X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on May 11, 2016 @ tonymacklin.net.

X-Men: Apocalypse is a poster movie for contemporary cinema. It's spectacular nonsense.

It's what contemporary cinema aims to be. It's overkill. It's a gluttonous feast of special effects. It delivers, but at what cost? Sense, subtlety, and a budget of $234 million.

A talented cast is at the bilious beck and clarion call of special effects. They emote as the special effects crash and burn around them. At one point, I swear I saw fire coming out of their ass.

The characters are wizards of violence. Beheadings are now a cliche - at the behest of swords, a charm on a chain, or just waves of power. Heads are lopped off bodies, and a vast multiplicity of bodies plummet or vanish in dust.

X-Men: Apocalypse is the chaotic tale of how mankind is threatened with extinction by En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), a mutant from the past. Over centuries he has gained strength and power in rites transferring the abilities of other mutants to himself. He is seeking to absorb power that will make him supreme. Watch out, Professor Xavier (James McAvoy).

The gifted actors try to elbow their way through the carnage. The old gang is here - McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, et al.

This time out, they are joined by Oscar Isaac as En Sabah Nur, the super villain. Isaac has vaulted from small, personal dramas - the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) and the indie Ex Machina (2015) to blockbuster extravaganzas. He was Poe Dameron in Star Wars: the Force Awakens (2015) and now is starring but unrecognizable in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Isaac channels his inner Boris Karloff as the supreme antagonist. The film looks like it has been stitched together by Dr. Frankenstein.

Bryan Singer's direction assures that the film is well-made, but it's in no way thought-provoking. Simon Kinberg and three other credited writers play a game of movie 52 Pickup.

The X-Men series has established a tradition of mythical outsiders. Gay or nerdy - or both. But now they're a swarm of superheroes. It's ironic that despite the emphasis the series has on being different, how conformist it has become.

Is one out of every two movies today a superhero extravaganza, or does it just seem that way?

Superheroes are taking over the world of entertainment. I watch The Flash, Arrow, and Gotham on television. No Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D or Supergirl. At least, not yet.

The three I watch are better than what Castle has become - the writers are now hackneyed and tone-deaf. And the final episode of The Good Wife was abysmal, where they betrayed their main character and made her just a weak observer. Yeah, that's what the program was about.

On television the special effects don't overwhelm. Yet.

On the theatre screen, the special effects explode and disintegrate. X-Men marks the spot.

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