Film-Rezensionen: X.-Men-Apocalypse (2016) (Englisch)

X-Men: Apocalypse

A film with „Apocalypse“ in the title doesn’t indicate a quiet night at the movies. Thus, right from the beginning fireworks of special effects is set to ignite, to make it clear: there’s something big coming up until the final showdown.

The story ties in where we were left at in the end of „Days of Future Past“. There, in the seventies, the mutant community had been saved from extinction after preventing Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing president Nixon. This would have led to the development of the mutant-killing sentinels and finally to the death of all mutants on earth. At the end of „Days of Future Past“ all those mutants get together (who are now bound to continue, the „young generation“) already established in „X: First Class“, with the exception of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who has been literally propelled out of the story. Magneto (Michael Fassbender) doesn’t join this group, but again plays an important role.

As it is known, all mutants have special gifts or powers and some mutants are more powerful than others. To make better use of these powers the military has been constantly trying to bundle them like William Stryker did by developing his project „Weapon X“.

The actual generation of mutants is not aware that in the dim and distant past there existed a mutant named En Sabah Nur, who already combined many of their gifts in himself, being the most powerful mutant of all times with the programmatical mutant name Apocalypse. For thousands of years he has been buried under a thick layer of Egyptian soil, waiting to be reborn (just like in the legend of emperor Barbarossa, who is sleeping deep inside the Kyffhaeuser mountains, waiting to wake up and renew his empire and lead it, together with his faithful men, to new glory and splendor). Apocalypse (played by Oscar Isaac) has similar plans when he suddenly wakes up in 1983. He intends to deliver the – in his eyes – degenerated earth from all evil. But in order to reach that goal everything has to be destroyed literally down to the earth’s core. Afterwards, there will be room to establish a new kingdom of God in which he himself will be God.

Apocalypse‘s awakening is accompanied by a strong earthquake sensed all over the world. We see the effect in the new school of the young professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) where we again meet Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) and later, also Quicksilver/ Peter Maximoff (Evan Peters), as well as the younger versions of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Nightcrawler/ Kurt Wagner (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

On the other side, Apocalypse recruits a bunch of faithful mutant followers (of course the four horsemen of the Apocalypse come to mind at once…) he meets and whose powers he modifies to perfection. Soon the quartet, including young Storm (Alexandra Shipp), the new established Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Angel (Ben Hardy) and Magneto, is ready to strike, going to war against the world and also against their fellow mutants.

There are some more mutants on both sides, plus two representatives of the human species: the CIA agent Moira MacTaggart (Rose Byrne) and the young William Stryker (Josh Helman), in the end too many characters to handle properly.

But with this the movie is following its topic: the more, the better – until in the end there is too much of everything.

The – for sure highclass – action sequences follow the usual routine: after a calmer interlude the next spectacular rollercoaster scene bursts out with high-pressure destruction and massacring.Too bad that in the end the old and familiar charm is lost and a lot of the characters lack their usual depth. This applies especially to the chief villain Apocalypse, who fails to be more than the motor that drives the action. He obeys no ideology, delivers no idea why to follow him and stays soulless and anemic. Bolivar Trask in „Days of Future Past“ for example, had in mind to prevent mankind from fighting each other for the first time in history and unite them against a mutual enemy – the mutants. The end may not justify his means, but here Apocalypse’s only impetus is to destroy everything and rebuild it afterwards. This allows only one thing to do: to destroy Apocalypse himself. Here Bryan Singer and scriptwriter Simon Kinberg have to struggle hard to get out of the trap they set up for themselves by presenting Apocalypse as the most powerful and thus, invincible mutant ever, who technically, can’t be defeated.

Of course there is a solution ( which won’t be revealed here) but only a limited one: the message in the end is as simple as apodictic: together, we can do anything – an alliance will always be stronger than the most potent but lone warrior.

But it is a long and strenuous way to get there with the film’s length of 144 minutes…

It would have helped if some of the subplots had been left out. On the other hand, the humor that lightened the mood, especially in the first two X-Men movies and also in „Days of Future Past“, is missing. One has to listen very carefully not to miss any light air or funny quips. Ironically, that’s where the absence of Wolverine hurts most, that stubborn and grumpy guy with the quick-witted humor who left his mark in all the other X-Men movies. Actually, he has an uncredited cameo supporting a rescue team of mutants by slashing his way through a line of enemies, but sadly, he is no longer part of the team.

The creators of this movie obviously aim at a new and younger audience at the risk of losing the old fan base, who may not be willing to follow all the new and young actors on the other side. Whether it will pay off isn’t for sure either with an excess supply of blockbuster and superhero movies around. One example for the ingratiation is the character of Mystique who is seen almost during the entire movie, in the once so detested shape, as Raven. This is probably so because the makers didn’t want to upset the fans of Jennifer Lawrence with her being blue-faced all the time…

On the whole, the movie is entertaing for sure, with a great amount of breathtaking action in excellent 3D optics. Whoever is willing to venture into the story will have a lot of fun despite the reservations mentioned.

From the respectable cast James McAvoy stands out. He again delivers a great performance as young Charles whose faith and optimism remains unshaken. Evan Peters as Quicksilver comes across more demure this time, having to struggle whether to open up to his father who doesn’t know about his existence. But he still gets another hilarious and spectacular speed-scene. Although the surprise effect from „Days of Future Past“ is gone, it is still great fun. Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nighcrawler delivers a fine balance between being scary and funny at the same time. Michael Fassbender gets a heavy Shakespearean moment, mourning the loss of his icky sweet apple-pie world where he settled down after walking away at the end of „Days of Future Past“ ( which in the end is a bit too histrionic). Hugh Jackman in his cameo is able to show the high profile he has endowed Wolverine with over the years. The end of his short, non-verbal power-tread (ironically, again) is one of the few very silent and touching moments of the whole movie.

Whoever doesn’t want to miss the traditional after credit sequence has to be, as usual, very patient – but, do we get a hint at the villain in the final Wolverine movie?

Last but not least, this review doesn’t imply how or in what way the movie is true to the comic narratives. It is up to the comic specialists to judge that.

Title: X-Men: Apocalypse

Director: Bryan Singer

Script: Simon Kinberg, based on a story by Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris

Music: John Ottman

Viual effects designer: John Dykstra

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters