Have you ever gone out and purchased just one heck of a marvellous cheese? I'm not talking just about your generic cheddar, but let's say it's aged ten years. Or even, and one of my favourites, jalapeño havarti. Now it's a blessing to have such a wonderful treat, but what you have on your hands can be instantly ruined and rendered moot. If you slice it up and put it on the cheapest hotdog you can find, accompanied by a stale bun, you may have just as well used something else. What you have done is wasted that cheese.
I understand that it is not the greatest analogy, especially for those who don't roll the dairy, but that is how I felt when it came to the main villain in X-Men: Apocalypse. What the film makers did was take Oscar Isaac, who is one of the best acting talents of today, and put him in a roll that could have easily been filled by anyone. There was nothing about Apocalypse that allowed for any subtle nuances from Isaac, who was destined to just deliver monotone lines and show limited facial expressions.
Does that mean the movie as a whole is bad? Not at all. What it does mean is that the main source of tension in the film drags and adds little energy, which does affect the film as a whole.
As the movie begins, we find director Bryan Singer hurling visuals at us, almost as though the movie is setting a tone that it is going to flex its CGIed muscles throughout. It felt a little overkill and distracting, especially when it went into a Monster Energy Drink lead-in to the opening title. There was worry, I am not going to lie about that. I asked, 'what have I gotten myself into?' Luck would have it that the computer generated pace of the opening sequence was disingenuous to the tone of the rest of the movie and things died down until the third act when it turned once again into visual effect soup.
They looked pretty enough, but they were massively abundant and took away a lot of the intimacy that the story deserved. The cast of characters involved was deep, and the talent selected to play each part was well thought out. Each of the X-Men felt like there was some attention paid to them to create heroes that we could root for. The same could not be said about the mutants that were enlisted by Apocalypse to help him. For whatever reason, the man needed help. Even though he was near all powerful. His character and the reasoning for his actions were most certainly underwritten, once again making me ask why Llewyn Davis (or, to use an example that may be better known, Poe Dameron) himself was cast for the role.
It was the quieter moments of the film where I felt the true story was being told. There were enough of them to make me happy, and I enjoyed the inclusion and story of Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Both are incredible young talents who brought depth to their characters enough to stand properly alongside other brilliant cast members, such as James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence.
Possibly the most underplayed aspect is the time period. It is set in the 1980s, and we are more shown that, rather than truly feeling it. The previous movies focused greatly on playing into the emotions and feelings of their times, giving the viewer a rich environment in which to watch the story roll out.
Ultimately, there are enough decent aspects of the film to bring even keel the downside of a villain that lacks charisma and understanding. It is not the strongest of the new X-Men movies, but it does hold a character of its own. During a summer that is filled to the brim of special effects spectacles, it is X-Men: Apocalypse's shortcomings that will keep it from being too memorable.
Rating - 2.5 out of 4 stars
