X-Men Apocalypse is actually pretty good

I happened to see X-Men Apocalypse was on the HBO Now app when scrolling on there and gave it a shot. The trailers for it looked lame and the reception wasn't great so I ignored it. I actually thought it was good in-comparison to the other X-Men movies. It's probably in my top 3 or 4 X-Men/Wolverine movies. Magneto's arc was great, Professor going from pacifist to more realistic about the X-Men fighting felt earned, and the young mutants were good - they could've done more with Storm though. Apocalypse was pretty epic, it was nice to get an actual villain. Seems like every X-Men movie has Magento as the main villain or "sort of villain" besides this one and First Class. DOFP is overrated to me, since Magneto was so dumb in that movie, Raven and Wolverine felt forced in the plot, the future scenes had no weight, and there was no good action besides Quicksilver's scene. Anyone else see this after it got hate and was surprised, or if you think it was bad why?

Yeah, I liked this stupid movie enough to see it twice.

I think after the series went full time travel to link the old cast with the new younger guys, the general public gave up.

The only hope Fox has for X-Men is dumping Singer and starting over at this point.

Some of the earlier scenes with Magneto are great, but my biggest issue with it is that anything else that happens is completely forgettable. I've seen it 2 or 3 times and I don't remember caring about anything after Magneto joins Apocalypse.

I don't really remember much because it was so boring. Magnetos early scenes are great but other than that this movie has little to offer. The Quicksilver scene was cool, unfortunately they already did that in a previous movie. Nothing happens, the action is bland and there are no interesting characters or character development. Watching this movie is the only time I've ever fallen asleep in a movie theatre.

It's "pretty good" in the same way that the Fast and the Furious series is "the best" movie series of all time.

Parts of it were ok, but while First Class was a real cool breath of fresh air and gave me hope about this X-Men movie thing might actually be going somewhere half decent, the subsequent entries kept leaning back towards those Bryan Singer movies (and he did in fact direct both Days of Future Past and Apocalypse) instead of continuing to carve out their own unique path that was working so well for them already.

First Class was like Guardian of the Galaxy - it was dynamic, fun, didn't take itself too seriously and felt somehow detached from all the superhero baggage the other movies from the Marvel universe keep getting trodden under.

I agree! I don't think it's middling or average. I think it's genuinely good. Honestly walking out of the theater I was never in such disagreement with critics in my entire life. I've cooled off on it by now but yeah- good movie. Bit of a mess at times but It's good.

EDIT: For the record, Logan was a fucking masterpiece.

I remember enjoying it a lot when I saw it in the cinema, but I can't deny that it's a real curate's egg of a film. Some of the Magneto stuff is very powerful, and Fassbender gives it more than it deserves, but also the "NOOO" scene is hackneyed as fuck, and performed badly. Oscar Isaac is really excellently sinister, but isn't given a lot to do. Sophie Turner is abysmal, but it was cool to fill in some of the backstory between her and Professor X. The whole Wolverine sequence felt pointless and pandering.

I still like the X Men franchise more than almost anything mainline Marvel puts out though?

Started pretty strong with Magneto but then became unbearable mess and action scenes were boring. I was really disappointed because the previous entries in the series were somewhere between good and really good. This one was ok at best.

If they made another one I would wait for the VoD release.

After the timeline changes made in Days of Future's Past, I thought they were going to make more X-Men movies with the original cast but was disappointed that they stuck with the First Class cast and era. I get that everyone in the original series is getting older but having at least one movie with them before Logan would've been even more moving.

As for Apocalypse, I think the only really good parts was Quicksilver at the mansion and the Weapon X scenes. Speaking of, just reread the original comic and decades later, it's still one of the best looking and told comics ever.

They should've kept the First Class director rather than bringing back Singer, I agree with that. First Class is the best X-Men movie - DOFP was a step backwards, especially since they never used the original cast again. As a fan of the X-Men's 90's cartoon, I liked this movie a lot though. It actually had a villain, it has some great scenes like the brutal opening, the nukes launching monologue. Singer seems to hate colored costumes, so I'm glad they finally added that at the end and that better be in the next movie. Other than Logan and First Class, I can't really think of X-Men universe movie I enjoyed more (not counting Deadpool in that).

Yeah, I thought the whole point of DOFP was so they could alternate between the original cast and prequel cast, but instead they give the original cast a perfect ending just to (Logan spoiler) kill them all off a few years later in Logan.

I enjoyed it. It has the most obvious and glaring flaws, and feels like the kind of superhero movie that would've been made before Singer changed the game, but its strengths are fun. Quicksilver is used very well, Nightcrawler is adorable, and my gosh does that bald Xavier look perfect.

I really like the X-Men in general but I really did not like this movie. It's definitely not the worst comic book movie I've ever seen though, there are some interesting parts.

The Phoenix thing at the end was probably the last straw for me.

I never bothered with it because I heard it was so bad. It's on Now TV so I'll definitely give it a watch now. I loved First Class and Days of Future Past.

At this rate the reputation of ''guy who like terrible movies'' is going to stick.

yea no

It's quite the turd. One look at the terrible Apocalypse make-up should be enough indication of that. Especially when I know (from an interview with a prop/mask maker on Tested.com) that they could have done so much better.

Doing a repeat of the "quicksilver solves everything in slow motion set to a classic song" was just an additional sign of the creators having very little in the way of interesting or original ideas.

Just a tiresome, bland, forgettable, brainless film.

Hmmm. Naaaaaaaah.

It's my least favorite of the 3 in this timeline. Fasbender is still great, but I really hated the villain and the brown cyclone of debris he created at the end. Also the rehashed Quicksilver scene was lame and the fact that they tried to make a fun moment out of the dark 2nd act of the film with it was bizarre--happy fun scene but wait sorry I didn't save your brother, but it was a fun time though right?

This is exactly how I feel about X-Men.

As someone who usually dislikes the majority of Super Hero movies, I though First Class was really cool and the only good X-Men movie (not counting Deadpool or Logan). Going back to Bryan Singer, who had already done awful Super Hero movies, was a terrible mistake. The only redeeming quality of Apocalypse was Fassbender and McAvoy, but even them can't save an awful movie. A polished turd is still a turd. Everything about Apocalypse (both the movie and the actual character) was uninteresting and disappointing.

Nah. It's tripe.

It was awful and a giant disappointment after the fantastic days of future past

The best thing about the X-men movies is how they are generally fights between mutants with finite and well-defined powers, so Apocalypse's vague "invincible until he's not" thing made for some really weak action by comparison. Also totally wasted Psylocke after they actually got a girl who looked like her (more than I can say for Jean Grey)

I went to the theater and saw Apocalypse (something I rarely do since having kids) because Days of Future Past was so good and I was supremely disappointed in it. Can't articulate exactly why it was so lame because it has been a while but damn I was bitter about wasting my time on that shit. Here's your requisite Quicksilver doing stuff fast scene...

The ending is pretty infuriating, Magneto kills millions of people without being directly controlled by Apocalypse, and Xavier's perfectly fine with letting him waltz off into the sunset as if nothing happened.

Instead of using it as an opportunity to set up a re-do of the Dark Phoenix Saga, they could've given us Onslaught with Charles wiping Eric's mind as preventive measure after the destruction he caused.

Now sure, Dark Phoenix is a much better storyline, but the ending they left us with left such a bad taste in my mouth. Patrick Stewart's Xavier sure as hell wouldn't have let that shit fly.

There are worse superhero movies...like any Fantastic Four movie ever made. I think the problems the film has is it under developed a lot of characters in the movie that shoudl have been MORE developed, re-cast, or jettisoned. These X-man movies always have too many characters and never enough story development to be interesting. That why Logan works- three main characters. Logan is heavy on story and has room to develop them, not fifteen other characters we never get attached to.

Sophie Turner is a real bland actress.

@deathstriker: Correct! Basically combines the good part of First Class (Magneto) with the good part of Dumb Title (Quicksilver) and the rest of it is standard superhero stuffs. Probably the 3rd best superhero movie last year though not even close to Deadpool.

I think it was way too much all over the place, shoehorning in scenes for every known actor they had, which made it feel in parts like a bad fan flick.

I think it is one of the least interesting X-Men movies.

Part of it is the cast. I couldn't care less about any of the "new generation" of X-Men. Sophie Turner has negative charisma, and I can't even recall the rest of the cast. Lawrence and Fassbender are shoehorned into most scenes because they are the most well known actors and, to be honest, I find the whole Quicksilver shtick pretty annoying. Also, Apocalypse has no real presence... He is supposed to be the Darth Vader of the X-Men Universe, but he is shorter than the rest of them. There are scenes where he is among the horsemen and he is standing at one side, with the other actors towering over him.

The Dark Phoenix has zero build up, and seeing the name of the next movie, that is the direction they are going.

It's disappointing considering how things were going with First Class and then DoFP. Coming out in the same year as Deadpool didn't help either.

I don't have a problem with the Phoenix (not dark) tease. She had worries about it and was somewhat of an outcast at the school. She was told by Xavier to unleash it and she did. Moving forward they can do more with that because having such a power is a great responsibility to have, especially when you're unsure of how to properly control it.

I have to disagree with you. I hated X-Men: Apocalypse.

Ehhh, Days of Future Past was phenomenal. Apocalypse was a steaming pile of ho-hum. Too many characters, and none of them developed properly. Psylocke has never been an interesting X-man. Jennifer Lawrence is a poor actress, or is at least a poor actress as Mystique. Apocalypse is, uhh, just kind of there I guess - which is totally damning as he's supposed to be this incredibly threatening presence. And the ending is a big, stupid deus-ex-machina with no foreshadowing. Blech!

My opinion is fact.

Nope nope nope, DOFP good, X-Men Apocalypse baaaad.

I think Lawrence is "meh", not bad, but if you think she's bad wouldn't that apply to First Class and DOFP too, not just Apocalypse? She was a major part of DOFP, the plot revolved around her DNA, which felt forced and doesn't make much sense. I think DOFP butchered Magneto, since he came across as a dumb brute who went from caring about Raven to wanting to kill her, and wanting mutants to live well to trying to kill the president live on TV with his powers, which would force a human/mutant world war. That's not something the man in First Class nor Apocalypse would want. Also, him controlling sentinels made no sense - that's not even his power. He can control metal, he's not supposed to be able reprogram machines/AI to do his bidding. To me, DOFP has an amazing trailer and the Quicksilver scene was great, the rest was whatever.

@deathstriker: Yeah, I guess DoFP was less than phenomenal as well, though I remember enjoying it a whole lot more than I enjoyed Apocalypse.

@deathstriker: I don't think she is bad either, only uninterested. Like, all the time, she was the one person that really, really didn't wanted to be there (but was contractually obligated). She had "fuck this crap of a script, I am an Oscar winner actress, damn it!" written on her forehead the whole time. The fact she is central to the movies derived from First Class means a lot of the time the plot and the camera revolves around her... she is the closest we have to a protagonist in these large cast movies, so that disinterest becomes really noticeable and almost contagious.

Fassbender is another actor that grew a lot since First Class and so the plot focuses a lot on him too, but he (unlike Lawrence) goes all out on his role, all the time. His family moments felt like they were part of a different movie.