Review of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

Article by RABID TRIBBLE

The 8^th installment in the longtime X-Men film franchise, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE doesn’t offer much that we haven’t seen before. Perhaps that’s why the movie received generally negative reviews from film critics. That being said, it is however a solid story and an entertaining adventure, offering plenty of action, good special effects, and welcome escapism. It’s a good popcorn movie, offering just the right amount of light philosophy and intellect that we expect from our summer blockbusters. Nobody goes to see a superhero movie expecting (or wanting) an intellectual treatise. We go to see these kinds of films for a momentary escape from our sometimes harsh reality, delving into a world where good and evil are well-defined, and characters in outlandish costumes align themselves with one side or the other and battle each other. And that’s exactly what X-MEN: APOCALYPSE offers.

En Sabbah Nur (played by Oscar Isaac, barely recognizable underneath the heavy makeup), an extremely powerful mutant from ancient Egypt, is set free after having been buried alive millennia ago. He subsequently immediately embarks on a mission to destroy the world and rebuild it in his own image, i.e. inhabited by his fellow mutants. The religious overtones couldn’t be more blatant as En Sabbah Nur, also known as Apocalypse, believes he is a god and that humanity has gone on to worship false gods in his absence. In our century, Apocalypse determines that our true religion is technology. Enlisting four powerful mutants as his lieutenants (The “four horsemen of the apocalypse”----get it?), he goes about his path of destruction. The X-Men, led by professor Charles Xavier (James McEvoy) predictably are opposed to Apocalypse’s plans. The typical spandex-clad battles ensue.

Plot holes and continuity issues notwithstanding, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE is a worthy entry in the X-Men movie canon. After more than 16 years of the current “golden age” of superhero movies (which actually began with the very first X-Men movie in 2000), most of us fans of the genre are now suffering from “superhero fatigue”. It is becoming more difficult for new films to come out that infuse any freshness into the genre, which is starting to feel formulaic. The X-Men franchise can be credited with having delivered the excellent genre-bending DEADPOOL earlier this year, which has given the superhero film category a needed shot in the arm. APOCALYPSE, however, fails to bring anything fresh, though it does succeed in entertaining fans of the franchise.