Stubs - X-Men: Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till. Directed by Bryan Singer. Screenplay by Simon Kinberg. Based on X-Men by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Apocalypse by Louise Simonson, and  Jackson Guice. Produced by Simon Kinberg, Bryan Singer, Hutch Parker, Lauren Shuler Donner. Run time 144 minutes. Color. USA. Superhero, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

What happened?

Even before X-Men: Days of Future Past (2013) was even released, the followup was already in the planning stages. According to director Bryan Singer, the next film would concentrate on the origins of the X-Men and feature younger actors in the roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm. The idea was to complete the trilogy of X-Men films that began with X-Men: First Class (2011) and would take place in 1983, 20 years after First Class and ten years after Days of Future Past.

Filming began on April 27, 2015 with Singer back in the director’s chair in Montreal, Canada and production would last until late August, with additional filming in January 2016. The film was released on May 6, 2016 in London and not until May 27 in the U.S.

The film doesn’t open in 1983 but 3600 BC, picking up where the post credits scene in Days left off, well, sort of. En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is a powerful but elderly mutant who rules ancient Egypt. His plan to keep living is to transfer his consciousness into another mutant's body, who has a healing factor. However, he and his four followers, the Horsemen of Apocalypse, are betrayed by conspirators who bring about the collapse of the pyramid temple they’re in. His followers are killed and he is entombed alive.

Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy)

Fast forward to 1983, Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) is being teased by a bully, when he hurries to boys’ room because he doesn’t feel right. However, it is then that his mutant powers to shoot concussive kinetic energy blasts from his eyes manifests, so Alex Summers aka Havoc (Lucas Till) takes his brother to Professor Charles Xavier's (James McAvoy) educational institute, hoping that Xavier and Hank McCoy will teach him to control his mutation. Scott meets the telepathic and telekinetic Jean Grey (Sophia Turner) and the two develop an attraction.

Back in Egypt, CIA Operative Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) forces her way down into what was the destroyed pyramid, where there is a ritual going on. A group of worshippers of En Sabah Nur are trying to resurrect him. It appears that the sunlight Moira has let into the space awakens him. And the group of worshippers are the first to die. Moira manages to escape and returns to the CIA, but a shockwave is felt around the world.

In Communist Poland, Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender) lives happily with his wife (Carolina Bartczak) and daughter. During the worldwide disturbances caused by En Sabah Nur, Erik uses his powers to save a coworker at the plant where he works.

On the street, En Sabah Nur meets a petty thief, who happens to be a mutant who can control weather, Ororo Munroe (Alexandra Shipp). She befriends him and takes him back to her hideout. There, he starts to learn about humanity from searching through the television. Determined that humanity has lost its way, he plans to remake the world. Munroe becomes his follower after he enhances her power.

Raven (Jennifer Lawrence)

Meanwhile, in East Berlin, shape-shifting mutant Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a mutant who can teleport. She saves him from a cage match with Angel (Ben Hardy). She takes him to a black marketeer, Caliban (Tómas Lemarquis), to transport Kurt to America.

Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender) cornered in the forest by police.

Back in Poland, the Polish police grab Erik’s daughter in the forest near his house. They offer to exchange her if he turns himself in. As tensions rise, Erik's daughter begins to display mutant powers (by mentally calling in wild animals from all over the forest). In the confusion, a policeman with a bow and arrow, to avoid a metal weapon, accidentally shoots and kills his wife and daughter. In despair, Erik kills the police.

En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), with Ororo Munroe (Alexandra
Shipp, Angel (Ben Hardy), and Psylocke (Olivia Munn).

En Sabah Nur goes to Caliban looking for mutants and while he doesn’t cooperate, En Sabah Nur recruits Psylocke (Olivia Munn), a mutant with the ability to project purple psychic energy, usually into the form of an energy blade that can burn through metal. Angel is also recruited and En Sabah Nur enhances both of their powers.

Next, En Sabah Nur finds Erik and takes him back to Auschwitz. He shows him the true extent of his powers. Erik destroys the camp and joins En Sabah Nur, the fourth horseman of Apocalypse’s army.

When Xavier contacts Erik, En Sabah Nur remotely accesses Cerebro, the device Xavier uses to locate mutants, and forces Xavier to make countries launch their nuclear arsenals into space to prevent interference.

Later, En Sabah Nur and his Four Horsemen arrive at the mansion and kidnap Xavier. Alex tries to stop them, but causes an explosion that destroys the mansion.

Meanwhile, Peter Maximoff aka Quicksilver (Evan Peters), having realized that he's Erik's biological son, arrives at the mansion at that moment, hoping Xavier will help find him. Using his super-speed, he managed to evacuate everyone except Alex, who was killed in the explosion.

Colonel William Stryker's (Josh Helman) forces arrive and capture Hank, Raven, Peter, and Moira, and take them for interrogation. They don’t see Scott, Jean, and Kurt, because Jean puts up a mental block, so they secretly follow them onto the helicopter, but find that there is a field up blocking them from using their powers.

Weapon X aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman)

Back at Stryker’s base, they are able to liberate Scott, Jean, and Kurt, using Stryker's experiment Weapon X aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), whose memories Jean partially restores. Wolverine escapes.

 Jean Grey (Sophia Turner), Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan)

While Erik uses his powers to alter the Earth's magnetic field, causing destruction across the planet, En Sabah Nur prepares to transfer his consciousness into Xavier's body to gain his psychic powers. Xavier secretly sends a telepathic distress call to Jean and the others, who travel to Cairo to battle En Sabah Nur and his Four Horsemen. They manage to rescue Xavier and flee in a plane. Angel and Psylocke attack the plane, but Nightcrawler teleports his friends away. Psylocke manages to jump safely, but Angel is knocked out in the plane crash.

Magneto before Raven and Peter manage to turn him from Apocalypse.

Raven and Peter manage to turn Erik from En Sabah Nur and Ororo turns against him as well. With Scott’s help, they manage to keep En Sabah Nur preoccupied physically, while Xavier fights him telepathically. However, En Sabah Nur manages to turn the tables on Xavier.

Nearly defeated, Xavier begs Jean to unleash the full strength of her abilities. When she does, she incinerates En Sabah Nur. Psylocke and Angel escape. Xavier restores Moira’s memories that he had taken from her after the events in Cuba, and their relationship is rekindled.

Back at the mansion, Erik and Jean use their powers to reconstruct the school, but Erik turns down Xavier's offer to stay and help teach. Peter decides not to tell Erik yet that he is Erik's son. Using confiscated Sentinels, Hank and Raven train the new X-Men recruits: Scott, Jean, Ororo, Kurt, and Peter.

In the post-credits scene, and you know there would be one, men in black suits visit the Weapon X facility to retrieve an X-ray and a blood sample marked "Weapon X" on behalf of the Essex Corporation.

To begin with, the acting isn’t bad. Even though it’s hard to imagine James McAvoy growing into Patrick Stewart or Michael Fassbender into Ian McKellen, both are good in their roles as Professor Xavier and Magneto respectively. That can be said for most of the younger versions of the characters. Tye Sheridan and Sophia Turner don’t seem like they’ll grow up to be James Marsden or Famke Jenssen either. And, if to repeat myself, Alexandra Shipp has the unenviable task of being the forerunner to Halle Berry as Storm, or, as she’s called here, Ororo Munroe.

Up until Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), I will admit I wasn’t really aware of Oscar Issac. Here as Apocalypse, Issac is good as the ultimate villain, but totally unrecognizable in the role. The downside of the character is that there is no buildup to him, the way the Avengers built up to Thanos. Instead, we’re just introduced to him in the post-credit scene of Days of Future Past. If you’re unfamiliar with the X-Men mythology or missed that movie, you may not understand right away that he’s supposed to be feared as a vengeful God. The fact that, even after gaining powers, he can be defeated almost seems impossible, but his defeat must happen for the story to continue and Fox wasn’t in a hurry to end the franchise.

Quicksilver (Evan Peters), best character.

The best character in this film, as well as in Days of Future Past, is Quicksilver (Evan Peters). A better version of DC’s Flash, Peters plays the character with a certain amount of playful mischief. There is not enough for him to get his own film, but he tends to make the films he is in more fun to watch.

However, he’s not enough to save this film. The story is pretty much without surprises for one about an immensely powerful and ancient mutant who gets reactivated and starts to destroy the world. Characters act the way you’d expect them to in any given situation but there is really no development. Entertaining at times, the film is ultimately disappointing.

One lesson this film series could have learned from the MCU would be the need to build up to the main bad guy, in this case Apocalypse. The MCU built up to Thanos over several films; this franchise led up to Apocalypse in a post-credits scene. Perhaps if the franchise was more thought out, it could have built to this film and it might have felt more monumental. But it didn't and the film isn't.

The special effects are what one would expect in a big budget superhero fantasy film. They are very good and given the narrative, the film relies on them to a great extent. But they don’t make the film itself memorable.

Sometimes a franchise goes on too long and/or seems to lose its way. There were the Doctor Strange films in the MCU, films that felt more like homework than entertainment, something you had to endure in order to get to the good stuff. With the X-Men it would be X-Men: Apocalypse, which points to the next film, Logan.