X-Men: Apocalypse
Director: Bryan Singer
Writer: Simon Kinberg
Based on: The Marvel Comics series
Sequel to: X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Lucas Till, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, Lana Condor, Olivia Munn, Zeljko Ivanek, Hugh Jackman, Stan Lee
Seen on: 25.5.2016

Plot:
Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is busy with running his school for mutants and finding misunderstood and mistreated mutants around the world with the help of Raven (Jennifer Lawrence). In the meantime, Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) has decided to disappear into a quiet and very normal life. But when an immortal, very dangerous and most powerful mutant, En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), finds himself returned to consciousness after millennia of sleep, it becomes clear that they can only oppose him together.

So far, I really enjoyed this generation of X-Men movies and X-Men Apocalypse was a another thoroughly satisfying entry into the series. Especially after my rather lukewarm reaction to Captain America: Civil War, it was nice to get a superhero movie that manages to keep the quality of its predecessors, even if it doesn’t really add anything new to the story.

It’s easy to compare Civil War and Apocalypse. Not only because they came out at around the same time, but also because they are both set in well-established franchises and work with many characters, most of whom we know from previous films (not taking the comics into account where they all come from, of course). Civil War ultimately didn’t deliver what I hoped it would, while Apocalypse did – although, admittedly, my expectations for Apocalypse were lower.

Both – and that’s where I stop the comparison again – have to find time for many different characters. It seems logical that they can’t all get the same amount of attention from the film, but I thought that Apocalpyse manages to balance things out better than Civil War was able to. Everybody gets their motivation and there’s no reliance on fan theories to explain why somebody would join this group or that: the film establishes its own character work.

Sometimes it is a little hamfisted about this. I could have lived very well without Erik getting a family only to have them fridged, because yawn. Haven’t we seen enough women die for the sake of male character development? Speaking of things we’ve really seen enough of: was it really necessary for the only brown guy (and almost only Poc) in the film to be the villain? Generally, regarding racism and sexism the film isn’t exactly great or boundary-pushing.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself during the film. Not once was I bored and even more than that, there were many moments that really worked for me, both on an emotional level and regarding narrative progression. That is not to say that there aren’t any plot holes or that it is perfect, but it is a satisfying and fun watch.

Summarizing: Awesome popcorn cinema.