Star: Michael Fassbender

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) – Michael Fassbender and Sophie Turner

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

This movie gets off to a good start. It seems better coordinated, more focused, and more consistently captivating than any other X-Men movie to date. So while I’ve rated every other as around about Bang Average, I have to say this is a few clear levels better. Indeed, for now I’m going to rate it Pretty Good, alongside Black Adam – a movie to which this one bears a striking resemblance. The ending was particularly strong here (much like in Black Adam), but the plot building up to that was also quite cohesive, and the drama was quite well balanced with action throughout. It’s not trying to do too many things at once, like previous X-Men movies have often been guilty of; and it’s not stuck between genres like Wolverine (2013) was for example, since that more depressing vibes and the horror factor was hitting home a lot more, while in this movie the dark forces are much more grandiose – much less raw & uncomfortable – thus making it more digestible for a smoother entertainment experience.

Jean Grey is the main hero of this movie, and Famke Janssen no longer plays that role – she’s played by Sophie Turner here and will continue in that role for Dark Phoenix (2019) although that movie is relatively disappointing. Sophie Turner is not the only cast member who’s been replaced either – Storm, Nightcrawler and Angel are played by new actors here too, for example. Several familiar characters have returned though, such as James McAvoy‘s Professor X, and Michael Fassbender‘s Magneto, and Jennifer Lawrence‘s Mystique, Nicholas Hoult‘s Beast, and Evan Peters‘ Quicksilver (who is revealed in this movie to be Magneto’s son, unbeknown to Magneto himself).

The main antagonist is an ancient Egyptian mutant – the first ever mutant – with strong telekinetic powers, who’s been brought back to life from his tomb, within a collapsed pyramid, where he’s been kind of comatose for thousands of years. He’s called Apocalypse and is played quite well by Oscar Isaac.

Sequels

Next up in the X-Men saga, is Logan (2017) – another spin-off Wolverine-focused movie – which we got a little teaser for at the end of this movie, after the closing credits. Then after that, there’s Dark Phoenix (2019) – zeroing in on Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey aka Phoenix or Dark Phoenix. That movie bears a striking resemblance to Captain Marvel (2019) which was also made by Marvel, released shortly before Dark Phoenix and was Marvel’s first ever female-led movie which had been in planning for many years prior to its release. Captain Marvel is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), so that character is also featured in Avengers: Endgame (2019); while Dark Phoenix is a character within the X-Men cinematic universe which includes several Wolverine and Deadpool spin-offs but doesn’t ever overlap with the MCU for some reason.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014) – Hugh Jackman

This movie gets off to a weird but interesting start, with cool but confusing action scenes played out by low quality young actors.

As the movie continues, the confusing weirdness continues along with lots of hot-headed drama and a bit of cool action, right through till the end. It’s too drama heavy for my taste, but still it’s not a bad movie – I’d rate it Bang Average along with all the other X-Men and Wolverine movies to date since they all have a similar mix of pros & cons. Just enough good stuff to pique our interest, but not enough to thoroughly entertain and make it frequently rewatchable. It’s worth watching as part of a marathon of viewing all the X-Men movies in order of release date, but I’d avoid watching it as a standalone movie on its own merit outside of the wider saga since it provides valuable context for understanding what remains a weird & unclear movie even with that context.

Unlike previous X-Men and Wolverine movies, this one features a good amount of screentime from both the younger generation and the older generation of Professor X and Magneto, although the younger generation gets a slightly priority here.

Hugh Jackman plays Logan / Wolverine as usual. James McAvoy plays the younger Professor X, and Patrick Stewart plays the older Professor X. Michael Fassbender plays the younger Magneto, and Ian McKellen plays the older Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence plays Mystique who has a very vital role in this movie.

Peter Dinklage plays arguably the main antagonist, Dr Trask, although the real enemies to the X-Men are the Sentinels he creates to hunt down and kill all mutants, and movie revolves more around the team stopping Mystique from killing him since it’s his death that gets his Sentinel program funded so Wolverine went back in time to stop her from killing him in order to prevent the extinction of all X-Men and mutants in the future.

Halle Berry gets a little screentime as Storm, and Famke Janssen gets even less screentime as Jean Grey. Nicholas Hoult gets a fair amount of screentime as Beast, although his character was not particularly vital to the plot. There were a few other characters from the usual squad too, but the important core characters have already been mentioned.

The movie ends on a happy note, with disaster averted and everyone alive – even Jean Grey and Scott Summers who were both killed off in previous movies. Then at the end of the closing credits there was what seemed to be a little teaser scene – indeed it was a sneak preview of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and it looks quite captivating.

X-Men: First Class (2011) – James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Kevin Bacon

This movie tells the backstory of most of the core X-Men characters including: Professor X (Charles Xavier) played mostly by James McAvoy (co-star of Wanted alongside Angelina Jolie; also in Glass alongside Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis) to be a generation or two younger than Patrick Stewart’s version of Professor X; and there’s Erik aka Magneto played by Michael Fassbender (star of Assassin’s Creed) to be a generation or two younger than Ian McKellen’s Magneto. There’s also Raven aka Mystique played by Jennifer Lawrence; and Hank McCoy aka Beast played by Nicholas Hoult. We also see Alex Summers aka Havok (played by Lucas Till) – in theory his character is the younger brother of Scott Summers (Cyclops) who featured in the original X-Men trilogy from the decade prior. And there’s several more weird characters besides these.

The main antagonist is played by Kevin Bacon. His character, Sebastian Shaw, is the doctor responsible for torturing young Erik (Magneto) and killing his mother; and most of this movie revolves around Erik’s mission to get even. Sebastian Shaw also has mutant powers himself, including the ability absorb energy from all kinds of weapons, then transform it and throw it back as he pleases. He also wears the original version of what eventually becomes Magneto’s hat, preventing Xavier from reading his mind.

We also get a brief cameo from Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine, when Charles & Erik originally approach him, but he immediately tells them to get lost without even asking what they want, and they do, and that’s as far as his role in this movie goes.

Other significant characters include Emma Frost, a telepath with diamond skin played by January Jones; and Angel Salvadore, a fireball shooting girl with butterfly wings played by Zoë Kravitz. There’s also CIA agent Moira MacTaggert played by Rose Byrne, and a disappearing red-skinned devil type character called Azazel played Jason Flemyng. And that’s not all but we’ll be here all day listing every significant mutant in this movie – we’ve covered the main one I think, there’s just a few more.

Considering how drama-heavy this movie is, and how childish it often is from time to time, I have to rate is OK – no better than the original X-Men trilogy – in fact it’s probably slightly worse, on a par with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) but the margins are small so I’ve rated them all Bang Average.