Title – X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Director – Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects)

Cast – James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nichols Hoult, Sophie Turner, Oscar Isaac, Tye Sheridan, Rose Byrne, Kodi Smit-McPhee

Plot – Awoken from his deep slumber, world destroyer Apocalypse (Isaac) sets out to destroy the world as we know it and only the X-Men stand in his way.

“Everything they’ve built will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we’ll build a better one!”

Review by Eddie on 6/10/2016

Back in the year 2000, famed director Bryan Singer bought Marvel’s renowned comic X-Men to screen, in a film that in many ways set the standard for modern day comic book movies that have today taken over the world.

X-Men was a fun and exciting film, introducing us to Hugh Jackman, the Marvel universe and a new breed of event film that was filled with silly superheros but was far from being silly in itself.

Since release all those many moons ago, the X-Men franchise has gone through its ups and big downs but when Matthew Vaughan reignited the franchise in a star-studded way with 2011’s First Class, things looked up for the once beloved film franchise and then returning to his blockbuster roots, Singer himself came back for the box-office behemoth Days of Future Past which set a new standard for the series in a box office sense and set up for the eagerly anticipated Apocalypse, which unfortunately is the franchises new X-Men: The Last Stand and a reason to suggest X-Men as we know it and once loved it should be put to bed for good.

Jumping the shark in a major way and delivering Singer what could be his worst ever film, Apocalypse is a collection of far too many characters appearing in a story that is shatteringly short of thrills, and this big budgeted mess that somehow manages to waste the charisma of actors like Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and worst of all Oscar Isaac feels like a non-event where it was billed as the culmination of many years of setups.

Trying to enliven proceedings by adding in re-jigged characters like Game of Thrones Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, future Ready Player One lead Tye Sheridan as Cyclops and Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler, Singer is in many ways throwing the kitchen sink at us with this film in what’s likely preparation for the imminent departure of stars James McAvoy (who gets short shrift here), Fassbender, Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult but the film which runs a labour intensive 2 and a half hours fails to spark any great rhythm bar another attempt to make the most out of Quicksilver’s talents much like Days of Future Past did.

With a dud story and waste of famed villain Apocalypse in some terrible makeup and dastardly plans, and some curiously misguided CGI work that comes to the forefront in a terrible final battle filled with randomly empty cities, Singer’s film feels like letdown after letdown as our various mainstays and new recruits get jumbled together in an event film that unfortunately for everyone feels very far removed from in fact being one.

All good things come to an end; an age old saying and a wise one at that and after what can only be described as this big old waste of money, it’s a statement that now must be brandished on the once gloriously fun X-Men franchise in what’s hopefully the ending for the series that has now outlived its welcome.

1 ½ throat slashing necklaces out of 5