Good & bad things come in threes. Death, is usually one of those things. They also say that 3 is a magic number, but when it comes to the movie industry, the third movie is usually the worst one, and there are many examples to support that theory, especially in the original X-Men trilogy that started 15 years prior to today’s successor. We all know of the tragic & misfortunate movie that was X3, whereas many of us would not wish to acknowledge it, but for good reason. Now, the hope was that because First Class & Days of Future Past were so good, there was no way they would mess up the conclusion of an epic trilogy again, right? Right guys? Anyone? Bueller?

As it pains me to write, Apocalypse certainly felt like that, watching it, and you can blame the villain in which the title of the movie is named after. Comic book movies are all about character depictions. X-Men is probably my favourite cartoon ever and my favourite Marvel series of movies, but I’m not a hardcore fan that is all about the finite details about who plays who (sometimes) and locked into storylines, because it’s still Hollywood and they will shake stuff up for the sheer purpose of entertainment, not for historical accuracies. However, when the early photos of Apocalypse came out, there was a feeling of being gut-punched, because a villain so grand and evil should be made to look like it – not something out of a 90s cartoon on Fox Saturdays. It was pretty disappointing, but I was confident that the movie would make up for it.

Turns out, there was promise in the movie, but they just didn’t hit home. You had opportunities to capitalize from Magneto’s story, the appearances from Quicksilver (which are always enjoyable), the introduction of Scott Summers, more info on Jean Gray, and even a properly done intro for Storm, but they didn’t fully grasp them. What annoyed me was the fact that when things got interesting and intense, that feeling didn’t sustain itself for the duration of the movie. Apocalypse’s character could have easily put me to sleep with his monotonous voice and his ridiculous look even after the colour grades were put in place. The heroism of Mystique trying to pit her as a saviour was cool, but if that was the case, Jennifer Lawrence shouldn’t have been it, because we saw her be that heroine as Katniss Everdeen for like 4 years – over it. Outside of pockets of action throughout the movie, it felt like it was dragging on for a bit. Understandable, it was during a peaceful time, and they were focusing on re-sculpting the past 10 years and trying to get a move on with Mutant & Human relations, but it felt slow. If it was intended to be that slow, it should have been a shorter movie. I was disappointed as a fan, because it didn’t live up to the expectations that I set for it, off the strength of the previous 2 movies.

It doesn’t tarnish the legacy that the X-Men franchise has; outside of X3, Wolverine (you could argue both of them were subpar), there have been more successes than failures in the storied franchise, but at the same time, you can’t help but feel a little flattened by the execution in this movie as a whole. The usual suspects did their jobs, because really Magneto can do no wrong, and Professor X gives you what’s expected, although the dramatics were on the higher level this time around. If you really want to see it, go on a cheap day. If you feel like waiting, Netflix will soon come around, but for now, this is my opinion, this is my review

That’s My Word & It STiXX