REVIEWFilm: X-Men: Apocalypse Director: Bryan SingerStarring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn and Lucas Till.Showing: On wide releaseRating: ★★

By STEPHANIE CHEN,
culture editor

The opening scene of X-Men: Apocalypse provides an admirable start with its rich visuals of ancient Egypt and complex religious conflicts, drumming up high anticipation for the rest of the film.

However, the excitement dwindles pretty quickly thereafter in what is an odd and empty affair. 

The contention of the film is ambitious and arguably promising. The story attempts to follow an all-powerful god-like entity named En Sabah Nur, who, when revived into the technological age, develops a strange fixation with destroying humankind and tries to gain the loyalty of a few mistreated and enslaved mutants. Very Biblical.

Furthermore, a plethora of painstakingly important character arcs (Jean Grey, Quicksilver, Nightcrawler and Storm to name a few) have to be introduced and brought together, seemingly by coincidence.

Director Bryan Singer was also undoubtedly obligated to find a way to address the characteristic issue of mutant ostracism in a new and profound way, despite eight previous films that have already addressed that issue in all its doom and gloom glory. 

Such a demanding storyline requires intricate dialogue, characters, relationships and logic, of which the film delivered little to none. When the story unravelled it felt unnatural, even for a superhero movie based on comic books.

It has big ideas but lacks the finesse to carry them out, resulting in a poor balancing act as the film repeatedly switches from one important story to another.

It would be fair to excuse someone for thinking the script and storyboard might have been created by a disenfranchised 16-year-old.

Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey certainly seemed to fit that bill, entitled and snarky rather than kind and mature, constantly reminding Scott Summers how powerful and self-obsessed she was. Unsurprisingly, it became difficult to understand why Summers and the other mutant students would love her, let alone expect the audience to love her. 

Even Xavier seemed a little blind in attempting to bring out the good in his favourite mass-murderer, I mean friend, Magneto. Our loving pacifist, Prof Xavier clearly has not seen the latest Captain America movie, in which case Iron Man should probably pay them a little visit and do his little spiel about civilian casualties before they decide to eradicate half of the planet's infrastructure and kill a gazillion people again. What happened to Marvel’s self-awareness?

The comedy relief was surprisingly jarring but necessary for the audience members who clung onto the jokes as if they were a life raft, in an attempt to escape from the strange storyline.

The humor was oddly paced and out-of-touch with the overall tone instead of being woven delicately into the film, making it painstakingly obvious they were trying to be funny.

Tom Holland’s Spiderman and Paul Rudd’s Ant-man should probably do a quick cross-over alongside Iron Man, so they can show Evan Peter’s Quicksilver how to make a smoother joke. That being said, it was still funny enough that you laughed with it, not at it. 

Finally, while the acting and visuals were respectable, they appeared melodramatic when backdropped against the weak plotlines. The acting was almost theatrical at times, with too many long-winded close ups of furrowed brows and speechless, gaunt faces. The super motivational speeches seen in the trailers were also strangely placed, delivered after all the exciting action and battles, during a measly training session.

The film was somewhat redeemed through its musical score, but even then, the multilayered tunes often times proved too powerful for the film’s thin story line. The mismatched audio and visual assets added to the over-dramatic presence of a film that would have benefited from being a little bit more down to earth. 

It is hard to feel disappointment because the aimless storytelling left me so empty and directionless. The newest instalment derails most of the hard work carried out by its predecessors. Perhaps we should start campaigning for another Days of Future Past so we can reset the timeline again and pretend to forget the grey, dreary tea-stain left by Apocalypse.