X-Men: Apocalypse

I really enjoyed the last X-Men movie. The decision to go back and explore different stories with younger versions of the characters has ultimately paid off, but even by their own admission, the third movie is never as good. That last statement is a bit of a lie. While Apocalypse may not be a high point in the series, it's still a pretty awesome movie.

In a pretty exhilarating introduction in ancient Egypt, we see all-powerful mutant Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) get buried under a collapsed pyramid. In 1983, CIA agent Moira McTaggert (Rose Byrne) witnesses his reawakening at the hands of a cult. Meanwhile in Poland, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is living a quiet life with his wife and daughter until the townspeople discover what he is. Elsewhere, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is off looking for mutants and comes across Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), whom she decides to take back to Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). It's at this point that Apocalypse reveals himself to the world with his plan to destroy everyone so he can start the world afresh.

Okay, so after writing out that plot it does sound like the movie doesn't have a lot going on for it. The plot of the movie does take a bit of a back seat, but don't worry, it's not sacrificed for the sake of action. Rather the focus of this movie is character development. Although the majority of characters who we've seen before have already been established, we do get a better insight into their personalities. For example, the psyche of Magneto is explored and we can further see how he is torn between being good and bad. The new characters who are introduced are also given similar inner conflicts. Jean Grey (played by Sophie Turner) is shown to have an immense inner power that she is unable to control. This ties in nicely with the future we saw in X-Men: The Last Stand. 

The performances from the series regulars were solid as usual. The newbies however gave mixed performances. Kodi Smit-McPhee was a standout. He gave Nightcrawler the right amount of a comedic edge that helped lighten the dark mood throughout the film. That complemented the laughs given by Even Peters as Quicksilver well. Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp and Tye Sheridan came out okay, but they still need some more time to find their footing, which is okay with a franchise like this as they have plenty of time to do that. I was really disappointed with Oscar Isaac's performance because he is my favourite actor and he was misused so much in this film. I think it primarily had to do with the fact that the character of Apocalypse wasn't all that menacing for me and none of the power that he supposedly had came through.

I know it seems like I'm skirting around whether or not to say this movie is good or bad, but I have to commit to something. I guess I thought it was a little bit better than average, but the lacking plot and Superman level of destruction in the action sequence at the end dragged it down.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Enough with the X-Men already! Is what I was thinking before watching this movie. It's not that I'm not a fan, it was more that I thought I was all X-Men'd out. This movie showed me I wasn't.

One of the great things that was in the movie was the number of characters. In any other movie, I would say that this would be too confusing, but it made this one so much better. There are all the characters from the original trilogy (Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and, my favourite, Iceman), characters from First Class that we all loved (the young versions of Professor X, Magneto and Mystique) and new characters that will definitely be your new favourites, like Quicksilver (who I think everyone will love), played by Evan Peters (Kick-Ass). The only problem with Quicksilver is that he'll be appearing in the next Avengers flick played by a different actor, James' Kick-Ass co-star Aaron Johnson (he won't be as funny).

I won't go into too much plot, but basically the mutants of now (or the future?) send Wolverine back in time to prevent a war between mutants and humans breaking out. He teams up with young Magneto and Professor X to make this happen.

I will go into the 70's setting though. It is amazingly accurate (or maybe it just seems that way to me). Instead of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the historical moment that is the backdrop is the end of the Vietnam War. Like First Class, this adds an extra level of tension that the audience can relate to. Director Bryan Singer also handles the dramatic moments of the story really well.

The other thing this movie handles really well is the comedy. The last couple of X-Men movies have been pretty good at mixing comedy and drama, but this time it is perfected. The jokes aren't rammed down your throat so that they are overplayed, rather they are well timed and don't interfere with the films more serious situations.

I had a couple of issues with the continuity of this film in the timeline. The last time we saw Patrick Stewart's Professor X he was torn to shreds by Dark Phoenix, yet this film is set years after that and he is fine. Maybe if it was made clear that this was an alternate timeline it would be okay, but I don't think it is.

Verdict: I had a lot of fun watching this movie, revisiting old characters and meeting new ones was great. The story was pretty simple, but at the same time engaging enough that you didn't lose interest.