Too many special effects and less focus on plot mires the latest X-Men installment director Bryan Singer has to offer, titled ‘Apocalypse’. The worst part is that it betrays the expectations of diehard X-Men fans and dilutes it just like any other movie with an apocalyptic twist to it.
The film begins in ancient Egypt, where an uber-mutant god’s (En Sabah Nur, played by Oscar Isaac) destiny towards immortality is thwarted and put in sleep, after which he awakes in the 1980’s. Observing the decadent state society is in, he decides to finish what he had started, first by recruiting more mutants as his bunch of bodyguards, grouped after the Biblical Four Horsemen. He manages to recruit Storm (Ororo Munroe) and Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr), who pretty much puts up more than a good fight against Prof. Xavier’s bunch of would-be X-Men, consisting of a budding Cyclops, Beast, Jean Grey and others.
A star-studded X-Men movie and yet no Hugh Jackman. No, wait, Wolverine does make an uncredited cameo, but that is good for absolutely nothing. The acting might of James McAvoy (Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto and my personal pick for Daniel Craig’s Bond successor) does not get much scope to do something better than what they did in the previous two installments. A complete wastage of stars in cast.
It’s simply larger-than-life, and long (two-and-a-half hours, the usual length lately with these products). Clichéd dialogues do not help in any way. While the best ‘X-Men’ movies are defined by their keen intelligence, casual wit and deep reserves of emotion, ‘Apocalypse’ serves those virtues up in minimal doses, settling for an extravagant display of visual effects that would have scarcely been possible 16 years ago.
The back-and-forth between Xavier (in the ‘mutants and humans can live together’ camp) and Magneto (in the ‘mutants and humans can never live together’ camp) has grown increasingly tired over six films, even if we’re now witnessing a midpoint in their relationship. Similarly, Raven’s mixed feelings about becoming a role model for mutants everywhere after saving the president in ‘Future Past’ is ho-hum stuff several notches below Jennifer Lawrence’s formidable skill level.
Bryan Singer and Marvel Entertainment should really put a break on this franchise and get back on the drawing board. Less is always more and once they realise this, I hope better sequels or prequels can be crafted in the near future.
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