X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
★★½ — X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
There's a moment in X-Men: Apocalypse where Quicksilver tears through a collapsing building to a synth-pop soundtrack, saving student after student in glorious slow motion, and it is genuinely one of the most joyful action sequences the franchise has ever produced. Pure comic-book fun, perfectly executed. And then the film goes back to being resolutely average, and you're left wondering why the rest of it couldn't summon even half that energy.
That's the problem in a nutshell. This is a film with the ingredients for something great and the ambition of something merely adequate. En Sabah Nur, the ancient mutant who wakes up after millennia underground and decides humanity deserves a good cleansing, should be terrifying. Oscar Isaac is a genuinely magnetic actor. But buried under layers of prosthetics and a costume that looks like it was designed by someone who's only ever seen a superhero film described to them over the phone, he's oddly lifeless. There's no menace to him, no real sense of what he wants beyond a vague biblical rage. A villain without edges isn't frightening. He's just loud.
The 1980s setting is a nice touch on paper, and the production leans into it hard, synth-heavy score, shoulder pads, mullets, the works. But the retro aesthetic is doing a lot of heavy lifting over a story that's genuinely thin. Too many characters, too little time with any of them. Mystique is brooding, Beast is reluctant, Magneto gets yet another tragic backstory beat that the film doesn't earn because we've been here before. It's all stretched too thinly, and the pacing between the set pieces drags in a way that makes a two-and-a-half-hour film feel considerably longer.
The visual effects, for a production of this scale, are surprisingly cartoonish in places. Big moments that should land with weight just sort of... happen, then move on. There's no breathing room, no sense of consequence. The tone swings between apocalyptic doom and goofy teen drama without ever finding a register that feels intentional.
Where it does work, outside of the Quicksilver sequence, is Sophie Turner as young Jean Grey. She brings a quiet, simmering quality to the role, someone becoming aware of a power that frightens even her. She isn't always the most technically accomplished actress, and there are moments where the material stretches her, but the performance has real presence. It's the one character thread that leaves you wanting more, which is either a compliment to Turner or an indictment of everyone else's development, possibly both.
Look, I've loved plenty of X-Men films. X-Men: Days of Future Past felt like the franchise rediscovering what made it special, and X-Men: First Class had genuine warmth and wit underneath all the Cold War drama. Apocalypse, by contrast, plays like a checklist. Gather the team. Establish the threat. Big fight. Credits. It's competent, occasionally exciting, and almost entirely forgettable.
It's not a disaster. It's worse than that, in a way. It's mid. The kind of film you watch on a Sunday afternoon, enjoy well enough in the moment, and then struggle to recall specific scenes from a week later. And for a franchise that once felt bold and urgent, that's a real shame. The momentum the series had built, that sense that these films had something to say about outcasts and fear and identity, has mostly drained away here, replaced by spectacle that doesn't quite dazzle and drama that doesn't quite land.
Two and a half stars. Not the end of the world. Just the end of the franchise's best run.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2016 | Watched: 2025-09-25
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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