X-Men Apocalypse trailer

[Brian G Turner]

The trailer for the new X-Men film has been released, with a continued focus on the younger versions of the characters:

 

[Foxbat]

Looks good.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Oooh, that looks darned fine. 2016 is shaping up to be a good year for movies - Captain America, Deadpool, and now this.

 

[Nick B]

Now, I've read in several places that it follows Days of Future Past, but it doesn't, it clearly follows First Class.
Looks good though.

 

[Frost Giant]

There's an amusing version on Cinemablend this morning that uses the video from the old X-Men cartoon to do the trailer for Apocalypse. I always thought the Apocalypse episodes were the best of that cartoon series, they hired a good person to do his voice. That's why I was somewhat skeptical of hiring Oscar Isaac for the role. I was hoping they would get someone that had a voice with more gravitas, like when they hired Cumberbatch to voice Smaug.
The actual trailer looked fairly good though, looking forward to seeing Apocalypse this summer.

 

[chongjasmine]

I went to see the actual movie, today, and like it.
There are funny bits here and there.
All in all, I enjoyed the movie.

 

[Calum]

Well it’s better than Batman vs Superman. But a back massage with a Hedgehog covered in dog jobbies is better than Batman Vs Superman. One thing they do have in common (Along with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Star Wars Prequels, Star Trek into Darkens, Age of Ultron, The Hobbit trilogy, Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who and to a lesser extent The Force Awakens) is that they sacrifice good storytelling to fan service and world building (after Fant4stic managed to get I everything about the source material wrong I suspect Fox panicked and flipped to the opposite extreme with this movie).

Days of Future Past was able to whether its continuity overload by focusing very clearly on four well developed protagonists, Charles, Erik, Raven and Wolverine. Apocalypse by contrast never settles on a clear lead as it’s so busy trying to cram in and introduce so many characters. The film derails its own narrative for a good 20 minutes simply to reboot Wolverine’s origins.

Some intriguing threads emerge such as a surprisingly compelling turn by Sophie Turner as Jean Grey but it’s mostly lost in the muddle. Alex’s death scene should have been a major emotional moment but it’s undermined by the fact he gets himself killed through his own bumbling and the director’s choice to focus on a fan pleasing re-tread of Quicksilver’s fan pleasing slo mo antics kill any drama they could have gotten out of it.

It also tries to paint itself as a touching redemption story for Erik when really it makes him into an irredeemable arse. By the end of the film he’s murdered more people than Apocalypse himself but Charles is still happy to pal around with him like the worse he’d done was speed through a red light.

This certainly isn’t helped by the fact that Magneto’s tragic bereavement of the week wasn’t even deliberate this time (the hilariously contrived scene of a guard accidentally killing his family with a bow and arrow because some finches distracted him felt more like Monty Python than Greek tragedy) yet he sees it as a perfectly good excuse to go on yet another murder spree. Not only does this make him irredeemable but by extension makes Charles’s willingness to let him wander free to kill again extremely suspect.

 

[DZara]

(Spoiler alert - beware)

We went to see it today too. Overall I liked it.

Oscar Isaac was wrapped in so many layers of makeup for Apocalypse that it looked as if you could have bounced him off set after shooting.

A little on the lugubrious side as to pacing, but I liked the Jean Grey storyline and the development of the other characters. Kept wondering why she was running around like she was a human, when she could have lit into Apocalypse long before she did. And I have to agree with Calum - Magento gets off pretty easily considering what he's done, and what he's capable of doing again.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Enjoyed this a lot more than I expected I would - though it helps that I no longer worry about continuity with the original trilogy because clearly that's not important in these films any more.

It was very slow to build up, but decent when it picked up pace. Even though some aspects were predictable, the film allowed a degree of tantalisation.

Highlight: Quicksilver in the X-Men mansion.