The Weirdest X-Men Movie Isn’t As Bad As You Remember
With Marvel’s mutant team in limbo, there’s no better time to revisit X-Men: Apocalypse.
At this stage of the streaming wars, certain properties have become synonymous with their host platform. Marvel and Star Wars obviously belong on Disney+, while DC studios projects are often exclusive on Max. Of course, sometimes those lines blur, as we’ve seen with DC films making the rounds on Netflix and Prime Video. But it’s rare to see Disney’s catalog pop up on a rival streamer; rarer still to see it at the top of said streamer’s charts. But that’s exactly what X-Men: Apocalypse managed to accomplish over Labor Day weekend, breaking into the top 10 films currently streaming on Max.
Of all the X-Men films produced by 20th Century Fox, Apocalypse’s success does have a certain irony to it. Fox’s X-Men saga has a checkered legacy, to put it kindly, and Apocalypse didn’t do much to strengthen the franchise’s reputation. It’s not quite as reviled as Dark Phoenix or The Last Stand, but it’s nowhere near as good as its predecessor, Days of Future Past. It’s the kind of entry that’s better off forgotten, though some of its more bonkers choices (remember when Magneto destroyed Auschwitz?) will likely live on in infamy.
However middling the film was in 2015, there’s a sort of quaintness to it all now. Apocalypse may be flawed — very, very flawed — but it also represents the last gasp of an era that means a lot to many an X-Men fan. Is it really a surprise that it’s doing well on a new platform? Deadpool & Wolverine proved that there’s still plenty of love for the Fox films, and with both Marvel and DC working overtime to keep their brands alive, it can’t hurt to revisit a franchise that was rarely afraid to get weird.
X-Men: Apocalypse is a funny film. It came after Fox had rebooted its X-Men Universe with a brilliant prequel trilogy, and the success of Days of Future Past naturally set expectations high for more films. Fox did the logical thing by continuing the story, albeit with the help of a slightly-convoluted set-up. Apocalypse finally gets around to introducing the ultimate villain, En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), who awakens after a 5,000-year slumber to take over the world. He’s presumably the world’s first ever mutant, and he’s got a bonkers power scale to back his claim.
As Apocalypse sets off to recruit four helpers (or Horsemen) to enact his master plan, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) gets busy wrangling a new X-Men team. Apocalypse’s line-up is much more in line with classic depictions of the squad, introducing younger versions of Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee). They’re mentored by First Class alums like Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) — and honestly, it’s really gratifying to see the next stage of the X-Men take shape.
Apocalypse tries to recreate the old-meets-new approach of Days of Future Past.
While the film’s eponymous villain leaves a lot to be desired, Apocalypse still makes for an intriguing watch. It’s not a perfect bridge between the prequels and the original X-Men films — and like some of its predecessors, it tries a bit too hard to please everyone — but there are merits to its ideas. Old school meets new seamlessly enough, and it helps that Apocalypse’s own team makes an appropriate foil for Xavier’s new batch of youngsters. It’s frustrating to see Michael Fassbender’s Magneto made into a pawn for a more powerful mutant, but the presence of fan favorites like Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Archangel (Ben Hardy), and Psylocke (Olivia Munn) do soften the blow.
Yes, Apocalypse is a bloated film... but the same might be said for most X-Men films. The problem with this particular entry is its failure to truly push the saga to new heights. The stature of its antagonist suggest that the stakes have never been higher, but it’s hard to match the greatness of Days of Future Past. Perhaps Apocalypse landed with a thud because there was nowhere else for the franchise to go; perhaps Fox didn’t have the guts to let go of the formula that’d served the franchise well in so many other instances. Whatever mistakes were made, though, it’s of little consequence now. Fans are clearly feeling nostalgic for Fox’s X-Men Universe — and with Marvel’s mutant team still in limbo, there’s no better time for a reappraisal.
