X-Men: Apocalypse

Finally, I got to see one of my most anticipated movies that I wanted to watch this summer, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” which came out a month ago. Today, I will let everyone know what I thought about it.

Leonard Maltin started his review out by saying, “This screen series based on the colorful Marvel characters has proved to be both durable and flexible: having enjoyed a great run in its initial phase, it spun off two Wolverine vehicles for Hugh Jackman (with another on the way) and then rewound the timeline to create a series of prequels, beginning with the excellent X-Men: First Class.” Director and co-writer Bryan Singer, who kicked off “X-Men” in 2000 has released the latest sequel, “X-Men: Apocalypse” and gave another winner. (He even included a not-so-subtle in-joke about the first sequel he didn’t direct in the series.)

Maltin stated, “Essentially, the screenplay (credited to series veteran Simon Kinberg, from a story by him, Singer, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) follows one major through-line: the world’s first and most powerful mutant, Apocalypse, has awoken after thousands of years.” Seeing the world how it looks in 1983, affected by war and conflict, he decides that it must be destroyed in order to be reborn – with him as its automatic leader. Although he is unrecognizable under pounds of makeup and costuming, this villainous character is played by Oscar Isaac, who, as Maltin said, “in his few short years onscreen has proved to be a rare talent—and something of a chameleon.”

Besides him, you need a notepad to keep notes on who’s who and who’s new: we have familiarized to the idea that James McAvoy is the younger Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X and Michael Fassbender is Erik Lensherr (aka Magneto), the roles made by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. We have also seen Jennifer Lawrence take over the role of Raven/Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast, and Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok. Sophie Turner from “Game of Thrones” comes in the role of Jean Grey and Kodi Smit-McPhee is now a German-accented Kurt/Nightcrawler.

Evan Peters, as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver, stole the show in the 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” We met Rose Byrne as CIA Agent Moira MacTaggert five years ago in “X-Men: First Class.” However, Tye Sheridan is new to the series, taking over the role of Alex Summers’ brother Scott/Cyclops, and other newcomers include Ben Hardy as Angel, Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe/Storm, Lana Condor as Jubilee, former “Daily Show” correspondent Olivia Munn as Psylocke, Wrestler “Giant” Gustav Claude Ouimet as The Blob, and Tómas Lemarquis as Caliban among others. Hugh Jackman makes an uncredited cameo as Logan/Wolverine.

Whether new or not, the characters’ motivations are completely clear and the story is told without the clutter you would expect with so many people involved. The action scenes are shot on a grand scale, appropriate to the power of the film’s god-like villain, and the visual effects are amazing. As usual, Bryan Singer’s longtime editor and collaborator John Ottman also gives the strong music score.

Maltin complained, “My only quibble with the picture is its length. When I’m caught up in a movie I become unaware of time, but if I start to feel antsy I know it’s beginning to wear out its welcome. X-Men: Apocalypse is first-rate (first class?) all the way, but I can’t help believing that it would be even better if it told its story more compactly. That’s a relatively small complaint when weighed against the movie’s many assets.”

I didn’t mind the runtime, but my only complaint is that with all these X-Men, how come everyone is not utilized? I want to see all these X-Men do something, but I don’t, which I often wonder what this series is doing wrong that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is doing right.

Spoiler alert: In the post-credits scene, men visit the Weapon X facility to get data on William Stryker's (Josh Helman) mutant research, including an X-Ray and blood sample labeled "Weapon X," for the Essex Corporation.

Overall, I would say that if you still have a theater that is playing this movie, go see it, it’s not a complete waste of time. If not, than I definitely say that this is worth the rental when it comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD. The characters are great, the action is engaging, the pacing is a little bit of a problem, and the dialogue is nice with some great comedic timing. I don’t like this as much as the first two or “Days of the Future Past,” but it’s still a good one. I would rate this with a 9-.

Thank you for joining in on all my reviews in the month of June, stay tuned next month for an exciting review of a classic series that has a huge fan-base.