10) Psylocke
Fans were overjoyed when it was announced that Olivia Munn was going to play Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse. The actress was a perfect fit for the part and her purple outfit – while obviously gratuitously revealing – was lifted straight from the page.
Unfortunately, in the film itself Psylocke was totally wasted. Munn hardly got to speak in the movie and was only used as a lackey for Apocalypse. It later came out that the character was never originally intended to be in the pic but director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg decided to shoe-horn her in after seeing some fan art of Munn as Psylocke online. It’s fun to know that fans can influence things like this, but it was a shame to see such a storied character being used as an afterthought.
Though depicted as a villain in the film, Psylocke is usually a good guy in the comics. She escaped to live another day in Apocalypse as well, so let’s hope she turns up again as an ally of the X-Men in Dark Phoenix.
9) Angel
Another character introduced in Apocalypse we want to see redeemed in X-Men: Dark Phoenix is Angel, as played by Ben Hardy. After being under-utilized back in X-Men: The Last Stand, it sounded like a good idea to recast Warren Worthington III for Apocalypse and tackle his villainous Archangel identity as one of En-Sabah-Nur’s Four Horsemen. Like Psylocke, though, Angel was treated pretty poorly in the movie.
Ben Foster’s version from The Last Stand wasn’t in it very much, but at least it was a serviceable version of the long-running character from the comics – a billionaire teen whose wings were a solid metaphor for embracing your idiosyncrasies and not hiding who you are. Hardy’s version, however, was just a thug for Apocalypse, albeit with some cool metal wings.
Angel looked to have died at the end of the film, which would be an ignominious end to such a major X-Man. Fingers crossed, then, that he’s revealed to have survived and will follow Psylocke and join the good guys next time around.
Published: Aug 1, 2017 09:37 pm