X-Men: Apocalypse

RATING: B+

"Forget everything you think you know," Raven/Mystique tells a bunch of recruits, "None of that matters." 

Ugh. Could that dialogue be any more parallel with the way this whole franchise has gone in general? Seriously, no one knows what is going on anymore in the X-Men timeline. Bryan Singer decided he wanted to make sure The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine never happened; but sadly, in the process he basically ended up erasing the first two movies as well (and that Wolverine film that takes place in Japan) in Days of Future Past, leaving the only other for-certain canon movie being... First Class. At this point, we're pretty much forced to take what they've given us now and see if we can make anything out of it. 

So, in this particular film that takes place 10 years after Days of Future Past, the original first mutant named Apocalypse wakes up after millennia of sleep. And this mutant who thought of himself as a god looked upon the world that he saw now. And he saw that it was not good. Apparently. So, much like Bryan Singer himself with this franchise, he decides to take it upon himself (and his Horsemen--Magneto, Angel, Psylocke (who?) and Storm) to remake the world. Leaving pretty much just the X-Men to stop him--which is made up of no one but Mystique, Beast, and a bunch of new recruits... that you actually know (Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler). Oh yeah, and Quicksilver's back. 

What we are treated to is a first 30 minutes that drags slightly slowly at times, before then giving us a pretty relentless remaining run time of action, destruction, and a prison breakout scene. The spectacle that ensues is pretty awesome, and there's quite a bit of plot going on in the background too (so it's not just mindless action/destruction). Some scenes are admittedly better than others, but there are some that are just fantastic (namely the "nuclear launch" sequence as well as Quicksilver's latest awesome slow-mo run--which somehow manages to outdo the one from the previous movie). 

The movie's pretty loaded with a good cast as well; James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence do quite well again, and Michael Fassbender pretty much earns himself an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (which means he won't get it, because it's the Oscars). Oscar Isaac is okay as well as Apocalypse, while Evan Peters is awesome again as Quicksilver, as is the new Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, as she seems to step into the role surprisingly well. 

Apocalypse hasn't exactly gotten good critical reception, which I'm finding a bit hard to understand. At worst, you could say it's predictable (I pretty much guessed how they would defeat Apocalypse before I even saw the movie--at least part of how they did it, anyway); but that doesn't stop it from be an exciting action/adventure film that actually works as a part of the new X-Men timeline (whatever that timeline is). 

Really, the biggest problem with this film overall is the same one that hangs over pretty much *all* the movies in this franchise: we can't figure out what's canon and what isn't anymore, and what's going on in the timeline. If you're a fan of the franchise thus far, then this should be another brilliant installment for you. If you haven't really enjoyed X-Men before, this is quite unlikely to change your mind. But overall, it's quite a fabulous superhero movie that, despite the fact that we can't figure out the timeline, manages to be incredibly entertaining on its own merits with its own characters and plot. Just like pretty much all the other movies in this series.