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I just hope and pray for the day we get the Apocalypse movie we deserve...lacking Xavier with the word "Age" in front of it...

That's a bit concerning... Age of Apocalypse starts at my local cinema next week and they're only really having 3 showings a day.

To put things in context, Civil War, 3 weeks after release, has about 8.

 Compel wrote:
That's a bit concerning... Age of Apocalypse starts at my local cinema next week and they're only really having 3 showings a day.

To put things in context, Civil War, 3 weeks after release, has about 8.

You mean X-Men: Apocalypse. We still haven't gotten AoA. Marvel should hire the DC department that does their cartoon comic movies for an adaptation...it would fly off the shelves. I wonder how that would go over though...

Yeah, Apocalypse. Kinda aside the point though...

The one spoiler free review I saw gave it an A- and said that they didn't really understand the poor reviews. The minus was from a slow start that didn't grab his attention but eventually paid off much later. Essentially A happens 5 minutes in for no reason but than 10 minutes until the end you find out it had a reason. It also apparently has mind battles taking place entirely in peoples minds which are "trippy".

I get the impression that it isn't a film for everyone and that it doesn't follow the popcorn summer movie mold. Eh, I'll still see it even if Rotten Tomatoes isn't happy.

Yeah, reviews are all over the place for the film so far.

Empire Magazine gave it 2/5 stars.
The Nerdist gave it 3/5 stars.
The Independent gave it 4/5 stars. (That also described some scenes a 'trippy').

Cineworld also said that they're planning on adding on more showings soon.

One thing the reviews I've read seem to say is that the cast is brilliant, including the new ones.

Interesting to see such divergence, though it is not usually a good sign. I had also noticed that the viewing schedule was really slow for my local cinema palace, and I wonder if that is because the chains are expecting it to do badly?

Side note: it must be an interesting job to be the guy who watches films and decides how many showings to give them at the cinema.

 Ahtman wrote:
The one spoiler free review I saw gave it an A- and said that they didn't really understand the poor reviews. The minus was from a slow start that didn't grab his attention but eventually paid off much later. Essentially A happens 5 minutes in for no reason but than 10 minutes until the end you find out it had a reason. It also apparently has mind battles taking place entirely in peoples minds which are "trippy".

I get the impression that it isn't a film for everyone and that it doesn't follow the popcorn summer movie mold. Eh, I'll still see it even if Rotten Tomatoes isn't happy.

At this point, I think sticking to the Marvel formula gets you rewarded and straying gets you punished. Which is not to say that there aren't other, more legit reasons why a film might receive good or bad reviews. But I think that for whatever reason, the Marvel formula has become a baseline to which reviewers compare other superhero films. And I think that's both wrong-headed and unfortunate.

Let's be real though. This one will do fine. It'll make money. It won't blow the socks off the world with it's take but it'll be fine. It's X-men, the last two have been excellent, and has by far the best cast of actors for a superhero genre on the market.

I know people who won't see other superhero movies but they'll go see Lawrence, McAvoy, and Fassbender.

 Hulksmash wrote:
Let's be real though. This one will do fine. It'll make money. It won't blow the socks off the world with it's take but it'll be fine. It's X-men, the last two have been excellent, and has by far the best cast of actors for a superhero genre on the market.

I know people who won't see other superhero movies but they'll go see Lawrence, McAvoy, and Fassbender.

Did you see Lawrence and McAvoy on Graham Norton - quite a ride...................

Def seeing this at the cinema but then I have no interest in reviewers ...........

 Mr Morden wrote:

Did you see Lawrence and McAvoy on Graham Norton - quite a ride...................

I've not seen that yet but, this is still my favourite 'interview' from the cast.

http://nerdist.com/which-x-men-cast-members-know-the-90s-x-men-cartoon-theme-song/

So, I went to see the film tonight (opening night, woohoo!)

So, I'm going to try for a non spoilerish review of it, though I'll probably be referring to some trailer stuff a little because, well, otherwise, noones really going to know what I'm talking about I think.

Anyhows... I'll start with the bad news, folks and the reason for what I think the film is getting those 2/5 star reviews that have been mentioned.

Ok?

Ready?

It's not Captain America: Civil War.


No, I'm not making a point about a Disney conspiracy theory rant here. It's just a simple, honest fact. It's not Civil War. It's also not Deadpool. I know, shock horror, gasp, right? But in all seriousness, if you go in expecting Deadpool and Civil War, it's not gonna happen, it's an X-Men film, it's a sequel to Days of Future Past and First Class. You go in with that in your mind and you'll be good.

Ok, actual review time. Irrationally, I have a massive soft spot for Batman VS Superman. Conceptually I know it's a massively flawed film and all that sort of stuff that got the BvS thread locked. Rationally speaking though, using my brain and the pros and cons-ing it all up... X-Men: Apocalypse is my best film I've seen in the cinema this year. I know, I know, Deadpool and I like Deadpool. But, Deadpool is a different kind of film to Apocalypse (I'll be saying that a lot). It's a smaller, less 'epic' in scope story. If Deadpool is like "Taken" then Apocalypse is probably closer to "Black Hawk Down." Both good, actioney films (though I still maintain Deadpool is a romance) but they're different scales and I'm kinda into the grander, more epic scale myself.
So, comparisons to Civil War, since I started with that, again we're talking about a different thing here. Civil War had a large cast, but ultimately the story is about Cap, Bucky and Tony. Civil War did juggle all the additional characters really well and you're not going to see that sort of thing here. There is a (rather large) core group to the (very large) ensemble and if you're going to the film, for purely one of the non core group characters, you're probably gonna be disappointed. It's really an ensemble film though, it's about enjoying bits and pieces and slices from all these amazing various characters you love and leaves just enough for you to want more.

The cast, on the whole, are brilliant. The returning cast members are much what you've come to expect from them, just more awesomeness there. I didn't love Apocalypse at the start of the film, he kinda felt a bit out of place for a while. However, he grew on me by the time we got into the last act or so. The main new additions, Cyclops, Jean and Nightcrawler are great. Cyclops and Jean are way better than the original films, whereas Nightcrawler, to be perfect honestly, is practically identical to him in X-Men 2. And he was awesome in X-Men 2. He's also kinda adorable, which is a weird thing to say, but there it is. I also want to see a bit more of Storm too (it's that whole "bits and pieces and slices" thing again). One final cast comment, which I'm going to put in spoiler tags, just in case someone has very specifically not wanted to see the 3rd trailer.



Ok, visualwise. Visually, I would describe it as, "like Batman VS Superman, in the daytime, when it's sunny." It kinda goes back to the, "grand, epic" thing I said at the start of the review. Like in BvS, you see these big huge vista like scenes and they're gorgeous and kinda terrifying too. The powers are great as well, which is kinda a thing that can be overlooked but yeah, watching the originals in the runup to this, they do have this extra 'oomph' now.

One of the big issues with BvS is that it very much felt like an 'incomplete' film due to terrible editing, aside from that, "wanting to see individual characters a little more" it felt very much like a complete film, no real editing issues I noticed. Maybe there will be a "Rogue Cut" like thing, that adds a bit more to some scenes, but I dunno, seemed complete to me.
There is humour in the film, not a MCU quip-a-thon, but there is humour (Particularly from Quicksilver), with a few giggly comic nods.


Oh, and there is an after credits scene, that's a hint towards the next film.

So yeah, anything I missed, anyone wanting to know more stuff?

I'm super looking forward to the next one, myself. Especially if they can get the Deadpool movie incarnation of Colossus into the gang too. - After all, he was giant and metal the whole time, who is to say what he looks like in his 'human' form.

So just to clarify, in the non-spoileryiest way possible please, when you say there's a hint at the next film, do you mean a direct sequel to this Trilogy, as in another actual X-men film, or the next one actually coming out, the third Wolverine movie? From what I recall, Fox hadn't announced there was another actual X-men film coming, but I'm totally down for as much as I can get of them!

Can't wait to see the new cast in action, probably going to try and see it next week once exams are out of the way.

Personally, I would say it's a direct hint to the next X-Men film, which feels like it will be a new 'phase' of the X-Men films.

However, it could very well be related to a Wolverine film but personally, I'd say that's less likely. However, I suppose it could be a setup for a Wolverine film that's a setup for an X-Men film....

Cool, I was hoping we'd get more with this new lineup. Good as the old trilogy is, a similar set of films made these days would just be far better made and have much higher production values, so if they can get some more made then bring it on!

Had a quick google, consensus seems to support the, "setup for Wolverine 3 setting up an X-Men film" idea.

Hopefully my posts aren't too spammy here but...

Went to see it tonight. Decidedly ho hum, very average.
Cities blowing up - check
Magneto - battling his demons - check
A completely wasted Villian - check
Too many attempts at character development - check
Big CGI at the end - check
Xavier uniting everyone again - check
"baddies" turning into "goodies" - check.

Film by numbers at this point.
And again boy did they waste Apocs potential. Really :(

I just got back from watching this. My basic opinion: it's okay. Not amazing, not outright terrible, but okay.

The biggest problem with the film is the bad guys. As is typical for an X-Men film, there is a primary bad guy and his minions. Neither the primary bad guy nor the minions in this film really have any development, and more importantly no explanation for why the minions would go along with the bad guy. Otherwise, it is a fun and exciting film, with some good action scenes, entertaining characters, solid emotional moments, and great acting; but the plot and pacing let things down.

Some quick thoughts in spoiler tags:


Out of the three big superhero films of the summer, I'd say that this ranks third, coming behind Civil War (the superior film, with no big flaws) and Batman vs Superman (a flawed but very interesting film). Deadpool I wouldn't bother comparing with the other three. I'd recommend a watch of this, but not if you don't like Superhero films as a genre that much; it doesn't transcend the genre to become generically good films in the same way as The Dark Knight, Winter Soldier, or Days of Future Past did.

 Compel wrote:
Hopefully my posts aren't too spammy here but...

That was awesome especially the voice-cameo at the end!

Finally got to see the film witha coupe of friends...........

And we all really enjoyed it

I think it was nearly as good as Cap A 3 and way way better than Sups vs Bats - at least they had a proper bad guy and not the travesty that was Loopy Lex

Good:
Quicksilver - just so very cool every time he was on screen
Opening scene - my friend who is a big into ancient Egypt and a amateaur archaelogist - she really liked some of the details. It was a great opener - similar in coolness to the Bats vs Sups opening which was also really good.
Whole Weapon X story in 10 mins - nice - I remember buying that comic which took so very long to not really tell the story............
Psylocke and Storm looked good
Nightcrawler worked
Danger Room
Pheonix

Bad
Not much really - been nice to see a bit of back story for some people but there was little time - maybe in the future.

Having shout outs to comics doesn't make a comic book film good. Plotwise, this was more of a mess than either "vs" movies this year. It had some memorable moments, probably moreso than either BvS or Cap3...but moments strung along wildly don't make a film.

 trexmeyer wrote:
Having shout outs to comics doesn't make a comic book film good. Plotwise, this was more of a mess than either "vs" movies this year. It had some memorable moments, probably moreso than either BvS or Cap3...but moments strung along wildly don't make a film.

Spoiler:

I can understand Angel (who is hinted at being a long enslaved fighter) and Magneto as willing to join Apocalypse, but Psylocke had ZERO character development and Storm being okay with her city and friends getting scorched made no sense.

Well thats an opinion - mine is the opposite - it had a plot - stargate like but in keeping with Appocalypse who is very one dimensional in the comics..

It was pretty obvious he gave all his horsemen massively increased power - and with Psylocke reimagined as a Aassassin for hire and Storm as a street kid - that made perfect sense. why wouldn't they go along with him?

The plot n BvsS made much less sense - and the whole - "oh right our mothers name is the same so we are now best buds" plus every single moment Loopy Lex was on screen ruined that film.

At least we can all agree the third one was the worst.

Just got back. Really enjoyed most of it, Nightcrawler was awesome, I LOVED the reimagined 90s costumes that showed up in places and felt it was a nice touch. Don't feel that needed to be spoilered. Anyway, spoilers below about what I didn't feel was right.


I swear that I did like the movie though!! And my friends turned to ask me what the Easter egg at the end meant. A good spoiler for any real X-Men fans, meaningless for those who don't know all the characters/villains "human" names. Explained below, for anybody who needs clarification.


Also, I assume Angel being in this and 3 and being around the same age in both is going with that whole ripple in time thing that makes him born at a different point and not as the son of Warren Worthington Jr.?
Psylocke being non-Asian is fine as she started British and turned Asian later was totally fine to fit into an X3 timeline, with or without the "time ripples".

I saw the movie yesterday and really enjoyed it. Especially all the hot chicks! The casting was really good, as a lot of the characters actually look like the actors and actresses who played those characters in the original X-men trilogy.

Just got back, thought it was utterly fantastic, hot on the heels of BvS (likely to be my No.1 for some time) and surpassing (just) Civil War. Old cast were great, new cast were great, the film as a whole was the most comic booky the X-men have ever been on screen and the action sequences were great as expected



In short, I reckon this new X-trilogy is perhaps the my favourite comic movie trilogy, rivalled only by the Dark Knight. 2016 is on a roll with BvS, Civil War and now Apoc, here's hoping Suicide Squad and Doc Strange can keep that going and give us a year of amazing comic book films.

 Paradigm wrote:
In short, I reckon this new X-trilogy is perhaps the my favourite comic movie trilogy, rivalled only by the Dark Knight. 2016 is on a roll with BvS, Civil War and now Apoc, here's hoping Suicide Squad and Doc Strange can keep that going and give us a year of amazing comic book films.

Don't forget about Deadpool! THAT is my personal favorite comic book movie of the year (so far).

To be honest, I really don't get the appeal of Deadpool, it seems to just be a load of gratuitous violence, crude 'jokes' and jarring 4th wall breaks... I appreciate that that is what the character is about, and that a lot of people enjoyed it, but I doubt I'll ever watch it.

 Paradigm wrote:
To be honest, I really don't get the appeal of Deadpool, it seems to just be a load of gratuitous violence, crude 'jokes' and jarring 4th wall breaks... I appreciate that that is what the character is about, and that a lot of people enjoyed it, but I doubt I'll ever watch it.

That is my view - I never liked him in the comics and so did not bother with the film precisely as seemed to reflect the comic character very well.................

It was a major hit though and lots enjoyed it a lot...............just not my scene...............