X-Men Apocalypse

In the latest offering from the X-Men film series, an ancient Egyptian mutant is released from his centuries-old slumber. This being, known as En Sabah Nur, is so powerful that along with his four disciples of doom, he can literally change the world. One of Nur's disciples is Magneto, who seeming went straight after the events of Days of Future Past, but is now wishing to unleash his vengeance on the world after the death of his wife and child. 

   Seeking to stop Magneto is his former ally, Mystique. Since she parted ways with Magento at the end of the last film, the shape-shifting mutant has been on a personal mission, secretly savings mutants from humans seeking to exploit them. Mystique's actions in saving Nixon in 1973 has made her a hero in both the human and mutant communities of 1983. So when Nur's Four Horsemen kidnap Professor Xavier, it's up to Mystique to lead a group of untested but equally star-struck mutants to stop En Sabah Nur's plan to unleash the destruction of the apocalypse onto the world.

    X-Men: Apocalypse is my favorite of the new trilogy. It narrowly beats outs First Class and it leaves Days of Future Past lying in its wake. Now whether this film is better than X2: X-Men United is up for debate. 

   Personally, I don't think it outpaces X2, but it's close. To me, the reason why Apocalypse doesn't assume the throne as the greatest X-Men movie ever is because of the character of William Stryker. I thought Stryker died at the end of Days of Future Past what with Mystique impersonating him at the film's end in order to rescue Wolverine from the Potomac. But the evil army officer rears his ugly head once again with no explanation as to his return and possible resurrection. (But if I know director Bryan Singer, this will all be covered in the film's DVD director's cut due out sometime in the next couple of years...)

   Speaking of Bryan Singer, I think he does yet another bang up job at the helm of the X-Men franchise. I heard earlier this week that he's taking a break from directing X-Men movies for a while and some fans cheered. I think they're more upset at the amazing job he has done and how each success keeps Marvel from adding most of the mutant population to its cinematic universe.

     Apocalypse was a fun ride of almost 2 and a half hours of action, adventure, humor, and surprises galore! Seeing the younger versions of Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Nightcrawler was pretty cool and just wait until you see them in uniform at movie's end. While some feel that the character of Jubilee was underused, I think the real victim was Olivia Munn's Psylocke. She mostly poses for the camera for about 9/10 of her scenes and when she actually does something it's wasn't that impressive.

  With some mild violence, a few swears, with a biggie or two thrown it, it's a good movie for the 12 and up crowd. (My God Son loved it!) And unlike Civil War, I wasn't bored one bit. There I said it, X-Men Apocalypse beats Captain America: Civil War. But it's Deadpool that is still leading as the best Marvel movie of 2016. 
   
  Worth Consuming

     Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.