X-Men: Apocalypse is the ninth installment of a superhero movie series beginning with Brian Singer's X-Men in 2000. The movie takes fans of the Marvel Comics created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, into the 1980s after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender take on the roles of the films younger Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto, to lead their side to peace with humans or their destruction.
The movie follows the struggles of young mutants discovering their super abilities in a world trying to understand them. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) works from the shadows of underground networks to fight any injustice toward mutants who can not fight for themselves. Professor X runs his school for the "gifted," with the help of Beast (Nicholas Hoult), while Magneto has distanced himself to begin anew with a family of his own.
Tensions rise when an all powerful super mutant known as Apocalypse (Oscar Issac), is freed from being buried alive for a nap lasting a millennium, finds the present world lacking of his ideals of mutant dominance. He sets out to find four of the worlds most powerful mutants Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Angel (Ben Hardy), and Magneto himself to take down the worlds "false gods." However, in an attempt to find Magneto as well, Professor X turns the rage of Apocalypse onto his comrades and students.
The film overall is a huge production, with 3D glasses worthy supernatural visuals and strong origin elements that propels the film along nicely, but lacks the power punch of action to keep the momentum running smooth throughout. The film jumps back and forth through timelines to seamlessly invest viewers into the characters on screen. The viewer truly understands the bonds formed through many challenging trials even when it is only expressed with facial gestures.
The film is 147 minutes and tends to fall short in keeping the villains actions substantial throughout the film. In fact, the film needed a better balance of fight scenes to fit on the viewers plate alongside a hefty amount of CGI.
Fans of the film will enjoy the large variety of character highlights for Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Alex Summers/Havok (Lucas Till), Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver (Evan Peters), but because of the films large roster, some may be disappointed by characters like Jubilee (Lana Condor) or Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The film keeps all of the elements that have made the X-Men series so beloved by fans, with an effort to up the roster, but could it have been done better? Future films in the series should take notes from the success of Captain America: Civil War, where ingenious character development and well-choreographed combat fan service took the picture over the top.
IMDB rated the film 7.6 out of 10. I personally agree and feel the film was amazing and encourage everyone to see it, but I was expecting the action to live up to the hype. Below is the trailer, the movie hits theaters today so check it out and you can decide for yourself.