X-Men: Apocalypse Review - An Upsetting Failure That Sets The Franchise Back Ten Years
In what transpires to be a rather out of place scene in the film, a couple of the young mutants bunk off to go see Return Of The Jedi (one of the few times where Apocalypse begrudgingly remembers it has a period setting). Jubilee finds it less good than Empire, Scott prefers the original and Jean's input in the conversation is that they call agree "the third one is usually the worst". Singer is clearly taking a jab at The Last Stand, but misses the real irony; Apocalypse is the third in the softly-rebooted X-Men series and is far and away the worst.
I wouldn't usually take such obvious review-bait as that, but it serves to highlight a bigger point. The director appears to have forgotten that there's been a whole new trilogy since The Last Stand (and a Wolverine spin-off one that's wrapping up next year), just as he seems to be oblivious to anything that's happened in the superhero genre since he left X-2. Apocalypse is like the movie he wanted to make before running off to do Superman Returns, and has all the negative hallmarks of mid-naughties superhero flicks that come with it.
But it goes beyond ten years too late. So much of the movie feels painfully misjudged; one key sequence evokes Birdemic and another Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, then straight after a line of dialogue is directly lifted from Batman Begins. If some continuity-fitting version of this film had come out in 2006, it would have been regarded no better than The Last Stand. This is best exemplified by a sequence that ruins the once thematically impenetrable Holocaust parallel, making it seem highly insensitive. And, as if to seal how saddening this all is, it was Singer who first pushed that idea on screen.
The Usual Suspects is my favourite movie and I'm now doubting myself. How could such a tight, sparky storyteller make such a muddled, effectless film? Was it really just Christopher McQuarrie all along? Are the original X-films and Days Of Future Past really as good as we thought (I rewatched X-2 in a state of distress straight after and that doesn't seem to be the case)? Was this, like last year's Fant4stic, subject to a ruinous level of studio meddling? My only conclusion is that Singer is expecting this to be his last go round with the mutants (he's contractually obligated to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea) and thus threw every unused idea he's had since founding the franchise at the wall in a desperate push of perceived genius.
That's poor filmmaking ethic and a lazy approach to franchising, which should be rage-inducing, but is really just disappointing. X-Men: Apocalypse could have been a long-running series showing that it could live on in a post-Dark Knight, post-Marvel world in its own unique, forward-thinking way. Instead, it's a movie lost out of time, and there's no way to rewrite this one.
X-Men: Apocalypse is in UK cinemas from 18th May and US cinemas from 27th May.