Despite being directed by the man who gave us the original X-Men and X2, a star-studded cast, and two beloved prequels, X-Men: Apocalypse manages to disappoint. In its attempt to both provide a satisfying ending for the X-Men: First Class trilogy as well as set up the new generation of X-Men (for future movies),the film has neglected pacing, plot and action, becoming in the process an incoherent mishmash of soulless special effects and A-list actors. As likeable as the new X-Men are, I doubt many will be looking forward to any of their future films, if this is the kind of stories we can expect.
There really isn’t much to say in terms of the story, as everything just sort of happens without rhyme or reason. Character motivations are left unexplained, and the pacing is so abrupt, the film ends halfway through its second act.
As flawed as they undoubtedly were, the last two X-Men films made excellent use of their time period and characters to craft a story that was enjoyable, even genuinely good at certain points.X-Men: Apocalypse feels like a wasted opportunity on Fox’s part, after having gone through the effort of setting up such an interesting cast of characters, and like Sony did with Spider-Man — Fox would probably be better served renting the character rights out to Marvel so that the X-Men can properly take their place in the Marvel cinematic universe.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence
Directed by Bryan Singer