Subject: I kind of touched on that in the spoilers.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-06-24 04:55:00 UTC
The problem with making him into a ham here is that they were pretty obviously trying to go for dark and gritty and serious, and were trying to make Apocalypse into a serious villain. So when he started hamming it up, it just... didn't really work.
Saw the movie at long last today and, without spoiling anything just yet, I can say without a doubt I liked it. There were a lot of nods to the comics, there were some emotional moments, (most of) the fights were awesome, and the teaser at the end... holy crap. My really big complaint is that the BBEG, for all he calls himself Apocalypse, just didn't come off nearly as threatening as his Horsemen. He hammed it up a bit, killed some humans, and did some other stuff, but for the most part... can you say Large Ham alert?
SPOILERS BELOW
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Yeah, so, the final battle felt less than coherent and more a big jumble of "Look at all the carnage and destruction we can cause! Eat it, Michael Bay!" Psylocke was less than intimidating as an opponent, Storm just kind of hung out on the sidelines and watched until it was time to deliver the killing blow to Apocalypse, Angel was taken out like a chump, and Magneto was once again won over by the power of friendship. It was somewhat implied that Apocalypse was mind-controlling his Horsemen into working for him, but at other points it was insinuated that they were helping him destroy the world just for shiggles. Which... considering the ending with all of them turning on him, just comes across as kind of crappy writing. After First Class and Days of Futures Past I expected better. :/ And for all the powers the dude claims to have, his main ones seem to be teleporting and... sand manipulation. Come on! He could transform his limbs into weapons! He could change his size! He could do all sorts of cool stuff that we only saw him utilize once! He's a freaking technopath and we saw him use that ability all of one time to play catch-up on world history. What?
Sure, Apocalypse's plan to transfer his mind into Xavier's so he could control everybody on the planet is scary on paper, but in practice, you know it's not gonna happen. Professor X simply won't stay dead (Hi, X3, remember how you got retconned?) because he's too important to the movie franchise. The comics' format of killing everyone off every few years just doesn't work when translated to the big screen, so the tension just... wasn't there.
Killing off Havoc, on the other hand, unfortunately just didn't have the emotional punch I felt it should have. We got to know his character in First Class, but his sudden death here just lacked the oomph it deserved. I loved Havoc, but I didn't really feel sad when he died, more annoyed. "That's it?" was pretty much my entire reaction. Boo.
Funnily enough, the death that impacted me the most in the film? Magneto's daughter. I actually teared up a little there, and I barely even knew the character. Fassbender's acting was absolutely perfect in this scene.
Quicksilver, by the way, was awesome. They did an overly-long reuse of his slow-time running joke from the Futures Past but the guy later went on to punch the crap out of Apocalypse, which was pretty awesome. Gold star.
I'm disappointed we didn't get to see more than a brief manifestation of Jean's Phoenix Force powers, but eh. That can always be saved for a sequel (and hopefully a better one than X3).
And yet, even with all these complaints, I enjoyed it, I truly did. Despite the limited time for character development (a lot of time was dedicated to fight scenes and Quicksilver doing his thing), I think the movie did a good job developing in broad strokes a sense for each of the future X-Men's characters (though Jean could have used a bit more love, IMO). Hopefully we'll get a more nuanced, in-depth look at them in the next movie, though. They could use some love.
The nods to the comics were, of course, always lovely. I especially liked how Magneto's power got ramped up so he could control the polarity of the entire Earth—it was easy to see why that power of his got retconned. Seeing all the debris swirling around him was a truly stunning bit of cinematography. And Jubilee was in the movie! Sure, she was basically a side character, but seeing one of the main characters from that old animated cartoon I grew up with come to life on the big screen was a real treat. I seriously hope we get to see more of her in the future, because she deserves it.
OKAY, BUT FORGET ABOUT ALL THAT, CAN WE NOW TALK ABOUT THE TEASER ENDING?!?
For those of you not familiar with X-Men lore, the name on the briefcase? Essex? That has to be a reference to Nathaniel Essex, a.k.a. Mister Sinister, also known as one of the X-Men's scariest nemeses as well as the guy responsible for X-23's (Wolverine's female clone) and Cable's creation. In the comics the guy got his mutant powers from Apocalypse, but I don't think that will be the case here for obvious reasons. Either way, it's gonna be interesting to see Sinister finally make an appearance. I think that teaser ending has me more hyped than the actual movie. :D
And now it's time to petition for a fully-fledged Deadpool/X-Men crossover! Do it, Fox, do it!
Final verdict: Not the best X-Men movie out there, but definitely not the worst by a long shot. I would not object to seeing it again in theaters and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.
/end rant
I really enjoyed the movie, too. It's the first time I've really been on the edge of my seat in a while, and it made me want to rewatch all the movies again. (Alas, I have no time.)
Re. Apocalypse, though, I think you've forgotten something.
SPOILERS ENSUE
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Y'know, the part where he launched ALL THE WORLD'S NUKES? That scene honestly terrified me. Were they going up? Were they coming back down? I didn't know! I really thought they might go there. And the scene was perfectly scored with that Beethoven piece... I forget which one, but good god, did it have just the right air of majesty and awe. BEAUTIFULLY done, all of it.
But Apocalypse doesn't want to destroy the earth, that's too easy; he just wants to scour it clean of everything he deems unworthy. Which probably ends up being all people in the end, once he's taken what he wants from them. And yet his persuasive powers are such that people go along with him—vulnerable people who don't have much to lose, every one, you'll note. He knows exactly how to prey on the weakness of others. Eek.
I do object to the film's handling of Magneto, though. Nobody called him on straight-up murdering all those policemen, not even a little. Like, I could understand if he'd just killed the one guy who loosed that arrow like a moron, but all of them? Nuh-uh. And that's not to mention all the death and destruction that must have resulted from screwing with the planet's magnetic field. Charles, I know you're in love, but come on. That's not cool, and you shouldn't stand for it. {= <br>
(I might ship them just a little bit. Look at Charles' moony doe-eyes when he's talking to Erik and tell me he doesn't want to jump his bones. Alas, pretty sure Erik does not feel the same way about him.)
~Neshomeh, quite hyped for the next one, too.
Hang on.
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Yes, that moment was one of the best in the film—for the first time in a while, I wasn't sure what would happen; my Genre Savviness had failed me. :P How could I have forgotten that scene?
As for Magneto, I don't know. Honestly, considering how he's been handled in the past, I think it was fitting for his character to kill the policemen (though going to the factory to kill everyone there rather than the one who squealed) was excessive. And then going on to destroy the rest of the planet. though you have to admit the visuals were impressive
Also yes I totally ship them stop looking at me like that
Apocalypse has honestly always been a large ham. His powers are basically shapeshifting, regeneration, and telekinesis. He's really strong, but honestly, for all his talk, there's at least ten other mutants I can think of that are more powerful. Hell, Ice Man is more powerful. His real talents lie in his ability to strategize, manipulate, and to convince people to work for him. Which is why he would seem less threatening than his Horsemen, because he is.
The problem with making him into a ham here is that they were pretty obviously trying to go for dark and gritty and serious, and were trying to make Apocalypse into a serious villain. So when he started hamming it up, it just... didn't really work.