X-MEN APOCALYPSE
****
Director: Bryan Singer
Screenwriter: Simon Kinberg
Principal cast:
James McAvoy
Michael Fassbender
Jennifer Lawrence
Nicholas Hoult
Oscar Isaac
Rose Byrne
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 144 mins.
Australian release date: 19 May 2016
Previewed at: Event Cinemas, George Street, Sydney, on 18 May 2016
In Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse an impressive pre-credit sequence takes you into the bowels of an ancient Egyptian pyramid where we are witness to the final transformation of En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) before he becomes entombed for millennia. We are then taken on a 30-second techno-trip through history before arriving in the 1980s. Voilà! Still, it’s a fitting place to end up, following on as it does from the two most recent X-Men outings, X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, which were set in the ‘60s and ‘70s respectively. And of course, it’s not long before Apocalypse’s tomb is disturbed and he too arrives in the age of big hair and MAD (the Super Power’s doctrine of Mutually Assured [nuclear] Destruction). [Ed. Don’t worry, the reference is relevant to the plot.] Thus is the scene set for the Marvel mayhem that follows in this two-and-a-half hour X-travaganza! Cleverly, scriptwriter Simon Kinberg has made the plot accessible and satisfying to both newcomers and fans of the X-Men universe; it’s not all action - plenty of back-story and characterisation are provided, enough to keep one engaged throughout the film. As James McAvoy’s Professor Charles Xavier says to Sophie Turner’s flame-haired clairvoyant Phoenix/Jean Gray, “Just go with it! Feel the power.”
Screenwriter: Simon Kinberg
Principal cast:
James McAvoy
Michael Fassbender
Jennifer Lawrence
Nicholas Hoult
Oscar Isaac
Rose Byrne
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 144 mins.
Australian release date: 19 May 2016
Previewed at: Event Cinemas, George Street, Sydney, on 18 May 2016
In Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse an impressive pre-credit sequence takes you into the bowels of an ancient Egyptian pyramid where we are witness to the final transformation of En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) before he becomes entombed for millennia. We are then taken on a 30-second techno-trip through history before arriving in the 1980s. Voilà! Still, it’s a fitting place to end up, following on as it does from the two most recent X-Men outings, X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, which were set in the ‘60s and ‘70s respectively. And of course, it’s not long before Apocalypse’s tomb is disturbed and he too arrives in the age of big hair and MAD (the Super Power’s doctrine of Mutually Assured [nuclear] Destruction). [Ed. Don’t worry, the reference is relevant to the plot.] Thus is the scene set for the Marvel mayhem that follows in this two-and-a-half hour X-travaganza! Cleverly, scriptwriter Simon Kinberg has made the plot accessible and satisfying to both newcomers and fans of the X-Men universe; it’s not all action - plenty of back-story and characterisation are provided, enough to keep one engaged throughout the film. As James McAvoy’s Professor Charles Xavier says to Sophie Turner’s flame-haired clairvoyant Phoenix/Jean Gray, “Just go with it! Feel the power.”