Has Bryan Singer finished eating his Humble Pie after X-Men Apocalypse?

[Kieran_Frost]

I liked X-men: Apocalypse.

Shameless plug for my CBR "100 Greatest Films" thread
http://community.comicbookresources....lms-quot/page7

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016)
dir. Bryan Singer
writer. based on the Marvel Comics
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner, Lucas Till and Oscar Isaac

ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS: 1983. An ancient Egyptian mutant dubbed Apocalypse (Isaac) has been unleashed upon the world, determined to assemble his four lieutenants and reshape the world in his image; humanity's only hope lies in the mutants they have repeatedly oppressed, lead by telepath Prof. Charles Xavier (McAvoy)... unbeknown to them he is also Apocalypse's next target...

THOUGHTS: ohhhh how I love the X-men. Watching this, I was struck by the overwhelming differences between the MCU and the X-verse. The X-men films have both a stronger moral concept (the idea of prejudice and oppression) AND YET don't shy away from what they are: a comic book movie. They aren't embarrassed by it, in fact they embrace it (as mutants embrace they were born this way). At a time when so many superhero films are delving into a grittier, deeper "realism"; desperate to seem 'legitimate' as 'art', the X-men (and I include the glorious Deadpool (2016) in that statement) happily celebrate their crazy costumes, kooky storylines and wacky characters. This felt like watching a true superhero movie, warts and all. And, as implied, it is a double edged sword (think Ang Lee's Hulk (2003)). While I applaud their bravery, at times it does slip into melodrama. And while I massively enjoyed Quicksilver saving the school in slow-mo to the tune of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)", let's not pretend the trick is 'as impressive' the second time round. That said the staple Bryan Singer goodness is also present. The ensemble, as a whole, is very impressive; and he gets sculpts an atmosphere for micro-moments of pure gold. His X-films always contain real heart; making the audience care about all the characters, and their survival. And despite such a large cast, he manages to juggle the old and the new very skillfully. And let's talk about the new (or in many cases "new-ish"). Firstly: YESSSS! Yes, my beloved Storm is free from Halle Berry, and even with less screen time embodies Storm more successfully. She holds herself as a noble, powerful woman; ready to break free at any moment. The stand-out addition is Olivia Munn as Psylocke. Every moment Munn is featured, elevates the scene. And who can object to Ben Hardy's... beautiful, muscular... wings. HA! But to be fair all of the cast are enjoyable, there is not a bum note among them; Bryan Singer teases out some wonderful performances while gentle scattering some clever ideas about oppression. The line that instantly jumped out "they still hate and fear us, its just harder to see because they're more polite about it" is SO TRUE! It's so apt to how prejudice has evolved, and while the world has "modernized" a lot still carry this deeper rooted hate (SEE: #OscarsSoWhite). Yet despite a weighty metaphor for mutants, the film (conceptual) allows for more frivolity. First you had time-travel, and now some uber giant thousand year old Pharaoh god... and it just works. While these things aren't unique to the X-films, for a superhero franchise they are really delving into some classic comic story structure, and not flinching or trying to "adapt" the concept to a more modern 'realism'. He's a thousand year old Pharaoh, that's what he is and they don't sugar coat it. Kudos, Bryan Singer! I loved that bravery! I doubt Thanos will be half as honest (despite attempts to make him "grittier").

OVERALL
Incredibly enjoyable and incredibly silly; it truly takes the superhero genre to the next level; and is a welcome addition to the X-men canon. While not hitting the lofty heights of X2: X-men United (2003) or X-men: Day's of Future's Past (2014), it's still immensely enjoyable from start to finish; with the "next generation" of stars beautifully filling their predecessors shoes. Cannot WAIT for the next one!!!
~ rating: 4 out of 5 [grade: B+]

The 3rd one is always the worst. oh the irony since X3 is a better film than Apocalypse.here is how I see it, Bryan Singer got cocky after the sucess of DOFP.

Technically this is Singer's 4th film, not 3rd.

[SicariiDC]

I liked X-men: Apocalypse.

Shameless plug for my CBR "100 Greatest Films" thread
http://community.comicbookresources....lms-quot/page7

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016)
dir. Bryan Singer
writer. based on the Marvel Comics
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner, Lucas Till and Oscar Isaac

ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS: 1983. An ancient Egyptian mutant dubbed Apocalypse (Isaac) has been unleashed upon the world, determined to assemble his four lieutenants and reshape the world in his image; humanity's only hope lies in the mutants they have repeatedly oppressed, lead by telepath Prof. Charles Xavier (McAvoy)... unbeknown to them he is also Apocalypse's next target...

THOUGHTS: ohhhh how I love the X-men. Watching this, I was struck by the overwhelming differences between the MCU and the X-verse. The X-men films have both a stronger moral concept (the idea of prejudice and oppression) AND YET don't shy away from what they are: a comic book movie. They aren't embarrassed by it, in fact they embrace it (as mutants embrace they were born this way). At a time when so many superhero films are delving into a grittier, deeper "realism"; desperate to seem 'legitimate' as 'art', the X-men (and I include the glorious Deadpool (2016) in that statement) happily celebrate their crazy costumes, kooky storylines and wacky characters. This felt like watching a true superhero movie, warts and all. And, as implied, it is a double edged sword (think Ang Lee's Hulk (2003)). While I applaud their bravery, at times it does slip into melodrama. And while I massively enjoyed Quicksilver saving the school in slow-mo to the tune of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)", let's not pretend the trick is 'as impressive' the second time round. That said the staple Bryan Singer goodness is also present. The ensemble, as a whole, is very impressive; and he gets sculpts an atmosphere for micro-moments of pure gold. His X-films always contain real heart; making the audience care about all the characters, and their survival. And despite such a large cast, he manages to juggle the old and the new very skillfully. And let's talk about the new (or in many cases "new-ish"). Firstly: YESSSS! Yes, my beloved Storm is free from Halle Berry, and even with less screen time embodies Storm more successfully. She holds herself as a noble, powerful woman; ready to break free at any moment. The stand-out addition is Olivia Munn as Psylocke. Every moment Munn is featured, elevates the scene. And who can object to Ben Hardy's... beautiful, muscular... wings. HA! But to be fair all of the cast are enjoyable, there is not a bum note among them; Bryan Singer teases out some wonderful performances while gentle scattering some clever ideas about oppression. The line that instantly jumped out "they still hate and fear us, its just harder to see because they're more polite about it" is SO TRUE! It's so apt to how prejudice has evolved, and while the world has "modernized" a lot still carry this deeper rooted hate (SEE: #OscarsSoWhite). Yet despite a weighty metaphor for mutants, the film (conceptual) allows for more frivolity. First you had time-travel, and now some uber giant thousand year old Pharaoh god... and it just works. While these things aren't unique to the X-films, for a superhero franchise they are really delving into some classic comic story structure, and not flinching or trying to "adapt" the concept to a more modern 'realism'. He's a thousand year old Pharaoh, that's what he is and they don't sugar coat it. Kudos, Bryan Singer! I loved that bravery! I doubt Thanos will be half as honest (despite attempts to make him "grittier").

OVERALL
Incredibly enjoyable and incredibly silly; it truly takes the superhero genre to the next level; and is a welcome addition to the X-men canon. While not hitting the lofty heights of X2: X-men United (2003) or X-men: Day's of Future's Past (2014), it's still immensely enjoyable from start to finish; with the "next generation" of stars beautifully filling their predecessors shoes. Cannot WAIT for the next one!!!
~ rating: 4 out of 5 [grade: B+]




Technically this is Singer's 4th film, not 3rd.

I liked it too. Haters gon hate lol

[LordLeviathan]

No it didn't. FoX only kept 25% of the Chinese portion which was the majority of the revenue outside America. And they didn't keep 100% of the other foreign markets either. + Factor what Marvel takes from them as well.


X-Men: Apocalypse is the lowest performing comic book movie of 2016 both in total gross and opening weekend. It's the 7th lowest of the entire X-Men franchise. It's the 25th lowest of any movie with Marvel characters. 40th lowest of any comic book movie.


X-Men is trending in the wrong direction.

also not included are Marketing cost wich are additional ~50% of the budget and most forgein markets have their own Distributors which also taking their part of the cake and as do Forgein Dubs and subtitles

[Kurt LeBeau]

I really liked XMA, but would have loved it much much more if they didnt kill Havok, neither Angel, that would have joined the team at the end next to Storm.
Well, that and better roles for Storm, Angel and Pyslocke with Magneto having less screentime. But that wont happen with this director and writer, so...... sad.

[Moondoggie]

The hell you can't omit her. Have her disappear post-DoFP and focus on Xavier and Henry building a new X-Men team and actually spend all that time wasted on J-Law's empty XMA performance (not to mention Fassbender's pointless family subplot...did we really need to waste all that time establishing YET AGAIN why Magneto hates humanity?) on developing said X-Men. Like Jubilee, wtf was the point of even having her just to rob her of almost all of her lines and to save the one use of her power for the deleted scenes? XMA was a huge failure, made worse by the fact that it could've been absolutely breathtaking, a love note to the period of the X-Men that made them stick in our hearts over the decades.

Well they had to cut something to make room for all that stuff such as JLaw playing the same character she always plays with no make up to show who she's supposed to be while she watches Angel be a cage fighter and other random stuff like Apocalypse watching TV,that pointless Magneto story oh and a repeat of that stupid Quicksilver wobbly face slow motion scene from DoFP. The funny thing is cutting out all those Jubilee scenes make the flow feel weird when they said it was cut to improve it, the kids meet and agree to go to the mall for bonding time then suddenly we see them arrive with no understanding of where they went and what they did and it just skips to Quicksilver doing the wobbly face thing. Apocalypse was just a boring film because they wasted time on all the wrong things while pandering to their big money stars. The only young character that seemed to get anything significant was Jean but considering they got Sophie Turner it was to be expected she wasn't signing up to get shafted.

They should have focused more on building new characters and showing the X Men family growing, I really want them to drop JLaw in future but I imagine they won't, she'll be signing a new 5 movie deal with many zeros on the contract and less time in the make up booth. That is my prediction along with more GoT stars getting roles there is already talk of Maisie Williams being in New Mutants. I think the big problem is always when the stars of the movie become more important than the characters they play.

[People Of The Earth]

Watch Fox taking another 16 years before figuring out how to handle this property if Singer stay on board...
XM:Apocalypse navigates in the same realm of mediocrity than X3, there's no point in even comparing them to one another.

Keeping the young cast, cutting loose on everyone else both on and off-screen, and starting fresh would do this franchise WONDERS.

[jubilees_bf]

Well they had to cut something to make room for all that stuff such as JLaw playing the same character she always plays with no make up to show who she's supposed to be while she watches Angel be a cage fighter and other random stuff like Apocalypse watching TV,that pointless Magneto story oh and a repeat of that stupid Quicksilver wobbly face slow motion scene from DoFP. The funny thing is cutting out all those Jubilee scenes make the flow feel weird when they said it was cut to improve it, the kids meet and agree to go to the mall for bonding time then suddenly we see them arrive with no understanding of where they went and what they did and it just skips to Quicksilver doing the wobbly face thing. Apocalypse was just a boring film because they wasted time on all the wrong things while pandering to their big money stars. The only young character that seemed to get anything significant was Jean but considering they got Sophie Turner it was to be expected she wasn't signing up to get shafted.

They should have focused more on building new characters and showing the X Men family growing, I really want them to drop JLaw in future but I imagine they won't, she'll be signing a new 5 movie deal with many zeros on the contract and less time in the make up booth. That is my prediction along with more GoT stars getting roles there is already talk of Maisie Williams being in New Mutants. I think the big problem is always when the stars of the movie become more important than the characters they play.

Agreed... while watching the theatrical version... I can't help but think of how choppy it is with the teen X-Men at times.
Jubilee is introduced, but not introduced in the theatrical version. She 'shows up' in Xavier's classroom... and then shows up in the hallway with Kurt saying, 'I've never been to America,' and getting interrupted by Scott. Jubilee's first line in the film is, "This is Scott, he's new here, too." So, how does Jubilee know who Scott is without meeting him prior on camera? How did Jubilee and Kurt end up talking to one another in the hallway? Who is the Asian girl with the yellow jacket? The kids then get out of Star Wars and say a simple few lines together... with Kurt now being 'good friends' with Jean, Scott, and Jubilee?? by the time they arrive at the mansion. All of their bonding time was cut/off screen before Scott found out that Alex died in the explosion. As the kids get out of the car, Jubilee isn't even shown running over to the other group with Moira and Mystique... she is merely shown getting knocked out and then waking up and looking at the sky as Jean, Scott, and Kurt go off to battle. She is then shown standing next to Kurt at the very end of the film since, off camera, they are very good friends?

The cut classroom scene shows that Jubilee will later be a semi-important student in the film since she had several lines. The cut Jean archery scene was sweet, and showed her offensive capabilities. The extended talk with Hank and Scott trying on the glasses actually showed Jubilee talking to Hank and noticing Scott as a new student (which would make total sense when Jubilee tells Kurt who Scott is later on.) The extended Kurt/Jubilee mansion tour showed they have an actual budding friendship. The mall scene shows four teenage mutants, in the 80s, having normal fun before their world shatters... that humans don't really fear mutants that look different... that Jean and Scott are growing closer... Jubilee actually has powers and also might find Kurt adorable... and that they are all friends now. This then would have given more weight to Jubilee not even being able to go to battle with the group when she is shown on the lawn and also at the end of the film.

Just my thoughts- but I feel those scenes should have been left in.

[Kurt LeBeau]

Bryan Singer isnt really interested in the X-Men, so all that cool and needed stuff is pointless to him, thats why he keeps cutting it.

He cut Rogue, a beloved x-woman in DOFP, and now he cuts many X-Men stuff, including Jubilee's 95% stuff and the actual scene where the core X-Men know each other. Congrats Fox, you really pick the best director for the job.

[Franchise408]

Y'all keep complaining about Jubilee like she was ever intended on being a significant character in this movie.

She was a CAMEO. Geez.

[Grim Ghost]

All comic book movies are childish. The more adult they try to make them the more pathetic they become.

[People Of The Earth]

Y'all keep complaining about Jubilee like she was ever intended on being a significant character in this movie.

She was a CAMEO. Geez.

Actual X-Men cameoed in their own movie, whilst JLaw phones in her CENTRAL character performance, Magneto exposes his manpain again, and Xavier's plays damsel in distresses.

Yet, people wonder why Fox still get such low votes of confidence...?

[Sardorim]

Until he's fired, no.

I won't forgive him for butchering the X-Men mythos for his Wolverine fanboyism and how he butchered DoFP by taking away Kitty's spotlight and Rachel's origin to make it all about 3 old white men, and their young versions, with Mystique caught in the middle.

[motherofpearl1]

As a Rogue fan I'm just disappointed she never got a chance to shine. I remember an interview with Singer in which he explained he'd cast her as so young because he wanted to develop the character.
But sadly he never did. He could have in DoFP, but no. Instead the focus was on Kitty and Mystique. I loved Paquin's chemistry with Jackman; I wish she'd made more X movies with him. Instead we get X23.

[motherofpearl1]

All comic book movies are childish. The more adult they try to make them the more pathetic they become.

I never found The Dark Knight, Blade,V for Vendetta or Winter Soldier childish.

[Celestial]

I never found The Dark Knight, Blade,V for Vendetta or Winter Soldier childish.

According to some in this thread, Winter Soldier is childish because it's MCU.