X-Men Apocalypse: continued

[Red Tiger]

9 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Yes, sorry, I seriously need to change it.

I can't understand why they would do that. I mean, I know they probably made a great deal of the movie before Ultron even came out, but... isn't Hollywood precisely known for going back after test screenings or producers' whims and changing things? So why didn't they just rework the whole goddam movie after the cold reception to Ultron?

Seriously, it's the exact same film.

  Reveal hidden contents

A powerful (unbeatable) villain appears and forms a small team to help him destroy the world and build a new one. The said team of course betrays him in the end and joins the super heroes to eliminate him, after a big battle in a completely destroyed city. Zero story, epic scale destruction and battles.

In all fairness, Ultron did bring in the big bucks, but yeah I too thought that movie was a letdown and apparently many reviewers thought so too.

There's a ton of things I dont understand about this movie, this is not a film Bryan Singer would make, he is at his best when focusing on smaller groups of characters, instead he piled on one after another. Im starting to wonder how much power Singer actually had or if these decisions were forced on him from the top.

Big planet-destroying villain? Not his style, his 3 previous X-men films dealt with institutions trying to change the world.

The underlying ideas of racism and other forms of discrimination? ugh, it was handled a lot more hamfisted in this film.

Magneto, Stryker, even Trask (though the biggest "villain" in DOFP was arguably Mystique) were given some solid reasons for their actions, the talkative baddies in this movie, not so much.

Jubilee.....I mean, WTF, JUBILEE, she was windowdressing.

[Pliskin]

Yes, such a movie from Singer (and I don't even hate those movies, I like brain dead explosions and fireworks at the theater) is baffling. I don't recognize him at all.

I wonder how much Simon Kinberg this movie is. And I wonder how the collaboration between Kinberg and Singer really takes place. Are they on the same wavelength, or is Singer desperately trying to force his way (worked well in DOFP) and failed to do so this time?

[red snow]

1 hour ago, Pliskin said:

Yes, such a movie from Singer (and I don't even hate those movies, I like brain dead explosions and fireworks at the theater) is baffling. I don't recognize him at all.

I wonder how much Simon Kinberg this movie is. And I wonder how the collaboration between Kinberg and Singer really takes place. Are they on the same wavelength, or is Singer desperately trying to force his way (worked well in DOFP) and failed to do so this time?

It does make you wonder about Kinberg given his involvement with Fant4stic as well.

If the film is Age of Ultron that's a massive shame as I dislike that film more with time. Maybe we'll at least get X-men:Schism next? Although we'd need a far cooler Cyclops for that to work.

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Pliskin said:

Yes, such a movie from Singer (and I don't even hate those movies, I like brain dead explosions and fireworks at the theater) is baffling. I don't recognize him at all.

I wonder how much Simon Kinberg this movie is. And I wonder how the collaboration between Kinberg and Singer really takes place. Are they on the same wavelength, or is Singer desperately trying to force his way (worked well in DOFP) and failed to do so this time?

Im guessing the latter, I just dont see how Singer would be okay with a film like this.

1 minute ago, red snow said:

It does make you wonder about Kinberg given his involvement with Fant4stic as well.

If the film is Age of Ultron that's a massive shame as I dislike that film more with time. Maybe we'll at least get X-men:Schism next? Although we'd need a far cooler Cyclops for that to work.

The film does have a mini-schism, with Raven and Xavier disagreeing about how to build up the next generation of X-men (Raven wants soldiers like Cyclops did, Xavier wants normal students like Wolverine) , but it's quickly resolved.

[Zoë Sumra]

Just back from seeing this... and shoot me now, but I enjoyed it far more than Civil War or Age of Ultron.  It just hit my fun centre, which the aforementioned pair didn't (OK, Civil War didn't intend to do so).

[JonCon's Red Beard]

I watched yesterday. I really enjoyed it and it was fun to watch. People in the theatre were definitely having a good time. We all did.

My problem with the movie was what said above: lack of development for characters. They were too much focused on portraying Apoc as the big baddie (which was clear since the credits) than to develop the future X-Men leaders. Ditto for the Horsemen. Apoc could have recruited Magneto plus three random goons and nothing would have changed. I don't remember how it actually happened in comics/90s cartoon, but I remember that it was a sense of "oh shit"...

I actually liked too see Moria back.

I'm more than tired of J-Law. Give her her own movie if they're so obsessed with her.

I liked the final battle despite the overCGI. It didn't drag around the plot like the main conflict in DOFP when Mystique was going to kill or not the president.

The end, it was obvious why Sansa was able to do what she did, for us that know. Behind us, there was a family that looked they only watched FC and DOFP, but had no idea about more of the XMUniv. So, I don't know how much they got from it. It's the kind of thing you have to explain (X3 explained what Jeanne was able to do in X2). So, I suppose we'll see this in future moveis?

[red snow]

I thought it was pretty good. Worth a cinema ticket and enough set pieces to almost gloss over the fact the film was lacking a proper second act. 

It was pretty much "apocalypse turns up" , gratuitous Quicksilver and Weapon X scenes, final act.

Apocalypse didn't really work as a villain - I'm not sure how anyone was supposed to survive turning the planet inside out (or whatever they were trying to do). That's extinction level shit. It may have helped if they had suggested he was just totally out of his time and was in over his head. I think he'd work great as a "dream house" reality TV presenter though. They could even have Jean and Magneto help him out every now and then. They never really told us his powers either it seemed he could boost powers and male people phase into objects. Oh and teleport.

Magneto didn't make much sense. I can understand him being all pissy and hating humans/defending mutants again but to destroy the world seems an over-reaction. It also meant the plot revolved entirely around him either remaining insanely evil or simply going "changed my mind". I think the others were far too forgiving of him as I imagine his actions caused the deaths of thousands but Xavier was all "i knew you were good". Tony stark would be kicking xavier out of his wheelchair if Disney had the X-men rights.

Weapon X was probably one of the best appearances we've had (which shows how poor a lot of his appearances have been).

The cast was decent, Fassbender and MacAvoy have always been solid and the rest were either good or simply underused. Why anyone would sign on to play a villain not called Magneto in the X-films is beyond me at this stage. You're guaranteed to receive hardly any lines and if you're really unlucky you're made to wear a bikini. People laughed whenever Psylocke's legs came into view. Not a problem on Olivia unn's part but the chatacter stood out like a sore thumb and it meant Apocalypse was kind of pervy as the insinuation was he built their costumes. Like the comic parodies - I wonder why Angel and Magneto weren't in their Y fronts?

Some of the powers had moments of "that's silly/inconsistent". Given Quicksilver's ridiculous godlike speed it's hard to imagine how he'd ever get punked by Apocalypse let alone by Strykers sonic gun (speed of sound is not an issue for movie Quicksilver). They could have at least established he's only capable of such speeds for a few seconds or something. Psylocke using her pschic blade to cut through cars and walls but when she turns it into a lasso it simply burns Beast's neck a little. You could have won that fight with a little thought, Psylocke.Then there was the polish cop who must have been a mutant to fire an arrow by accident that pierced a child and the parent (noticed Magneto wasn't too upset about the wife's death) - with what I assume was a stone/plastic arrowhead? That or Magneto failed to stop a metal arrowhead?

Nightcrawler putting himself in a coma to teleport 6 people when the time it took him was longer than him making 6 separate ports. He's a kid and still learning plus the others all grabbed him leaving him no choice.

But I liked it. Probably a little below DOFP but I wasn't raving about DOFP when I saw it. I'm sure the negativity here and in reviews meant my expectations were lowered too. That and I've been an X-men fan for over 20 years and the films are more watchable than the comics have been readable for a long while.

Was it just me or was Joker Jared Leto in the film as Caliban?

[The BlackBear]

30 minutes ago, red snow said:

snip

Given this ain't a spoiler thread (at least not yet) might want to tag some of that?

[Ruhail]

Ive decided to drop the X-men film franchise for the forseeable future. Its a disgrace that Singer's head is still stuck in the attitude of 15 yrs ago, Deadpool proves everything thats wrong with this franchise (No heart/passion and flair).

Some of the newer cast who are the face of the future of this franchise are quite weak. Turner in particular is a big problem for me. I dont and will not suffer her poor acting bringing down a second great female character whos known for great depth and empathy. Turner is a complete miscast. From the wooden constipated over delivery to her cringe worthy american accent shes showing all the same problems she does on GoT. 

So long X-men smell you later.

[dooog]

Saw it tonight, I thought it was horrible. Not terrible, but I was bored throughout and apart from a couple of good scenes there's really nothing to brag about here. Thought the actors for young Scott and Jean were utterly hopeless, Jean's actress brought absolutely nothing to the role.  Apocalpyse was disappointing, as was Isaac. The whole thing lacked any emotion or feeling and because of that, by the time we got to the final long drawn out action sequence I was checking my watch. I wanted to go home.

Fassbender & son were the only highlights. The rest was a bland by the numbers snoozefest.

Loved First Class and DOFP but I have no desire to ever rewatch this one.

[red snow]

8 hours ago, The BlackBear said:

Given this ain't a spoiler thread (at least not yet) might want to tag some of that?

Thanks for the heads up. Hope no damage was caused.

Doog and Ruhail. Jack Bauer is going to have a very angry one-sentence come-back to your Sophie Turner bashing - he was under the impression she was supposed to be the best thing about it. I hope he still enjoyed it though.

[ants]

Saw it with two friends. We all enjoyed it. Not as good as X2/X3/DOFP, but still a enjoyable movie to watch. Continues the trend of most of the x-men movies of being safe bets to see a decent movie, but unlikely to be amazing. 

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, ants said:

 Not as good as X2/X3/DOFP, 

Ouch.

[David Selig]

This was pretty terrible. Really disappointed since I love the other X-Men movies made by Singler. This had barely any character development, boring villain, a lot of forced melodrama which didn't work, a lot of really terrible dialogues and not nearly enough actual well shot fights. Instead we had scene after scene showing off how bad guys destroy stuff on a grand scale which got old really fast. It is a rehash of old themes only done not nearly as well as in the previous movies. J-Law looked bored and on autopilot. McAvoy was the only actor who impressed me, the rest were average or pretty bad.

They really should have come up with something else to base the plot on than exploring Magneto's angst again. And Magneto destroyed Cairo and killed many thousands if not millions yet Xavier was totally cool with that in the end. WTF?

[Pliskin]

2 hours ago, David Selig said:

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Spoiler

They really should have come up with something else to base the plot on than exploring Magneto's angst again. And Magneto destroyed Cairo and killed many thousands if not millions yet Xavier was totally cool with that in the end. WTF?

 

What really made me laugh and cringe is the TV news at the end where they say that

Spoiler

Magneto helped fight Apocalypse like he's a hero or something. What The Flying Fuck. He was destroying Cairo, New York (or whatever city that was with the bridge)... but okay, he's cool! Let's thank him!

 

[Pliskin]

And this is part of the main issue I have with the "story" and characters (if there is a story and characters) :

Spoiler

They never made clear if Apocalypse was controlling his horsemen (like I remember it was in X-Men Evolution I think and maybe the first show too, don't know about the comics, never read them) or if they had free will. And in both cases, it's problematic. If they had free will, how the fuck could you hope to humanize fucking psychopaths who destroy cities with millions of inhabitants (seriously, they're going to send Storm to Xavier's school like she's some random lost child of the streets? No big deal? She's okay with killing millions, but not her fault!). And if they didn't have free will, how could they turn on him in the end? Did I miss something? Did Xavier interfere with the link Apocalypse had with them?

 

[williamjm]

2 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

And this is part of the main issue I have with the "story" and characters (if there is a story and characters) :

  Hide contents

They never made clear if Apocalypse was controlling his horsemen (like I remember it was in X-Men Evolution I think and maybe the first show too, don't know about the comics, never read them) or if they had free will. And in both cases, it's problematic. If they had free will, how the fuck could you hope to humanize fucking psychopaths who destroy cities with millions of inhabitants (seriously, they're going to send Storm to Xavier's school like she's some random lost child of the streets? No big deal? She's okay with killing millions, but not her fault!). And if they didn't have free will, how could they turn on him in the end?

 

Apocalypse does state that he doesn't have a mind control power, which is why he wants to absorb Professor X's, this does seem to imply they're not mind-controlled. Aside from Magneto the film spends so little time on the characterisation of the horsemen that it's hard to know what they actually feel about any of it.

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Pliskin said:

And this is part of the main issue I have with the "story" and characters (if there is a story and characters) :

  Reveal hidden contents

They never made clear if Apocalypse was controlling his horsemen (like I remember it was in X-Men Evolution I think and maybe the first show too, don't know about the comics, never read them) or if they had free will. And in both cases, it's problematic. If they had free will, how the fuck could you hope to humanize fucking psychopaths who destroy cities with millions of inhabitants (seriously, they're going to send Storm to Xavier's school like she's some random lost child of the streets? No big deal? She's okay with killing millions, but not her fault!). And if they didn't have free will, how could they turn on him in the end? Did I miss something? Did Xavier interfere with the link Apocalypse had with them?

 

Stop putting more thought into this film than the makers did.

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Pliskin said:

What really made me laugh and cringe is the TV news at the end where they say that

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Magneto helped fight Apocalypse like he's a hero or something. What The Flying Fuck. He was destroying Cairo, New York (or whatever city that was with the bridge)... but okay, he's cool! Let's thank him!

 

It did feel a bit like a mirror universe to all his other adventures.

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

 

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Apocalypse does state that he doesn't have a mind control power, which is why he wants to absorb Professor X's, this does seem to imply they're not mind-controlled. Aside from Magneto the film spends so little time on the characterisation of the horsemen that it's hard to know what they actually feel about any of it.

 

I'm with Williamjm here. Jubilee had as much development as the horsemen in this film. Hell,

the tree that Cyclops blew up had more development than Storm. Angel and Psylocke

.

I'm pleased Olivia Munn learned all the cool swordplay for the role - it's not like she had lines to learn.

[David Selig]

My friends wanted to watch the post-credits scene so I stayed with them and had to wait for all credits. And it just brought home for me the amount of work put into this movie by all kinds of people, probably over a thousand of them. So much money and effort goes into these blockbusters, yet often they couldn't be bothered to write a half-decent script.