X-Men: Apocalypse is expressionism, with mutants
What else can you do with the superhero movie? The Russo Brothers made a 1970s-style conspiracy thriller (Captain America: Winter Soldier), then an excellent fight movie that was really about friendship (Captain America: Civil War). (And friendship is worth fighting for, even more than money or power.) Bryan Singer has made a movie that recalls the German expressionist classic, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. With mutants. An excellent stylistic choice, because how else are you going to portray telepathy? Voice-overs get tiresome after a while.
Cerebro looks like this image from Metropolitan
Major roles in the X-Men series have been recast, bringing the movies closer to the comics—hushed chorus of “It’s the Phoenix” from the next row. (They’re going to have to recast Wolverine soon, even if Logan is very old, if only to minimize the ick factor when the love triangle comes around.) Granted, any heavy in armor could’ve played Apocalypse, but Oscar Isaac continues his attempt to be in every movie ever made. The regulars—James McAvoy as Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast—reunite to battle the world’s first mutant, who is disappointed with the state of humanity in the 1980s and plans to destroy everything and start over. I guess he saw the hairstyles. Evan Peters as Quicksilver gets another amusing music video, and a reverse Luke-and-Vader scenario.
Since the first X-Men adaptation, also directed by Singer, the history of the mutants has been conflated with the Shoah. The resonances are very loud in Apocalypse, where Magneto returns to Auschwitz. Erik, what makes you think you can pass for normal? Darling, we’re freaks.
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May 20th, 2016 at 01:02
Planning to watch X-Men: Apocalypse for the second time since this one already ties-in some of the plot-holes the earlier X-Men movies presented.
My only misgivings here are Archangel’s portrayal (too lame for me. The comic version is more menacing than this one), Apocalypse’s height (this new X-men has lots of CGI, but can’t do something on the main antagonist’s height at all), Sophie Turner’s “wooden” acting (the “original” Jean Grey is still the better one), and the apparent lack of decent fight scenes, especially with Psylocke (she’s a ninja), Beast (one of the most agile and versatile in hand-to-hand combat), and even Mystique (what happened to you, Jennifer Lawrence?).
I actually enjoyed it, at par with BvS, but not as high as Captain America: Civil War. I’m willing to wait for the “finale” that centers in the 1990s, the Golden Age of X-men comics (in terms of popularity, comic book sales, and among those who grew up watching the 1992 X-Men animated series).
May 21st, 2016 at 10:37
Ibalik ang mga divas Magneto at Profe Charles X. At Pati na rin si Rebecca Romijn.