X-men: Apocalypse is a feast for fans

Director Bryan Singer pulled together the best the X-men series has to offer in X-men: Apocalypse, a superhero blockbuster that has brawn, brains, and heart.

Apocalypse is the third installment of the origins series that began with X-men: First Class. It’s set in 1983, roughly 20 years after Charles “Professor X” Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik “Magneto” Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) first harnessed their mutant powers and battled over the fate of the world. An ancient, nearly omnipotent mutant Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) has awakened from his millennia-long slumber under the Egyptian sands. It’s up to the professor and his friends, to stop the god-wannabe from wiping out civilization.

As Apocalypse slowly comes to power (the first half of the movie drags at times), a new generation of mutants join familiar faces Raven/“Mystique” (Jennifer Lawrence) and Hank “Beast” McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) to assist the professor. As the team coalesces, the characters share an easy onscreen chemistry. Though the X-men are superhuman mutants on a quest to save the world, they have the same interpersonal dynamics of any longtime group of friends trying to help each other cope in a changing world.

Fans of the X-men universe will delight in familiar elements such as the seeds of romance between Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and Scott “Cyclops” Summers (Tye Sheridan), the freeze-frame frolicking of speed-demon Quicksilver (Evan Peters), and a cameo by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. McAvoy and Fassbender nail the well-known traits of Professor X and Magneto—no small feat in roles originated by heavyweights Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the original X-men trilogy.

Those unfamiliar with X-men mythology should pay close attention to an early scene in which a high-school teacher gives the history of the series in about 30-seconds. Without that, the reunion between some of the characters who come together to fight Apocalypse won’t make much sense. Other details of the plot can be confusing, too, but Singer glosses over them with a flashy, effects-laden showdown between heroes and villains at the end of the movie.

X-men: Apocalypse is rated PG-13 for language and some disturbing violence. Though innuendo isn’t absent from the movie (Mystique’s skin-tight blue body suit is back), the X-men use teamwork and talent to fight evil without leveraging their sexuality.

Past movies have featured debates in media, science labs, and Congress over the balance of power between mutants and humans. This time, the battle takes place in the characters’ hearts and minds. Magneto wants to defend and later avenge his loved ones, but the professor senses a higher calling to protect the weak and marginalized. When Apocalypse harnesses the professor’s power of mind control to broadcast a message of doom to the world, the professor manages to break through with his own, more hopeful directive: “Those with the greatest power, protect those without.”