What went wrong with X Men Apocalypse?

[choptop]

I watched this on FX last night. My god the special effects were terrible. That entire segment with Wolverine was cringe-worthy.

It's such a bad movie.

Of all the things to complain about the special effects? Really? I didn't think they were bad.

[U.N. Owen]

The Horsemen were just plain bad. Psylocke was a walking prop, Storm was better but lacked that much of a presence to register as a blip on my radar, Angel was hopelessly underdeveloped, and Magneto willingly following Apocalypse was just bad. If I was writing the script, I would have made Havok, Mystique, Beast, and Professor X be the Horsemen just to have the emotional stakes there.

[Midvillian1322]

Of all the things to complain about the special effects? Really? I didn't think they were bad.

Depends there are some bad obvious green screen background in this movie at times. There are also some really cool effects. I'd complain more about character design then CGI. Hated Angel and Apcoalypses look. They nailed Psylocke and then made her a non character just running around with her ass out. If your gonna nail the look down that good why not try to make her atleast slightly like the source material. Seemed like she was just an evil sword for hire. I loved the relationship between Psylocke and ArcAngel when they were on Wolverine Xforce team. Wish they woulda tried something like that. But that would involved giving development to a character that's not Xavier/Magento/Mystique.

[Frobisher]

The Horsemen were just plain bad. Psylocke was a walking prop, Storm was better but lacked that much of a presence to register as a blip on my radar, Angel was hopelessly underdeveloped, and Magneto willingly following Apocalypse was just bad. If I was writing the script, I would have made Havok, Mystique, Beast, and Professor X be the Horsemen just to have the emotional stakes there.

I'd actually have had Professor X become Apocalypse early in the story - probably having Apocalypse be something more like a genetic/technological possession would fit in a bit better with the existing cinematic universe. This opens the way for Magneto to have to lead the X-Men to try to save his friend/the world, which actually gives him a new character arc. Also you have the idea that Charles is a prisoner in his own body, subconsciously affecting Apocalypse into assembling his own mutant team of horsemen. The fact that the horsemen are basically all people who Charles would have recruited as X-Men anyway would then have a bearing on the resolution of the story.

[Theleviathan]

Of all the things to complain about the special effects? Really? I didn't think they were bad.

It's just an element I forgot about. I've put enough distance between myself and this movie that I forgot every time Wolverine jumps to attack someone it looks like freaking stop motion.

As a whole they look far, far less polished than what DC and Marvel are doing.

I could complain about virtually everything in this movie. (Like the several times the movie props up Mystique as a mutant hero FFS) I struggle to think of much that was done well.

[bat39]

I thought it was a pretty good film. Not a patch on Days of Future Past, but otherwise a fairly worthy addition to the franchise and a decent enough conclusion to the First Class trilogy.

I think part of the criticism of the film stems from the fact that it satisfies neither hardcore contingent of the X-men fandom. To the fans of previous Fox X-men movies, it was too comic-booky and had a fairly cartoonish villain. To the X-men fans who love the more 'out-there' elements of the franchise that the Fox movies previously ignored...well, it was Fox X-men movie so they were kinda bound to hate it

Plus, you have to factor in the general bias in favor of the MCU which has almost overwhelmed the pop-cultural zeitgeist as far as superheroes go (and I say this as someone who's been a fan of the MCU right from Day 1, but who will never agree to the fact that every non-MCU movie sucks in comparision).

Not that Apocalypse didn't have its flaws. I think it did suffer, to an extent, from too many subplots. Individually, the plots were great and worthy of further exploration...its just that jumbling them all together in one film kinda prevented them from being given the attention they deserved. I feel that Magneto's arc with the death of his family, and Quicksilver's arc of wanting to connect with Eric as father and son, really deserved a bit more attention. As did the notion of Mystique being a hero and the unwilling face of human-mutant peace and her struggles with that. The Scott and Jean relationship and their own development into X-men throughout the film could also have done with a bit more attention. We can throw the Xavier-Moira subplot in here too. Hell, Xavier's feeling of complacency, contrasted with Hank's desire to start the X-men, could also have done with some further exploration, since the whole point of the movie was to close the loop on the origin of the X-men as we know them.

In hindsight, as much as I LOVED the X2 callbacks with the whole Weapon X sequence, maybe it was a detour that ultimately was to the detriment of the film, since it did take away some valuable time from the aforementioned plotlines.

What did work is how they brought the story that started with First Class full circle, in terms of the Charles-Eric and Charles-Raven relationships, even the Eric-Raven relationship to a limited extent. And also the fact that they gave us a live-action version of the 90's X-men cartoon with the final battle!

I did a rewatch of the film recently and found that I liked it now more than I did back in the theatre...though maybe its just some nostalgia over the franchise ending soon that's giving me rose-tinted glasses.

But one scene genuienely gave me goosebumps when I re-watched it, and that's the final scene where it all falls into place. It starts with Charles and Eric, now friends again, albeit still standing by their contrasting philosophies. They repeat the iconic lines from the end of X1, and then when Eric leaves, instead of calling Charles "Charles" or "old friend", he says "Good luck, Professor". And that's when it hit me...McAvoy's Charles has finally become the iconic Professor X from the comics, and from the original trilogy - bald head and suit and all. And then of course, we cut to the Danger Room, with the X-men in very comic-booky outfits, getting ready to fight a bunch of Sentinels...followed swiftly by the theme. Yup, the X-men have truly begun!

[The Ozman]

I didn't say for laughs. I said take lightly. Not seriously. Not as tragedy. Those deaths were throw-away, not intended to have any emotional effect whatsoever.

To that extent, they succeeded.

Odin's death was throwaway? And light? It was probably the most touching part of the whole film.

Skurge sacrificed himself to save the remaining Asgardians. You may have seen him as a comedic character (I agree he started as one, but the events of the film changed that), but his death wasn't light.

[Minerboh]

What was wrong with X-Men Apocalypse?
Absolutely nothing. It was a decent and underatted film that was shadowed by Days Of Future Past.
It might be more connected with First Class than Days but that was the only negative aspect of the film that i found, if it can be called that.

[David Walton]

I thought it was a pretty good film. Not a patch on Days of Future Past, but otherwise a fairly worthy addition to the franchise and a decent enough conclusion to the First Class trilogy.

I think part of the criticism of the film stems from the fact that it satisfies neither hardcore contingent of the X-men fandom. To the fans of previous Fox X-men movies, it was too comic-booky and had a fairly cartoonish villain. To the X-men fans who love the more 'out-there' elements of the franchise that the Fox movies previously ignored...well, it was Fox X-men movie so they were kinda bound to hate it

Plus, you have to factor in the general bias in favor of the MCU which has almost overwhelmed the pop-cultural zeitgeist as far as superheroes go (and I say this as someone who's been a fan of the MCU right from Day 1, but who will never agree to the fact that every non-MCU movie sucks in comparision).

Not that Apocalypse didn't have its flaws. I think it did suffer, to an extent, from too many subplots. Individually, the plots were great and worthy of further exploration...its just that jumbling them all together in one film kinda prevented them from being given the attention they deserved. I feel that Magneto's arc with the death of his family, and Quicksilver's arc of wanting to connect with Eric as father and son, really deserved a bit more attention. As did the notion of Mystique being a hero and the unwilling face of human-mutant peace and her struggles with that. The Scott and Jean relationship and their own development into X-men throughout the film could also have done with a bit more attention. We can throw the Xavier-Moira subplot in here too. Hell, Xavier's feeling of complacency, contrasted with Hank's desire to start the X-men, could also have done with some further exploration, since the whole point of the movie was to close the loop on the origin of the X-men as we know them.

In hindsight, as much as I LOVED the X2 callbacks with the whole Weapon X sequence, maybe it was a detour that ultimately was to the detriment of the film, since it did take away some valuable time from the aforementioned plotlines.

What did work is how they brought the story that started with First Class full circle, in terms of the Charles-Eric and Charles-Raven relationships, even the Eric-Raven relationship to a limited extent. And also the fact that they gave us a live-action version of the 90's X-men cartoon with the final battle!

I did a rewatch of the film recently and found that I liked it now more than I did back in the theatre...though maybe its just some nostalgia over the franchise ending soon that's giving me rose-tinted glasses.

But one scene genuienely gave me goosebumps when I re-watched it, and that's the final scene where it all falls into place. It starts with Charles and Eric, now friends again, albeit still standing by their contrasting philosophies. They repeat the iconic lines from the end of X1, and then when Eric leaves, instead of calling Charles "Charles" or "old friend", he says "Good luck, Professor". And that's when it hit me...McAvoy's Charles has finally become the iconic Professor X from the comics, and from the original trilogy - bald head and suit and all. And then of course, we cut to the Danger Room, with the X-men in very comic-booky outfits, getting ready to fight a bunch of Sentinels...followed swiftly by the theme. Yup, the X-men have truly begun!

That's a great analysis.

[Hypestyle]

I wanted Psylocke to repent and join the team. As it stands, she... did not.