From being slim and fit, the X-Men series is fast turning into bloated and portly with their numerous prequels, sequels and spin-offs. The sequel (still technically a prequel to the original X-Men trilogy) to the smashing 'X-Men: Days of the Future Past' begins in Egypt where En Sabah Nur is buried in a pyramid along with his followers. In the present day, Professor X's lady love and CIA agent, Moira is tracking down a secret cult who is actually trying to revive En Sabah Nur from his deep sleep. They are successful in achieving the objective but with global ramifications. A powerful earthquake ensues and Apocalypse is woke up after many a century. He displays his vicious powers while recruiting Storm before she earned her moniker. You have the feeling on seeing the doomy powers in the mighty, daunting, formidable and invincible Apocalypse that this movie is going to be head and shoulders above the rest of the X-Men films that have been released so far in the franchise even beating the likes of 'X-Men:First Class and Days of the Future Past'. Is it going to be the case with this new flick?
Singer has certainly and very assuredly sung a wonderful song in the first half which is really tightly packed with character introduction and induction of some characters into Apocalypse's fold. We actually get to see Cyclop's and a bit of Nightcrawler's early lives which were missed out in the earlier films. Likewise, just when Erik thinks that he has put his days of manipulating metal behind his back, tragedy strikes when the Polish police officials accidentally kill his daughter and wife thus enraging him to get back to his old days and making him to join as one of the Apocalypse's horsemen. Psylocke and her backdrop completes the quartet of his horsemen and it was only a matter of time when they would be unleashing their full fury upon their master's commands.
In between these small stories, it was indeed an awe-inspiring sight when Apocalypse transforms Angel's burnt white wings into the shiny metallic ArchAngel whose wings can fire the feathers as missiles at his enemies. Similarly, it was a treat to watch when Apocalypse lets know Magneto that he can shake the very foundation of the Earth with his abilities and Magneto experiments using his powers. All such scenes make you to believe that X-Men: Apocalypse is going to be one hell of a ride in the second half. Did it deliver the goods post the intermission?
Even disaster would feel that he is way better and can do a wonderful job than the second half of the film! It was so unapologetically monotonous, the likes of which we have seen umpteen number of times,that it felt like Apocalypse wasn't the villain but the screenplay was. A terrible and a weak script. JLo's supposedly inspiring but completely uninspired performance as Mystique. Psylocke resembled more like Wonder Woman in the climax fight.As ever, the usual ruins left behind due to the wreaked havoc by the mutants. Speaking of mutants, it felt like Singer didn't have a clue how to handle the extraordinary number of new characters and their superpowers in the film. It was like a beggar who goes to a buffet and sees a smorgasbord of delicious food that are kept in front of him that but he doesn't know how to handle them. So, what does the beggar do? He will either gobble up a single item or take a little bit of everything and be falsely satisfied that he had a good lunch. Singer belongs to the latter category.
X-Men:Apocalypse had the potential to be something bigger,grander and more potent with its racier first half. Had Singer got it right with the second half, it was a perfect recipe for Apocalypse to be truly spectacular. It was not that the second half was dreadful but the big problem is that we have seen it many times in the X- Men franchise itself leaving aside the countless super hero movies that have come and gone. To put it in a nutshell, it was like the foreplay was good. The actual act of making love was barely scratching the surface.
PS:
I did not forget it. I just wanted this scene to have a special place in this review. Much like 'Days of Future Past', we witness an improved, longer and a slick slo-mo sequence involving Quick Silver where time appears to move very slow like a tortoise from his perspective. It was indeed a close-to-3 minute hilarious visual spectacle to see Peter saving the kids from the exploding school that you can watch Apocalypse one more time just for Quick Silver's antics in the entire movie!
No comments:
Post a Comment