The first third of X-Men: Apocalypse is a triumph of X-Men filmmaking. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s strikes the balance that First Class did so well between very zany comic book ephemera and real world humor and an understanding of what drove its characters. The last two thirds of X-Men: Apocalypse are empty vessels of CG action and character beats that either don’t make sense or don’t hold any significance. Clearly, there seems to be two movies in here: one barren and cold, and another exhilarating and full blooded. Too bad the former won. So, before we get to the slap around session that this review will ultimately devolve into, let’s discuss that first third. X-Men: Apocalypse, in its first third, manages to be better than almost any of the other films. The reason? Because it simply embraces the dominant format for an X-Men film and manages to be humourous and engaging in a way Days of Future Past didn’t even manage to be. The X-Men have always felt like they belonged on a television show, and the masterpieces that were X-Men: The Animated Series Seasons 1-4 and X-Men: Evolution are there to prove it. The serialized version of these characters helps create a balanced tone coming out of the big civil rights allegory, but also helps transcend it by creating the feeling of a rich world that exists in the aftermath of such issues. Days of Future Past has world changing events that took place in it for these characters, and the lived in results create the rich world that inhabits the beginning of X-Men: Apocalypse. It’s also not too blunt about the existing prejudices against the mutants, allowing them to be more organically blended into the background. Sure, this could just be shallowness at work, but the way it came off was like a more subtle version of the “mutant hate” themes of the first film. Not to say that there isn’t “mutant hate” stuff in here (the fight between Angel and NIghtcrawler is a very unsubtle example of that), but a lighter tone keeps this from all bogging down this third of the movie. This also contains Cyclops’s origin scene and that’s just Sam Raimi Spider-Man types of awesome. The opening action sequence is the craziest this series has dared to get, but it balances that out with a more brutal and horror-like sensibility, balancing the ridiculousness of the action with hard hitting violence. MIchael Fassbender has a tired (but in a good way) sense to him as Magneto in these opening moments, and he actually gets a chance to act for the last time in this movie. You know what? Other than the tonally awkward sections that actually seem to add to the aesthetic here, the first third of this movie is actually very good. The new X-Men as kiddos are compelling in a Freeform TV show type of way, and the other actors seem to be happy to be back and playing everything like old pros. Even Oscar Isaac seems to show some crazy and corny promise as Apocalypse. Soon though, everything they build falls. Soon, the balanced act falls apart, and X-Men: Apocalypse becomes Gods of Egypt combined with writer Simon Kinberg’s Fant4stic. I’m the most lenient critic in the world, and I still gave those movies .5’s out of 10. Combining them does not make a better movie; it just pisses all over everything that was built up well. So, as promised, here is the smackdown of X-Men: Apocalypse’s final two thirds. All the characters that were previously interesting cease to exist as entities. Magneto becomes a mindless goon, along with Angel, Psylocke, and Storm (none of whom were really given personalities to begin with). Now, yes, the argument could be made that the few of them were mindless Horsemen of the Apocalypse (aka the bad guy's henchmen), but that all breaks down on first glance. If they truly were characters, they would have an actual purpose in the story. These characters only serve as bosses in the tiresome-looking ending. The ending, by the way, is tiresome, and when one considers the effects used to bring it to life, the parallel to Gods of Egypt becomes even more clear. The garish computer effects (especially on a cargo boat) make the film completely intangible, almost to the point that the characters become action figures in their own movie. For all the modern blockbusters that beat the critics over the head, I never usually find that sympathy. Blockbusters are loud, but the good ones can just cover it up with interesting action and colorful visuals. X-Men: Apocalypse is not that blockbuster. Again, I’d use the words “garish visuals” allows the overall tone to skew for the ugly, including the loud booming of the explosions and powers. Olivia Munn, after the greatness of The Newsroom, is stuck moving around like a CGI character even when she’s in live-action. Fassbender gets the worst part of it all, as he just stands around for a lot of the time. When the team actually does team up, Fassbender’s actions become completely irrelevant, and as a character, he takes a step back. Also, notice how the Fantastic 4 kill Doctor Doom in Fant4stic. They all just punch him at the same time, and seeing how Kinberg can’t think of anything better to do when his heroes need to beat down a villain the heroes do the same here. Director Bryan Singer doesn’t do anything flashy, which on one hand helps create the TV aesthetic, but on the other hand makes the tone really flat and untextured. Yes, these are all the nitpicks that could be pointed out about the ending of this movie, but it’s thematically empty, so there’s nothing else to do than nitpick. The unfortunate bottom line is that after a downright classic (X-Men: First Class), and another pretty good movie (Days of Future Past), X-Men: Apocalypse has taken the bar down low. If this seemed like a positive review, it’s because the positive stuff was more digestible than the negative. I give X-Men: Apocalypse a 4.5 out of 10 (only a third of the movie is good, so statistically that’s actually a leg up for the movie).
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |