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.

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

One thing we’ve definitely not been short of over the past decade are comedy zombie movies, with Shaun of the Dead, Juan of the Dead, Warm Bodies and of course Zombieland just a few of the films goring-up the silver-screen. Now the man who wrote Paranormal Activity 3-5, Christopher Landon, has had a go at writing something original, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. 

Scouts Guide begins with a quick origin/context story for the inevitable virus that will destroy all mankind, with a cameo from Blake Anderson as a twerking janitor. Understandably, it’s pretty much all down-hill from here. High-school sophomores and long-time scouts Ben (Tye Sheridan), Carter (Logan Miller) and Augie (Joey Morgan) are out with their Scout Leader Rogers (David Koechner) trying to recruit new members, with little success. Ben and Carter want to quit scouts because they think it’s lame, but don’t want to hurt the feelings of their friend Augie. Whilst discussing the situation, Ben accidentally hits a rogue deer. Carter’s sister Kendall (Halston Sage) and her friends are able to help them, much to the pleasure of drooling Ben who is in love with Kendall. 

They’re invited to a party that Kendall and her friends are attending, a party that is sure to be the best night of their lives. However as they’re talking the supposedly-dead deer somehow vanishes, but they think nothing of it. Trying to buy beer for the party, they get help from the cocktail waitress of the nearby strip-club, Denise (Sarah Dumont). After meeting Augie in the woods for a scout ritual and then sneaking off to go to the party, Ben and Carter find the town deserted, until they run into a sticky situation with some zombies. Facing certain zombification, the two are saved by Denise who of course has a shotgun. Though the “best night of their lives” has just begun.

You get what’s coming to you by knowingly going to see this film. Having watched the trailer, seen the reviews and reading about how it’s bombed all over the place, it’s no surprise we were the only ones in the cinema. You’d assume that this was going to be designed as a B-movie, but instead then went for shock-factor teenage comedy, and whilst you can see what they’re trying to achieve it really doesn’t live up to the genre. The odd tent-pole scenes of hilarious gore and unapologetic immature comedy are fleshed out with weak plot development and try-hard dramatic scenes. 

This really is a film for 15 year old boys who want to experience the blood, boobs and naughty-words of the MA-15+ rating (non-Australians just scale to your mid-pubescent rating). If you want to a watch a scout clang to a rotting penis like a painfully stretchy bungee cord to save himself from death by trampolining zombies, or if you like the idea of weed-whackers and pressurised door-knob guns (not the only knobs in this movie) used to pulverise heads, then this might be the movie for you. If you thought films like This is the End and Unfinished Business were funny then you might like this, but otherwise it’s just a less-intuitive rip-off of Zombieland with comical-gore taken to the extreme. 

You’ve gotta hand it to Christopher Landon for at least trying to pander to his chosen audience, and for the most part Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse was better than I thought it would be. It does have some awkwardly funny moments, but they’re packed between a slow story, weak dialogue, stupid scenarios and unlikable characters.