BrendanW 
Let’s start out by saying that I am a huge fan of X-Men in every way, shape and form. I enjoy the films and the messages they send as a sort of overarching moral of equality. The X-Men films boil down to this: they are mostly about racism and prejudicial behaviour in general. The “mutants” can be interpreted as minorities, immigrants or even people who are homosexual or transgendered. In fact there was even a scene in the second X-Men film in which one young mutant “came out” to his parents that he had superpowers. It was a powerful scene because it rang true for a lot of people that may have had a similar experience with family; it was relateable because the films were able to find a common ground with a real-life issue. The latest installment is entertaining and certainly features some fine acting but a lot of the thematic elements are muddled in the midst of high-octane action scenes and oversimplified symbolism.
The plot of the film involves a new villain named Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), who is supposedly the first mutant in history. His plan involves a rather nefarious plot to cleanse the human race and take over the world. In fact, it’s a pretty simple “villain wants world domination” plot that I thought these X-Men films usually don’t feature; the villains are generally more complicated than that and I think that Apocalypse is one of this film’s biggest flaws. Anyway, the X-Men try to stop Apocalypse despite him recruiting his own Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the form of four confused, young mutants. Meanwhile, Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is living a quiet life with his young daughter and wife until that is interrupted and he gets thrown into the mix as well. There are lots of other characters and sub-plots, which makes it a bit hard to follow the film in general.
Let’s start with the positives: the acting is really good. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy as Magneto and Prof. X, respectively, are excellent leads and Magneto especially has some impressive pathos for his character. There are way too many performances to list so I’ll just talk about my favourites. Jennifer Lawrence is a strong female character as Raven/Mystique much like she was in the last couple of films. Her relationship with Magneto is very interesting and I enjoyed watching it progress throughout the film. Nicholas Hoult does some good work again as Hank McCoy/Beast, Rose Byrne is good as the returning Moira MacTaggert, Evan Peters is the definite highlight of the film as Peter/Quicksilver and Tye Sheridan is a good successor to James Marsden as Scott Summers/Cyclops. Oscar Isaac does as good as he can do with the villainous role of Apocalypse but when a great actor is buried under all those makeup and prosthetics it can be difficult to break through and deliver a great performance. Still, he gave it his all.
There are still some strong thematic elements that run throughout the film but the weaker aspect of it is that most of those are dropped or pushed into the background later in the film to make way for more impressive visual but less impressive thematic moments. The visuals are impressive to say the very least though. There is another awesome sequence with Quicksilver in which he slows time down so that he can perform a daring rescue. It is another marvel of cinematography while also highlighting Peters’ fun performance as well. I think this is a very fun film with engaging performances that may be heavier on pure enjoyment than actual clever or insightful writing but that doesn’t mean the whole thing is a wash. It also does tend to suffer from the clutter of way too many characters that plagued X-Men: The Last Stand although I would still say that it is a much better film than that one as they at least attempt to breathe life into just about everyone.
I will say that this film is long and in fact the last 30 minutes of the film seems to last forever. It just simply does not need to be 144 minutes long and I feel like Bryan Singer and his editing staff just didn’t feel like cutting it down or “killing your babies” as people in the biz like to say. There is one moment that sticks out as completely unnecessary as well and it is so overtly symbolic that I rolled my eyes immediately and I could hear a collective groan in the theatre. I will leave it to the viewers to figure out which moment I am talking about.
So while the film does have its share of flaws, it makes up for it somewhat by being an entertaining comic book actioner with solid performances across the board. I feel like people are expecting a negative rating here and it’s certainly not anything close to that but I am just disappointed that it is THIS type of movie rather than the type of movie I was expecting. I am sorry if that sounds convoluted or confusing but it’s hard to explain. I would check it out but don’t expect a film as cerebral as some of the previous X-Men outings.
***
Rating System:
* (Brutal; the worst rating)
** (Some elements keep it from being awful but still not very good)
*** (Completely watchable; a rental as old-timers might say)
**** (Great film with a few things here and there keeping it from being perfect)
***** (Flawless; a true achievement)
