Back in 2000, Bryan Singer ushered in the first of the superhero movies. It was very early 2000’s, we were coming off the enormous success of the Matrix, all the heroes had to wear black leather jumpsuits, but the storytelling was very strong. Things that were done right in the original X-Men were the relationship between Charles Xavier and Magneto, Magneto’s holocaust origin, and featured a non X-Men Wolverine.
When Singer returned for X:2 in 2003, all of the good things returned from the first one, plus now we got a more action oriented film, it featured slower moments and character development between Rogue and Ice-Man, and had a show stopping Nightcrawler sequence. The X-Men series was hailed forward thinking for having multiple female leads: Halle Berry as Storm and Rebecca Stamos as Mystique; and having parallels of xenophobia, much like the comic. When X-Men 3: The Last Stand came out, Bryan Singer did not return; still reeling from the fan backlash of Superman: Returns. Singer’s exit, gutted what was good about the X-Men initially.
Fox decided to re-launch the franchise in 2011, after we were mid Marvel’s phase 2. They brought in Matt Vaughn, fresh off his surprise success of the film adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic ‘Kick-Ass.’ This was essentially ‘X-Men Begins’ as we got to see the origin of Charles Xavier, Magneto, Beast, and a few other X-Men including Mystique; now played by Hollywood heart-throb Jennifer Lawrence. Aside from a ridiculous Cuban Missile Crisis sequence at the film’s apex, the film was critically hailed and relaunched the series. Also launching Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique as a main character of the X-Men. When really, in comics she is not a main character. Also usually playing a villain to the X-Men. With her shapeshifting powers, she had the most at stake as a mutant who did not like her powers, because in her natural form she was blue and obviously a mutant; hated by society.
One of the stronger themes that Bryan Singer has injected into his X-Men movies, more so the early ones, is that mutants are feared because they are the next stage in evolution. The X-Men as an organization work to peacefully co-habit the Earth where other mutants work to destroy it and see their powers as the next stage in the evolutionary process. Apocalypse is one of these mutants. Magneto is also one of these mutants, as we are reminded of it as we see concentration camp flashbacks from the first X-Men. Part of Magneto’s character arc and constant struggle is domination over humans or saving them. That powerful message and social commentary, that was present in the first two X-Men, and was present in the previous two; are just grazed over here.
With X-Men first class, having Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique as a main character made sense, she is starting out. We’ll see her evolution from good to evil over a several film arc. It was incubated with her relationship to Magneto. The follow up to X-Men: First Class was X-Men: Days of Future’s Past. What was great about ‘Days’ is that it seemed to undo all of the bad things of the previous X-Men movies, especially ‘Last Stand.’ Seamlessly merging the old world of X-Men, with Patrick Stewart returning as old professor Xavier, Ian McKellan playing old Magneto, and Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine. In addition, ‘Days’ also brought back the original director: Bryan Singer. It seemed that the stage was set for X-Men to be Fox’s Marvel property vehicle to take on Marvel and prove their grandeur at the box office.
The misstep from ‘Days’ is that it continued to build Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique character as more of a hero and main player of the X-Men, which simply is blatantly not the case in the comics. Mystique was even a villain in the first X-Men movie! X-Men: Apocalypse does nothing to change this issue, and only builds more issues from there. With ‘Days’ setting the stage for a good movie, the first misstep is that we are given the background story on the new-ish X-Men: Cyclops and Jean Grey. Two characters who we are more than familiar with. Especially Cyclops, who is usually introduced as a leader and that’s all you usually get. With ‘Apocalypse’ that is really all we get still.
‘Apocalypse’ starts off strong, showing us Apocalypse’s (Oscar Isaac) origin in Egypt. We are shown how he transfers bodies and continues to upgrade his own powers by transferring his consciousness to another powerful mutant. The beginning of the film also shows us his ‘Four Horsemen’ who seem to change depending on what Apocalypse needs; but they struggle to keep Apocalypse alive through the transformation, as he has made enemies in Egypt. Although, it is never explained why, or why anyone would help a mutant keep changing and improving his own powers when that obviously only benefits one person.
The film then jumps ahead in time as Jennifer Lawrence, plays Jennifer Lawrence. Since it seems too expensive or they paid her too much to be in the blue Mystique paint the whole time - is now collecting a team of mutants. One of them being Nightcrawler, who was given a fantastic intro in X:2, so why not bring him back in now? He is only supposed to be the son of Mystique. So now the timeline is completely messed up. His introduction single handedly undoes every plot progression ‘Days’ acted as a band-aid for. We also jump and see how Eric or Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is doing as he tries to start a new life for himself. Magneto has a family and a daughter now, as ‘Apocalypse’ explores the slower moments of if a mutant can co-exist in the world with humans. This is in line with his comic book origin, but still adds further complications to the wonky timeline of when this is supposed to occur
Without giving away too much of the plot, it seems that the writers of ‘Apocalypse’ had quite a handful of work in front of them in creating the script for this movie. From Mystique being a mainstay character, to the origin of Nightcrawler, the short family life of Magneto, and the random cameo of Wolverine’s origin, the timeline is confusing and all over the place. Nothing makes sense really, and the movie tailspins into a epic battle at the end where, again, superheroes are crushing buildings while wearing black jumpsuits. Part of this comes from A-List actors playing b-characters, and being given more to do than what was originally intended in the source material. Part of this comes from the movie trying to be too much: epic story, social commentary, character backstory. It makes the same mistakes movies like ‘Batman and Robin’ made back in the late nineties. By stuffing too many characters, villains, and plot threads into one coherent film - you do nothing right. These movies obviously make a lot of money at the box office, if you take the time to have respect for the source material and make them from the ground up as Marvel did.
It seems as if 20th Century Fox is really trying hard to keep up with the production schedule of Marvel and do what they can to get a piece of the action. They continue to make missteps as they continue to rush out different versions, not taking the time to respect where the material came from. We just saw a movie where a man with a shield, and a man with a metal arm beat up another man in a metal suit. It was one of the best movies of the year. With characters like the X-Men and Fantastic Four, these are deep characters with great storylines and rich backgrounds to draw from. They are seemingly slam dunks by default, so why does Fox mess them up so badly? It only helps Marvel, when Fox doesn’t treat them properly. Fox should cut their losses with it’s “too many corporate cooks in the kitchen” style of making superhero films and just sell back the rights to Marvel for all our sakes.
When Singer returned for X:2 in 2003, all of the good things returned from the first one, plus now we got a more action oriented film, it featured slower moments and character development between Rogue and Ice-Man, and had a show stopping Nightcrawler sequence. The X-Men series was hailed forward thinking for having multiple female leads: Halle Berry as Storm and Rebecca Stamos as Mystique; and having parallels of xenophobia, much like the comic. When X-Men 3: The Last Stand came out, Bryan Singer did not return; still reeling from the fan backlash of Superman: Returns. Singer’s exit, gutted what was good about the X-Men initially.
Fox decided to re-launch the franchise in 2011, after we were mid Marvel’s phase 2. They brought in Matt Vaughn, fresh off his surprise success of the film adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic ‘Kick-Ass.’ This was essentially ‘X-Men Begins’ as we got to see the origin of Charles Xavier, Magneto, Beast, and a few other X-Men including Mystique; now played by Hollywood heart-throb Jennifer Lawrence. Aside from a ridiculous Cuban Missile Crisis sequence at the film’s apex, the film was critically hailed and relaunched the series. Also launching Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique as a main character of the X-Men. When really, in comics she is not a main character. Also usually playing a villain to the X-Men. With her shapeshifting powers, she had the most at stake as a mutant who did not like her powers, because in her natural form she was blue and obviously a mutant; hated by society.
One of the stronger themes that Bryan Singer has injected into his X-Men movies, more so the early ones, is that mutants are feared because they are the next stage in evolution. The X-Men as an organization work to peacefully co-habit the Earth where other mutants work to destroy it and see their powers as the next stage in the evolutionary process. Apocalypse is one of these mutants. Magneto is also one of these mutants, as we are reminded of it as we see concentration camp flashbacks from the first X-Men. Part of Magneto’s character arc and constant struggle is domination over humans or saving them. That powerful message and social commentary, that was present in the first two X-Men, and was present in the previous two; are just grazed over here.
With X-Men first class, having Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique as a main character made sense, she is starting out. We’ll see her evolution from good to evil over a several film arc. It was incubated with her relationship to Magneto. The follow up to X-Men: First Class was X-Men: Days of Future’s Past. What was great about ‘Days’ is that it seemed to undo all of the bad things of the previous X-Men movies, especially ‘Last Stand.’ Seamlessly merging the old world of X-Men, with Patrick Stewart returning as old professor Xavier, Ian McKellan playing old Magneto, and Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine. In addition, ‘Days’ also brought back the original director: Bryan Singer. It seemed that the stage was set for X-Men to be Fox’s Marvel property vehicle to take on Marvel and prove their grandeur at the box office.
The misstep from ‘Days’ is that it continued to build Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique character as more of a hero and main player of the X-Men, which simply is blatantly not the case in the comics. Mystique was even a villain in the first X-Men movie! X-Men: Apocalypse does nothing to change this issue, and only builds more issues from there. With ‘Days’ setting the stage for a good movie, the first misstep is that we are given the background story on the new-ish X-Men: Cyclops and Jean Grey. Two characters who we are more than familiar with. Especially Cyclops, who is usually introduced as a leader and that’s all you usually get. With ‘Apocalypse’ that is really all we get still.
‘Apocalypse’ starts off strong, showing us Apocalypse’s (Oscar Isaac) origin in Egypt. We are shown how he transfers bodies and continues to upgrade his own powers by transferring his consciousness to another powerful mutant. The beginning of the film also shows us his ‘Four Horsemen’ who seem to change depending on what Apocalypse needs; but they struggle to keep Apocalypse alive through the transformation, as he has made enemies in Egypt. Although, it is never explained why, or why anyone would help a mutant keep changing and improving his own powers when that obviously only benefits one person.
The film then jumps ahead in time as Jennifer Lawrence, plays Jennifer Lawrence. Since it seems too expensive or they paid her too much to be in the blue Mystique paint the whole time - is now collecting a team of mutants. One of them being Nightcrawler, who was given a fantastic intro in X:2, so why not bring him back in now? He is only supposed to be the son of Mystique. So now the timeline is completely messed up. His introduction single handedly undoes every plot progression ‘Days’ acted as a band-aid for. We also jump and see how Eric or Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is doing as he tries to start a new life for himself. Magneto has a family and a daughter now, as ‘Apocalypse’ explores the slower moments of if a mutant can co-exist in the world with humans. This is in line with his comic book origin, but still adds further complications to the wonky timeline of when this is supposed to occur
Without giving away too much of the plot, it seems that the writers of ‘Apocalypse’ had quite a handful of work in front of them in creating the script for this movie. From Mystique being a mainstay character, to the origin of Nightcrawler, the short family life of Magneto, and the random cameo of Wolverine’s origin, the timeline is confusing and all over the place. Nothing makes sense really, and the movie tailspins into a epic battle at the end where, again, superheroes are crushing buildings while wearing black jumpsuits. Part of this comes from A-List actors playing b-characters, and being given more to do than what was originally intended in the source material. Part of this comes from the movie trying to be too much: epic story, social commentary, character backstory. It makes the same mistakes movies like ‘Batman and Robin’ made back in the late nineties. By stuffing too many characters, villains, and plot threads into one coherent film - you do nothing right. These movies obviously make a lot of money at the box office, if you take the time to have respect for the source material and make them from the ground up as Marvel did.
It seems as if 20th Century Fox is really trying hard to keep up with the production schedule of Marvel and do what they can to get a piece of the action. They continue to make missteps as they continue to rush out different versions, not taking the time to respect where the material came from. We just saw a movie where a man with a shield, and a man with a metal arm beat up another man in a metal suit. It was one of the best movies of the year. With characters like the X-Men and Fantastic Four, these are deep characters with great storylines and rich backgrounds to draw from. They are seemingly slam dunks by default, so why does Fox mess them up so badly? It only helps Marvel, when Fox doesn’t treat them properly. Fox should cut their losses with it’s “too many corporate cooks in the kitchen” style of making superhero films and just sell back the rights to Marvel for all our sakes.
