizable Oscar Isaac) is an ancient God buried in the rubble of ancient Egypt just before he was to begin his quest to rule the world. He’s finally awoken in the 1980s and is appalled to see that the “weak” have inherited the earth. His response is to wipe out humanity and start anew, finishing what he started centuries ago. Afterward, I presume he’s going to audition for the role of Ivan Ooze in the upcoming “Power Rangers” film.
Apocalypse, who speaks as if he’s reading out of the supervillain handbook, recruits four mutants to be his horsemen of the apocalypse. The chosen mutants are Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and Angel (Ben Hardy). Only Magneto gets an ample enough story to justify his recruitment, with the death of his wife and daughter because of him being a mutant drives him back to the dark side. The other three barely register a reason, with Psylocke being recruited because of her jealousy, Storm because of her desire for power, and Angel because his wings had been destroyed in a fight and he’s getting spiffy new mechanical wings out of the deal. I’m surprised one mutant didn’t sell their soul to Apocalypse for a Klondike bar.
The four horsemen of the apocalypse (see what they did there?) slowly wreak havoc upon the world, first abducting Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) to gain maximum control. Xavier’s psychic powers allows him to connect with every mutant in the world, which Apocalypse manipulates to control them and make them set off nuclear bombs the world over. Xavier is then used as a puppet to deliver Apocalypse’s message to the world because he’s like a James Bond villain and loves to talk about his plan.
To save the world are a select few mutants to make up an impromptu X-Men division. They’re lead by anti-hero Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Professor Xavier’s former flame, Moira Mactaggert (Rose Byrne), is also along for the ride, but she’s practically an afterthought. I found Bryan Singer’s way of retconning the events of the lousy “The Last Stand” and the awful “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” at the end of “Days of Future Past” to be ingenious, but slowly realized during “Apocalypse” that this film was going to act as a soft reboot of the entire series. Previously developed characters such as Cyclops and Jean Grey have to be reintroduced, with their backstories being a tad rushed. Not that it matters too much, since we’ve seen it all before; they’re just a little younger this time around. And with the new incarnation of Cyclops and Jean Grey being younger, I hope that means Wolverine won’t pursue Jean this time around.
Speaking of Wolverine, he makes a brief (and awesome) cameo that helps set up his next solo film. Singer uses him in a smart way, having him assist in a prison break of sorts that justifies his quick inclusion in this film. He doesn’t feel forced into the film, as the prison break wouldn’t have been pulled off without him. This gives fans a chance to see the most popular X-Men character without shoving him fully into a story in which he didn’t belong.
Bryan Singer may have fumbled this time around, but that doesn’t mean he lost grip completely. He’s as synonymous with this film franchise as anyone and he knows what makes them work. It’s not just the action set pieces, which are decent this time around, but the characters. I remarked earlier that most of the character development feels rushed, but it’s not because of a lack of trying. All of the heroes have motivations, most of which involve family. They also have distinct personalities which, when they get the chance to show them, can be charming. They’re only downfall is that they have to share screen time with Apocalypse, who needs just as much development as they do, if not more so.
While Apocalypse himself does fall to the trappings I mentioned in the opening paragraph, he does at least go down swinging. Singer makes sure he looks powerful in the final fight, with everything but the kitchen sink needing to be thrown at him in order to combat him. He’s not made to look like an afterthought as Doctor Doom was in last year’s “Fantastic Four,” but he also doesn’t live up to his potential. This is the same fate the film suffers.
Final Rating: C+