We saw X-Men: Apocalypse yesterday, despite complaining just last week of ‘Superhero fatigue’, yet this franchise is one we have always enjoyed! If we are honest, we don’t really mind X-Men: The Last Stand
As is almost the norm, since then the franchise was rebooted with a prequel. X-Men: First Class, which told the story of Eric (Michael Fassbender) and Charles (James McAvoy) and how they become the Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) that we loved in the original franchise.
We were also pleased when on the cast list was Mystique, the role most knew as that played by Rebecca Romijn, now played by BMAF favourite, Jennifer Lawrence.
Also included from the original trilogy was Beast played by Nicholas Hoult, quite a change from Kelsey Grammar, I’m sure you’ll agree?
First Class was a great film, (First class in fact =). We loved it as much as X-Men and X2, Matthew Vaughn did a great job directing and the franchise was up and running again.
Vaughn, went off to direct Kingsman, but the franchise was back in the safe hands of Bryan Singer, director of the first 2 films.
Now critics have praised Captain America: Civil War but have been incredibly negative about this film, so having not enjoyed Civil War, it was with some trepidation that we entered the screening for this.
Well, we are pleased to report that this franchise remains one of our favourites, if honest, we enjoyed this more than Civil War, it has its faults, the main one is that it feels that it could have been a shorter film.
Adding new characters we love from the original trilogy including Cyclops (Tye Sheridan); Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-Mcphee); Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner).
This time, the big bad is Apocalypse (Oscar Issac) with plans to take over the world with his four recruits including Storm and Magneto, as well as Angel (Ben Hardy) and new character Psylocke (Olivia Munn).
It is down to the X-Men to stop them, led by Professor X and Mystique, Cyclops; Beast; Nightcrawler; Jean Grey; Havok (Lucas Till) plus returning and scene-stealing again, as he did in X-Men:Days of Future past is Quicksilver (Evan Peters).
They are also getting support from the returning Moira Mactaggert (Rose Byrne) and in a thrilling action sequence cameo, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman).
Also returning but not offering support is the X-Men hating Col. William Stryker (Josh Helman).
The film does seem to put Mystique in the front role, as the story develops, but this can be put down to the relationship that has been built between her, Eric and Charles in the previous films. This will affect how much you enjoy the film, us Jennifer Lawrence fans were quite happy, but we did miss the Professor X/Magneto clashes
We felt the newcomers did well in the roles made famous from the previous movies, although we did feel that Sophie had the hardest task, as Famke Janssen had done such a great performance previously.
We have plenty of action sequences, sadly heavy on the CGI but it was still a visual treat.However, it did feel we saw a lot more than we hadn’t seen, compared to the vast amount of footage revealed in the Civil War trailers.
We certainly didn’t think this was anywhere near worthy of some of the harsh reviews its had, but accept that it certainly is the weakest of the new trilogy
Other than length, we certainly enjoyed it, and for us that’s what seeing films is all about! A fourth film is being considered which would be set in the Eighties, and possibly as exciting, it may include Deadpool!
Who is your favourite X-Men character? Are you in the Avengers or X-Men camp? We would love to hear from you here at barking Mad about Films
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