INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE

Independence Day: Resurgence

Grade: C

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T. Usher, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, William Fichtner, Brent Spiner, Judd Hirsch, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Travis Tope and Sela Ward: Also with Joey King and Vivica A. Fox

Premise: On the twentieth anniversary of the worldwide alien invasion of 1996, a new, terrifying alien ship arrives to wreak havoc on humanity.

Rated PG-13 for action violence, intense scenes of destruction and peril, and some language

Why oh why didn’t they wait to release this on the actual Independence Day, or at least as close as possible? Then there at least would have been some sentiment accompanying this film…

Why a movie called Independence Day was released a week and-a-half before the holiday when it could have been released at the beginning of the holiday weekend (Friday, July , for instance) is anyone’s guess, as is why, exactly, anyone in Hollywood thought it was a good idea to make a fast, funny sequel to a pretty open-and-shut twenty-year-old science fiction film. Director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, 2012) is back and trying to destroy the world just like before, but the movie, to describe it in the appropriate words of on one IMDB user comment, is “big and dumb, and a bit of fun”. This movie is fun—I won’t deny that. But boy, is it dumb, not to mention completely devoid of any of the sense of real dread or drama that accompanied its semi-classic 1996 predecessor. Where the original was one of the first big, epic special-effects blockbusters that had potentially world-ending consequences, this is a neat, tidy, barely-two-hour film wrapped in overwhelmingly-glossy CGI, neat contrivances, nice coincidences, and massive plot holes—one in a seemingly never-ending parade of glossy computerized world-in-peril blockbusters.

The average viewer will probably leave satisfied, I’ll give it that. And I had a decent time watching it and would watch it again. But mostly I’m just disappointed that this sequel had to go and put a damper on one of the first big, awesome films of my childhood.

Plot

**It’s hard to imagine many people not having seen the original Independence Day, but, in any case, viewing it is not a complete necessity. There are many remaining characters, but their dynamic should be easy enough to pick up.**

In a more futuristic 2016, the world, led by American Madam President Lanford (Sela Ward), is celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the War of 1996, in which an extraterrestrial race of city-sized alien ships attacked earth and were defeated only after nearly annihilating the human race. As it turns out, not only did humans defeat the aliens, but we also learned from them and adapted their technology, so that our earth and space defenses are light years beyond what they were before. Two young pilots represent the strides humanity has made—Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) helps maintain a huge laser cannon at the moon’s high-tech space defense center, and Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Hughes), the stepson of the late hero Captain Steven Hiller (who was played by Will Smith), is Earth’s Mightiest Young Hero, on a first-name basis with President Lanford and leading an elite international team of earth-and-space fighters.

When the aliens return, two old heroes are among the first to know it. Former cable repairman David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) has become a highly-touted scientific mind, and he’s in Africa looking over remains of an old spacecraft from the ‘90s when the craft unexpectedly starts powering up. Meanwhile, the oft-quoted President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), who has been left haggard and tormented by his experiences with the aliens, starts having vivid dreams including a beacon seemingly summoning the aliens to earth. In short order, the aliens show up in a huge ship that dwarfs the city-sized saucers that attacked last time, quickly lay waste to earth’s most high-tech, space-based defenses, and plant themselves noisily on earth. Even nuclear-protective bunkers prove little defense against the laser-blasting extraterrestrials. Jake and Dylan manage to board the alien ship but find their weapons are of little use. Only Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), the head scientist at the Area 51 laboratory who was left comatose for nearly two decades following a very close encounter with the aliens and has suddenly awoken, seems to have any inkling how it might be possible for humanity to stop this invasion.

What Doesn’t Work?

To be frank, there’s a lot that doesn’t work. Resurgence is pretty entertaining in the moment, but if you stop to think logically for a second, the problems and clichés with the movie will come swarming to your mind like the little alien fighter ships that constantly barbecue our human aircraft in these movies. First and most obviously, this Independence Day musters none of the dread and menace that made the first film a smash hit us-against-them underdog story, not to mention an edgy, intimidating viewing for a then-eight-year-old like me. Perhaps it’s not this movie’s fault that the original was among the first humanity-in-peril/earth-in-jeopardy blockbusters of the type that have become very commonplace nowadays, but the fact that Resurgence is unlikely to make anyone shudder—or so much as blink—with its visuals of alien ships hovering over entire cities just underlines how far we’ve come (or how far we've fallen--whichever). The special effects are fine, but unimpressive.

And that’s not to mention that the human…um “drama” in this movie is basically a rehash of what was in the first, or at least of what’s also regularly seen in summer blockbusters today. Will-they/won’t-they couples that obviously will? Check. Dweeby government type who learns to let loose and help fight the aliens? Check. Hopelessly close-minded government types? Of course. Obviously-doomed characters (including a couple of the returning cast members from the previous film)? Uh-huh. Characters who only speak in one-liners or heroic trailer-ready sound bytes? Obviously. And how about would-be climactic action sequences in which it looks like the good guys won but they obviously didn’t because the movie’s only an hour in and it’s obviously going to be two hours, so something clearly didn’t work? Yeah, that, too. Particularly bemoanable material for me included an embarrassingly-wasteful side plot including Judd Hirsch’s returning character and a couple of random kids who added nothing to the story, and a couple of different moments where our main characters managed to break through a previously-impenetrable alien shield just because they kept shooting. Would it have been possible for a no-name to keep shooting and break through the same alien shield? I bet not.

What Works?

Independence Day: Resurgence is a pretty fun viewing—certainly more entertaining than Warcraft, the last film I saw and reviewed. Director Roland Emmerich and his four co-writers manage not to make things too easy, and to add some interesting material that could set up an intriguing sequel. A couple deaths manage to hit home. And the movie presses the nostalgia button nicely with by bringing back both of the Area 51 mad scientist actors (Brent Spiner and John Storey), hinting that Vivica A. Fox’s character got a major job upgrade from stripper to nurse between films, and even including a brief but poignant appearance by the late Robert Loggia, who played one of the higher-ranking military commanders in the first film. It’s also nice to just see Jeff Goldblum in a big film again.

Most of the cast are playing parts that have been done a million times, are painfully clichéd, or are really poorly-written (even spilling tears adds little to the portrayals of practically all the movie’s 20-something pretty faces). However, two actors managed to bring some gravity to their performances, and I’m happy to say they’re both returners. Perhaps it’s because Bill Pullman is best known for this part and because he hasn’t been seen onscreen much lately, but Pullman’s Thomas Whitmore might be the most dimensional and interesting character in the film. Though most of his dialogue is clichéd or in the line of rousing speeches like he gave in the original, his presence is a nice mix of nostalgia and some actual character layers. And though it’s preposterous that Brent Spiner’s Dr. Okun survived his encounter with the aliens in the first film, his mad scientist energy and enthusiasm is a nice tonic from the stale action-hero doings of the “kids” and the murmurmings of the government types.

Content

Really young kids might be intimidated by the huge spaceships, big explosions, a few closeups of the gooey aliens, or by a few of the “big” deaths, but there’s nothing particularly off-putting or edgy about Independence Day: Resurgence. There’s a lot of action, a lot of things blow up, people worry about the future of humanity, and humanity wins. Hooray.

Bottom Line

Independence Day: Resurgence isn’t terrible—there’s just nothing special about it. I don’t know if the first movie is generally considered a “classic”, but it was a groundbreaking special-effects spectacle that made alien invasions seem awesome and epic and scary. The sequel, 20 years later, dripping in glossy CGI and featuring a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears 20-something action heroes, doesn’t feel any different from countless Transformers or Marvel movies or other big blockbusters in which the End of the World is at stake. Plus the action is by-the-numbers and the characters aren’t particularly memorable. The absence of an actor with the magnetism of Will Smith doesn’t help (sorry, but Liam Hemsworth is not the same). There’s definitely a few exciting action scenes, some good special effects, and some of the older returning actors (Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Brent Spiner) have nice moments, but most of the movie is clichéd and corny and easy-to-predict. There are a million plot holes. And they’re setting the table for…a sequel.

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Screenplay by Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, and James Vanderbilt

Based on Characters created by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin

Rated PG-13

Length: 120 minutes

WARCRAFT

Warcraft

Grade: C

Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Schnetzer, Ben Foster, and Dominic Cooper,
And As Orcs: Toby Kebbell as Durotan, Daniel Wu as Gul’dan, Anna Galvin as Draka, and Robert Kazinsky as Orgrim

Premise: When a dark sorcerer creates a portal allowing hordes of monstrous, bloodthirsty orcs to attack a kingdom of humans, it’s up to the humans’ wizard Guardian and a band of heroes and outcasts to find a way to stop them.

Rated PG-13 for strong violence, gory/disturbing images, and some emotional content

I went into Warcraft knowing it wasn’t going to be great. I’ve never played any version of the popular World of Warcraft game from Blizzard Entertainment, and I didn’t figure a movie starring ugly CGI troll-ish orcs as some of its main characters would exactly be Shakespeare. I didn’t even think its fantasy elements would make it a Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Chronicles of Narnia. I just hoped it would be a reasonably entertaining live-action/CGI mash-up, like a cheaper, less allegorical Avatar.

Shortly after the movie started, I began to panic, as its early scenes hinted Warcraft was dead on arrival—horribly-written, filled with one-note characters whose names I could barely understand, going to and from places whose names I couldn’t pronounce, and not the merest hint of traction anywhere except in battle scenes. At that point, I thought “oh, crap, this is going to be a lousy movie that could only possibly appeal to people who’ve played the game and must be grinning at all the famous place/character references I’m not getting”. I felt sure I was in for two hours of torture. Well, slowly, I began to realize the movie was developing a pulse—one still very feeble compared to the likes of LOTR, but one nonetheless--so that I actually felt the weight of the stakes in the later going and wanted to see what happened. And then…huh? Unexplained plot twists, way-too-easy contrivances, a rushed ending, and…oh, they’re setting up a sequel…why, of course! Ultimately, I would say, while Warcraft only met the lower half of my expectations/hopes, it was decent enough. I doubt I’ll see the sequel(s), but it was still a more engaging time at the theater than, say, Anchorman 2 or Pixels—the worst movies I’ve seen in theaters in recent years.

Plot

In an ancient, primitive alien world dominated by the tusked, muscle-bound, troll-like orcs, an intimidating overlord named Gul’dan (voice/movements of Daniel Wu) has gained followers by his powerful use of a dark magic called the Fel, which largely involves draining the life energy from beings and using it for his own purposes. Having gathered huge amounts of followers (and prisoners whose life energy he can use with the Fel), Gul’dan decides to send a “war band” (a large scouting party) of orcs through a massive, Fel-powered gate portal and see what they find. If they find a world with resources and, more importantly, kingdoms to conquer and people to rule, they will send the entire “horde” (orc population) through to complete the conquest. Draining the life energy from hundreds of prisoners, Gul’dan sends his war band through the portal.

They arrive in the lush kingdom of Azeroth, which is ruled and kept safe by King Lane (Dominic Cooper) and his brother-in-law Lothar (Travis Fimmel). As villages and towns are plundered and corpses keep piling up, Lothar—along with a young sorcerer-in-training named Kadgar (Ben Schnetzer)—is sent to seek guidance from the wizard-like Guardian (Ben Foster). Kadgar and the Guardian deduce that the very dangerous Fel is at the center of whatever is happening, and that its power will only grow unless they can find the source. They get more information after a scouting party led by Lothar catches an orc prisoner, Garona (Paula Patton), who has a green tinge to her skin and has the prominent lower teeth of the orcs but is otherwise more human than the others. She informs them that Gul’dan is just gathering prisoners whose life energy he can use with the Fel to open the gate portal once more, to unleash the horde. Lothar, King Lane, Kadgar, and the Guardian all promptly begin to argue over the best way to go about attacking the enemy forces. Things get more complicated when they are approached by an orc named Durotan (Toby Kebbell) who claims to be against Gul’dan and who, along with his followers, wants to fight with the humans against the evil overlord.

What Works?

I’ll give Warcraft credit—even though the features of the completely-CGI orcs aren’t very pretty, they’re impressively rendered, and you can even understand most of their dialogue. Moreover, the drama amongst the orcs, what with the scheming Gul’dan, a good guy/bad guy turncoat named Orgrim, and Durotan’s struggle with whether to rebel against Gul’dan, is often more compelling than the human drama (yes, I realize this is both a good and a bad thing, but there you go). Yes, sadly, most of the human characters are paper-thin and are played with barely an ounce of actual feeling. That said, Paula Patton and Ben Schnetzer make impressive contributions, infusing their characters with as much meaning as any characters could in this half-baked CGI brouhaha. Schnetzer’s Kadgar actually does more within the movie’s two hour span than the rest of the cast put together. Unsurprisingly, Warcraft is at its best and most compelling on the battlefield—even if this is the kind of action movie where the bad guys kills scores of nameless, faceless CGI characters but can barely touch the recognizable good guys, who dispense of much larger foes with little trouble. Warcraft does have a couple one-on-one orc battles that prove exciting. And, I have to give the movie credit, in a nod to the famously-unpredictable George R.R. Martin—who penned the popular fantasy series Game of Thrones—in a surprising turn of events, one good guy snuffs it in a moment of high action, in the kind of moment in which the good guy nearly always triumphs in cheap action movies like this one.

What Doesn’t Work?

Oh, boy. Put it this way—Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Game of Thrones, all these popular, pedigreed fantasy franchises—Warcraft is none of these. The orcs have names and accents that are hard to understand, the names of places in the movie are either hard to pronounce/understand or completely forgettable, and a couple of the more important human characters have no defining traits at all. The writing is poor, so I won’t entirely blame the actors for the latter...but King Lane has to be the most boring monarch ever portrayed in fiction—Cooper’s portrayal has no personality whatsoever. As his brother-in-law, accomplished warrior Lothar—the closest thing the movie has to a traditional hero—Vikings’ Travis Fimmel mostly grins stupidly and murmurs weak one-liners like he’s embarrassed to be saying them (which he probably is). And yes, the script here has the audacity to try and write Patton’s actually dimensional character into a “passionate romance” with the lazily-penned Lothar—probably THE most pathetic, forced, chemistry-free movie romance I’ve ever beheld. And I was dreadfully sad to see Ben Foster—he of the very compelling performances in 3:10 to Yuma and The Messenger—slumming through the role of the Guardian, playing the powerful but weary bearded wizard like a grunge band member with a bad hangover.

Mostly, the movie is cliché, at times hard to follow (and hard to care about), and has little discernible narrative flow. It also doesn’t help that nearly everything in the movie—from the humans/elves/dwarves dynamic to the humans-versus-CGI creatures angle to the evil warlock dynamic to the dashing hero/brave, outcast woman romance—has been done before, and done much better, multiple times. It’s not hard to think of those movies and yearn for their depth and creativity.

Content

The most off-putting thing about Warcraft is that it’s cheesy and seems like it’s only for fans of the game. Otherwise, there are a few gory details in the way of killings and maimings of both humans and orcs, not to mention Gul’dan’s way of sucking the energy out of power leaves their bodies shrunken and twisted. This isn’t an especially hard, heavy PG-13, it’s just a matter of watching and caring.

Bottom Line

I vowed I was going to see Warcraft (despite no exposure to the game) and I did. I didn’t expect it to be very good, but I hoped for the best—maybe an Avatar-esque humans-meet-CGI characters throwdown, and…well, I probably won’t ever watch it again and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is not a fan of the game, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Incredibly, it did develop a pulse once it got going, there are a few compelling characters, the graphics are pretty decent, and there were a couple actual, honest-to-God twists that threw me…this from what was overall a pretty poorly-written film. Oh, but it’s another one of those movies that becomes annoying to watch when you realize this whole movie was basically setting up a sequel you doubt you’ll pay money to see.

Warcraft (2016)

Directed by Duncan Jones

Screenplay by Duncan Jones and Charles Leavitt

Story and Characters by Chris Metzen, based on Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft”

Rated PG-13

Length: 123 minutes

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

X-Men: Apocalypse

Grade: B

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Rose Byrne, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Evan Peters, with Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers/Cyclops

Also Featuring: Lucas Till as Havok, Josh Helman as William Stryker, Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe/Storm, Olivia Munn as Psylocke, and Ben Hardy as Angel

Premise: An ancient, all-powerful mutant awakens from hibernation and attempts to take over the world. Wise Professor Charles Xavier, hardened fugitive Raven, and some of their choice students rush to stop him and the oft-tortured Magneto from wiping out all humans.

Rated PG-13 for violence and some bloody images, language, and some scary/emotional content

While X-Men: Apocalypse is above average for a summer action movie, it registers as roughly average for a superhero film in this day and age. The X-Men movies have always been a little deeper and had a little more subtext than the traditional origin stories and rights-retaining sequels from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Apocalypse seems especially average after the top-of-the-line superhero offerings that have already come out this year—the terrifically-unorthodox Deadpool and the intensely-exciting Captain America: Civil War. Indeed, I daresay this is the first X-Men movie (besides the infamous Wolverine Origins botch), that ultimately feels like a formulaic, nothing-special superhero movie. Since this installment is not an exciting reboot like 2011’s First Class or a franchise-altering consummation of all that came before like 2014’s Days of Future Past, it offers a straightforward plot that feels too predictable: a powerful evil arises, the X-Men band together, Magneto causes trouble, the world finds itself in all-humans-are-going-to-get-killed-by-mutants jeopardy, the old hands and some new faces have to band together and find their strength, and….they save the world. It has an intriguing opening prologue, a fine cast, and some fine moments of exploration in its world of mutants, but ultimately lacks the emotional depth or sense of real danger or intrigue that have classified the finer superhero offerings of late.

Plot

**If you know the gist of the X-Men, you won’t be lost, but there are constant references to both 2011’s First Class and 2014’s Days of Future Past. General knowledge of both would be helpful**

It’s the mid 1980s, and ten years have passed since Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his longtime friend Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) saved the president and the White House cabinet from vengeful mutant Magneto (Michael Fassbender) at the climax of Days of Future Past, earning the mutant community some nods of approval from the general populace. But some stigma still exists. When their respective powers reveal themselves, troubled teenagers Jean Grey (Sophie Turner, from TV’s Game of Thrones) and Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) have little choice but to make their way to Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in upstate New York. Jean is telekinetic. Scott’s eyes shoot powerful, destructive laser beams. Charles Xavier has a place for them both. Meanwhile, his old friend Raven plucks another troubled young mutant—the blue, tattooed, teleporting Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee)—from obscurity, and old frenemy Erik Lensherr/Magneto lives a quiet, anonymous life as a factory worker in Poland.

Meanwhile, another old ally of Xavier’s—CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne)—learns of a secret Egyptian cult that still worships an ancient, powerful being who was said to exist long ago. Said cult has found his remains hidden in a long-forgotten tomb. And when they chant ancient spells over him, En Sabah Hur (Oscar Isaac) awakens. Worshipped as a god until he was betrayed by some of his would-be followers and forced into hibernation in an ancient Egyptian pyramid millennia ago, En Sabah Hur (soon to be called Apocalypse) discovers that mankind has run amok and forgotten they used to literally bow down to his powers. Ready to restore the ancient ways, he begins gathering followers—troubled mutants whose powers he can utilize—including outcasts like Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Angel (Ben Hardy), little-noticed sidekicks like Pslocke (Olivia Munn), and the ever-troubled, human-hating Magneto, who stumbles back onto the world’s radar after a terrible accident. Charles Xavier, of course, will have nothing to do with humans being obliterated, so he re-allies himself with MacTaggert and Raven—and other old friends Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Peter ‘Quicksilver’ Maximoff (Evan Peters)—to stop Apocalypse in his tracks.

What Works?

Bryan Singer directed the series’ two best movies, 2000’s X-Men and 2003’s X2: X-Men United, and Matthew Vaughan directed 2011’s successful, ultra-likable reboot First Class. Singer’s directing here, and while Apocalypse is not nearly as good as that trio, it exceeded my expectations, given that I’d heard some less-than-enthusiastic things about it going in. While the movie starts to lose its way with a typically over-long action climax, it remains true to the X-Men style by delivering some exciting, kick-butt action, some affecting and relatable character development, a few fun/funny moments, and a few choice character cameos. Not as well-rounded or gripping as Captain America: Civil War, but still a fine film.

Unlike 2014’s Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse does not feature Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Halle Berry, James Marsden or Famke Janssen, all regulars from the original 2000-2006 trilogy. In fact, the latter three have now been recast younger, hinting that their days in the leather spandex of the X-Men are truly over. But Apocalypse doesn’t suffer much for their absences, buoyed as it is by the truly reliable trio of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence, who starred in the last two entries and could easily make a watchable team for years to come. This series made a star of Fassbender, and, while he’s somewhat shortchanged by the script in this movie’s second half, the always-terrific actor’s commitment and emotional force early on prove that Erik Lensherr/Magneto is not only this series’ most enduring antagonist, but a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions. Meanwhile, McAvoy has become to Charles Xavier what Daniel Craig has been to James Bond—the actor who truly fleshed him out as an individual and made him a thinking, feeling, real human being. McAvoy doesn’t have the inherent majestic coolness of Patrick Stewart, of course, but he’s a fine center for this franchise as a warm, determined, kindly, emotionally-vulnerable presence.

And then there’s Lawrence, who was already a proven, Oscar-nominated commodity (for 2010’s Winter’s Bone) when she first joined the series in First Class, and has since become one of the most popular movie stars in the world. Just 25, Lawrence is already an old hand at starring roles, with even her prime X-Men roles third banana in her career to her massively-successful Hunger Games series and her Oscar nominated- and winning- work in black comedies and dramas. Her performance here isn’t as openly emotional as either of her two chief male costars’, and she doesn’t spend nearly as much time in the blue Mystique get-up as she did before, but she has a very nice, sentimental/nostalgic moment when she gives the new team young’uns pep talk, reflecting on her first major mission (in First Class). It’s a nice moment, not just because it recalls a better film in the series or because it’s well-written, but because, given the massive success Lawrence has seen since in the five years since that film—even though she’s barely older than the likes of Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan—it feels like a legitimately lived-in, nostalgic, looking-back moment. Plus, given the large role granted to Turner as the young Jean Grey, it feels like Lawrence could be passing the torch to the series’ newest ingénue.

Speaking of Turner and the younger cast, they do fine work, with Sheridan granted a plumb role as the young Cyclops, Peters back for another go-round as the scene-stealing Quicksilver, and welcome returns from Nicholas Hoult and Lucas Till. It particularly threw me to see Turner and hear her speak in an “American” accent, as I’m quite used to her native tones from her six seasons of work on Game of Thrones.

What Doesn’t Work?

Two me, there were two main things that did not work: the overdrawn action climax (which is precisely what makes this movie feel formulaic and ruins a lot of narrative momentum) and Apocalypse himself. The former is typical of many action movies—and, indeed, it was the easy-to-anticipate over-drawn action climax of Days of Future Past that muddled my feelings on that film, which started especially strong but didn’t need to go such a predictable, formulaic action-movie route. I had a feeling that would happen with Apocalypse, and I wasn’t wrong. It’s especially troubling when the lengthy climax revolves around Apocalypse being impervious to the good guys’ powers until they all decide to just try harder at the same time, and wa-la, it works. This cliché slog to the close ruins, as mentioned, a very effective narrative arc for Magneto, which is a real shame (Magneto’s fate by the end credits is also a disappointment that was likely arranged just to ensure further X-Men sequels).

Apocalypse himself is a disappointment, and not just because—though he’s said to be the X-Men universe’s most powerful antagonist—you know going in he’s likely a one-and-done character for the series. With a vaguely-defined grab-bag of powers, a goofy accent, a yawn-inducing god complex, and unconvincing makeup/costume, it’s a shame that charismatic Oscar Isaac was saddled with this role. Coming off winning roles as the enigmatic mad scientist in Ex Machina and the heroic resistance pilot in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Isaac is unable to make Apocalypse anything more than a one-movie bad guy who needs to be just threatening enough to ensure the movie has a conflict.

Content

The X-Men movies are always a little heavier than the average superhero film. It’s still a PG-13, with only occasional cuss words, and little in the way of sexual content, but the action can get pretty intense at times. There are a fair share of heavy emotional moments in the film, not to mention plenty of humans (and a few lesser mutants) getting off-ed in creative ways (in one sequence, a bunch of heavily-armed soldiers are mauled by a familiar character in a brief cameo).

Bottom Line

X-Men: Apocalypse is pretty good for a summer action movie, but relatively unimpressive for a superhero movie in this day and age (it can’t hold a candle to this year’s earlier hit superhero flicks, Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War). The trio of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence proves as winning and effective as offer, some newly-cast actors in familiar roles acquit themselves well (including Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner), and there are some cool action scenes and a few funny moments. But Apocalypse proves an underwhelming villain, and Apocalypse ultimately feels like the most formulaic, by-the-numbers X-Men movies so far. No, it’s not as bad as The Last Stand or Wolverine: Origins, but it feels the most like a movie that was just made because the producers know they can squeeze money out of it. But, hey, hopefully this is a blip on this year’s superhero movie radar screen, and August’s Suicide Squad and November’s Doctor Strange will be better.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Directed by Bryan Singer

Screenplay by Simon Kinberg

Rated PG-13

Length: 144 minutes