Alex Vs Simon: 12 Steps To Decide If X-Men Apocalypse Actually Sucks

3. Action

Alex: Theres quite a bit of action in X-Men: Apocalypse and a lot of it is, in isolation, pretty entertaining. Its bright and colourful, and Singer once again shows a great ability at balancing all the different powers being flung about. Even the final battle, which goes on far too long and is a rather static showdown, has some good stuff in there.

Unfortunately, it never quite pops like it should because every sequence is so awkwardly established, coming out of nowhere in the story and not having enough character backing to make you really care. Why does Beast have to fight Psylocke? And Cyclops vs. Storm is only exciting if you know theyll be friends in the future.

The negative effects of this are best seen in the way this negates one of the films best scenes. Quicksilver showcase should have been a worth the price of admission moment, but while it is a great example of the movies humour done right and a situation where the sheeny CGI isnt really a problem, its so poorly set-up, with Peter just turning up at the X-Mansion, its so much harder to get into than the tighter one from Days Of Future Past.

Simon: I had no problem with the action: Apocalypse thrills and thrives when it is focussed more on spectacle (which is why the devils in the details are entirely forgivable). It isn't vapid, muscular action either for all the accusations of a lack of consequences, and as a dyed in the wool X-Men fan, I got goose-bumps at both the Dark Phoenix hint, the Weapon X sequence AND the reappearance of the Sentinels.

And personally, I felt Quicksilver's daddy issues were the perfect (and only) opportunity to get him into the X-Men team. He was a loner (and a loser by his own admission) and he would have no over-arching altruistic drive in him: what he had was a hole that required action.

If that's not enough, I'm out of answers.