What Went Wrong With 'X-Men: Apocalypse'

​Written by Scott Edwards

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I missed this movie in theaters and while I was upset at first that I let that happen, in the end that really worked out for the better. Let’s get a little background out of the way here, I have watched and loved all of the X-Men movies over the years and being a kid from the eighties, I also grew up with the X-Men animated series, something that I would never miss. I even have a couple comic books and a deck of X-Men trading cards that I refer to when a character I do not remember comes into play. I've really been a huge fan of this series over the years, but I must admit that when I watched the latest movie, I was more than disappointed, and here are a just a few of the things that continue to bother me when it comes to this movie.
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Let us start with Ivan Ooze, I mean Apocalypse. I love how the story took us back to ancient Egypt and showed us what the golden top of the pyramid was for, that was pretty epic, but the rest of what is going on with him leaves plenty to be desired. One of my biggest problems with Apocalypse is that no matter where he is, he is surrounded by purple, which is what we saw in the EW issue that stirred the early outrage for his character. But that is not the only thing that got to me as he is the same height or shorter than his new horsemen. I understand that people back in the day were much shorter and a five and a half foot tall person may have been known as big, but seen as a God? Really? I remember Apocalypse being head and shoulders bigger than everyone that he faced and while they did give us that effect in a ‘mind fight’ sequence with Charles, it really was too little too late for me. Along with the False God talk that came straight out of Batman v. Superman, I am still not sure what they were trying to do with one of the better villains from the X-Men franchise.

The storyline had plenty of issues and while this stands true for most of the X-Men movies, it just seemed to be recycled from the previous movies that did well. I would start with Magneto in this, since he has been through the most pain of any of the characters. Living through the Holocaust, seeing his mother killed to invoke his mutation and being betrayed by his friends when trying to kill the president ten years ago, you really think that killing his wife and kid would have the same effect on him in the future, allowing for him to put a calculated and powerful plan together to exact revenge upon humanity. Instead, I just think back to X-Men Origins: Wolverine when it comes to the rage that Logan unleashed because Erik does the exact same thing. With all of the talk about there being more to Erik Lehnsherr than just rage, there is nothing more to him in this story than that, taking him off of the list of bad ass bad guys and making him into a one dimensional weak character that only knows how to do one thing, kill. Besides that, where are his powers as he gets older and shows up in the nineties? He should be able to destroy the planet now with the power that Apocalypse gave him, but the best he can do is move a bridge? Kind of a fail as to where that power went considering his role as one of the two remaining horsemen.

The overall storyline has left me longing for so much more as it seems to be copied and pasted from The Last Stand. Let’s see, an all-powerful mutant wants to take over the world, check. Humanity must bend to their will, check. Only one that loves me can defeat me, in a roundabout way with Mystique and Magneto, check. Make mutants the most powerful beings on the planet, if the cure would have been destroyed, it would have happened, check. It is far too familiar and something needed to change when all was said and done. With new characters and a quote/unquote new timeline to play with, they still deliver the same old story, it is really sad. 

I could also go on and on about the acting and the direction of the movie, but these are my three biggest issues with X-Men: Apocalypse when all is said and done. If they did not have a budget or any of the star power to bring to the table, this would have been a much better movie, and it will be one of the greatest superhero ‘B’ movies in my book, falling short to only The Toxic Avenger. Like I said in my review of the movie, I did like the turn Jean Grey and Mystique took in the movie to be the strongest characters, but I can also tell that the storyline did not want them to be strong and everything changed midway through to try and make you like them a little bit more. I think I hate to say this, but an X-Men movie that does not feature Wolverine in a prominent role will never be accepted by the masses and while Weapon X did make an appearance and went berserker on everyone, it was far from enough to make this movie as good as The Last Stand. 

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