I Watch Films: X-Men: Apocalypse
When I first watched this I dismissed it as First Class but less interesting and trying to bring back younger versions of the characters in the first trilogy because they have no better ideas. I’m not wrong, but that’s not the whole thing going on here.
Apocalypse’s temptation of his four horsemen works well (Psylocke gets short shrift), and super-charging everyone’s powers is a good way to raise the stakes. Also to counter Quicksilver who is grossly over-powered. The 80s setting is more of a flavour than a backdrop; the changes to the world in Days of Future Past mean it is no longer anchored to real-world events. Apocalypse destroys the world’s nuclear weapons not because of any particular nuclear scare of the 80s, but because we were living in the shadow of nuclear armageddon.
Magneto will never catch a break and I guess I have to accept that. And using his enhanced powers in combination with the fact that the Earth has a big ball of iron at the centre is a very suitable threat.
Anyway, not a classic X-Men film, but one that does try hard, and is tightly and cleverly plotted.
Watch This: Because you want some X-action
Don’t Watch This: Because there are better superhero films
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