X-Men: Apocalypse (Bryan Singer, 2016)

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Luke M
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:21 pm

X-Men: Apocalypse (Bryan Singer, 2016)

#1 Post by Luke M » Tue May 24, 2016 7:25 pm

So, it looks like the new X-Men is a spectacular misfire. I know people like to criticize Disney's Marvel flicks but clearly they've figured out the formula to making superhero films work.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#2 Post by knives » Tue May 24, 2016 7:56 pm

Or at least the formula to be middling enough to get the sort of lukewarm reviews that when collected as data looks good.

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Trees
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:04 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#3 Post by Trees » Tue May 24, 2016 8:12 pm

I think I stopped watching the X-Men films right after X-Men 3. I watched about 30 minutes of Ant-Man on a flight, but eventually turned it off. Michael Douglas' performance was pretty bad (and I'm a huge fan of Douglas). I did see Deadpool, and thought it was entertaining. Not sure if I can really bring myself to watch any of these new X-Men films. I think, like much of the world, I am starting to suffer from superhero fatigue. I think we may end up looking back on Superman vs Batman as the film that really started the superhero backlash/fatigue. There is some discussion that S v B's poor performance may have dragged down Captain America: Civil War's box office numbers a bit. I think there might be something to that.

Is anyone else here a fan of Snyder's Watchmen? That's a film that for me has a high re-watch-ability factor. I love all the Dr. Manhattan sequences.

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Luke M
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:21 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#4 Post by Luke M » Tue May 24, 2016 11:26 pm

I'm not sure we've reached superhero fatigue just yet. I thought two other ridiculous Spider-Man films would've killed the genre, thought Man of Steel was end of it, but we still keep getting movies and some of them, like Civil War, are hits. I'm not a huge fan of the genre, I did like Civil War and thought Deadpool was a lot of fun but Ant-Man was mostly terrible and I didn't bother to see Batman vs. Superman. I'll probably be passing on the new X-Men flick as well. The X-Men series has always been somewhat of a letdown. They've never had a great film or even much of a pretty good one.

I'm not a big Watchman fan. I think the film (and Zack Snyder's career for that matter) peaks during the opening credits sequence.

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Trees
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:04 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#5 Post by Trees » Tue May 24, 2016 11:38 pm

I'm not saying we are in the midst of a full-fledged superhero fatigue syndrome. I just feel like we are likely experiencing the first verberations of it. Keep in mind, we still have huge, huge Marvel pictures coming like Infinity War that will likely blow away even Force Awakens box office numbers. I agree: this train ain't stopping just yet.

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captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#6 Post by captveg » Wed May 25, 2016 12:34 am

I'd say film critics are more fatigued than general audiences, if overall box office is any indication. I think it'll be tough for these films to reach the peak of $1.5b since the zeitgeist won't be as common due to simply having more comic book based films in the market (seven coming out this year), but across the board they are all doing quite well. We've had three already make $750m+ WW at the box office this year.

Still looking forward to Apocalypse. It looks to be more of a spectacle film that prior X-Men films and not so much wrapped up in the politics of the series.

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#7 Post by RossyG » Wed May 25, 2016 6:39 am

I thought Apocalypse was good if flawed.

On the negative side, it takes an age to get going. It's structure also seemed a bit old fashioned. Some of the CGI is a bit weak too. It's like watching a film made over a decade ago. I also thought the direction was a bit weak at times, with some odd camera angles. One key sequence, seen in the trailer, involving the launching of missiles is given gravitas by the choice of music - Beethoven's Seventh - rather than the filmmaking itself.

It's certainly not as good as Civil War (which I thought also had a few pacing issues) but I still enjoyed it. The cast do a good job and there are two very good action set pieces. One involves Quicksilver and an Annie Lennox song; the other involves violent mayhem in a military research base. It gets better as it goes along and I was never bored.

One demerit for a scene involving Auschwitz being destroyed. It seemed a bit tasteless to me, but there was no malice intended by the filmmakers.

MongooseCmr
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 11:50 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#8 Post by MongooseCmr » Wed May 25, 2016 2:29 pm

I have less than 0 interest in any more Marvel or DC films, but I've always had a soft spot for X-Men. I loved it as a kid just for having the most characters to fantasize about, but the focus on the ideological battle between Xavier and Magneto over a "city destroyer of the year" plot most blockbuster films have has kept it interesting enough as I get older. Unfortunately Apocalypse seems much more like the latter type of plot. Apocalypse is even right there in the name

At the same time though, I don't think there's been a really great X-men movie yet. All of them lose steam in the third act (though thats my reaction to most blockbusters), and even after 15 years they can't seem to focus on anyone other than the core 5 characters for more than 10 minutes per film. I'm surprised how much Cyclops gets shafted seeing as how he's one of the most iconic characters in the series
Trees wrote:I think, like much of the world, I am starting to suffer from superhero fatigue. I think we may end up looking back on Superman vs Batman as the film that really started the superhero backlash/fatigue.
I'm not sure if the fatigue is widespread, so much as both sides are getting more entrenched and more vocal. People that love superhero films love them almost unconditionally, and those that hate them seem to do it with more vitriol every year.

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#9 Post by RossyG » Wed May 25, 2016 7:14 pm

Cyclops has a fairly decent role in this film and the kid playing him does a good job.

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captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Comic Books on Film

#10 Post by captveg » Sat May 28, 2016 3:50 pm

There's a certain over familiarity settling in for the Professor X / Magneto / Mystique conflict, and this along with a little too much jumping around in the plot holds this film back from excelling as well as its most recent predecessors (despite some excellent acting by Fassbender). Overall this is still an enjoyable entry, one that has some impressive set pieces (Quicksilver rules the day again), and reintroduces some mutants that have been sorely missed since X2 in Nightcrawler and Cyclops.

I do hope they work with the younger generation's character drama more than the X/M/M drama again in the next film. I also even like Storm in this one. Of the four comic films this year so far I enjoyed it the least, and in contrast to BvS and CW it doesn't have the bigger ideas that allowed me to enjoy those films more. I'd give it a 7/10, maye a 6/10 if I was feeling more harsh towards it.

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