X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Oh boy...

Please do not misunderstand me, I love the X-Men and there are true gems in their cinematic adventures. I really loved 'First Class' and found it a great way to reboot/continue a series in which the original cast had unfortunately grown a little too old. No sense in seeing characters like Wolverine or Magneto go at each other with walkers, is there?

Although that idea does seem to hold some promise.

Bryan Singer returned with 'Apocalypse'. This in itself wasn't a bad move, because Singer is well versed in the X-Men franchise. Bringing in a classic villain such as Apocalypse was also a great idea. But sometimes, great ideas not a great film make. And that is unfortunately very much the case here.

See, I know you can't have the epic En Sabah Nur like in the comics or the cartoon, where he was a recurring villain who was indestructible but  whose plans nevertheless were thwarted, because for a great many things, Apocalypse does need to depend on outside help. That makes sense yet again. But here, Apocalypse is so infuriatingly inconsistent, it gets on my nerves. He has massively destructive powers and uses several different ones only once and then they seem to forget he can do them. His look is fairly okay and Oscar Isaac tries to do his best, but he does lack the physical prowess and size that makes Apocalypse so imposing. Also, that whispery voice? Not the best of choices.

Another problem is that this film tries to throw so many new characters at you, they just become windowdressing. Psylocke? Blink and you'll miss her. Angel/Archangel? Bland. Storm gets a little more dialogue and screentime, but she once again is wasted. Heck, even McAvoy and Fassbender get little to do besides being exposition fodder. Magneto's turn back to hating men, then once again to helping the X-Men seems shoehorned and illogical.

I could go on, but that would soon become tedious. Suffise to say that this is not the best in the series. You can enjoy it for what it is: a loud and flashy film, but it's not a well thought out story and the handling of the source material is rather shoddy.

But the Quicksilver scene is awesome. I'll give them at least that.