4) X-Men: Apocalypse
While the rest of the year’s superhero movies tried to break out of the mold, X-Men: Apocalypse was resolutely determined to offer a slice of superhero movie 101 – with lots of city-levelling action and a villain out for world domination. While old school fans who were bored of superheroes fighting superheroes might have welcomed the return to the norm, others felt that Apocalypse was simply a reheat of bits from several previous X-Men movies, without bringing anything new to the table.
That said, at least Apocalypse is competently put together, unlike its DCEU compatriots. Bryan Singer has now been helming these movies for 16 years, so he can probably direct an X-Men film with his eyes closed. Likewise, several members of the cast turned in great performances.
[zergpaid]Evan Peters was great value as Quicksilver, Jennifer Lawrence got to complete Mystique’s character arc and Michael Fassbender was on fire, in one hugely traumatic scene in particular. Sadly, the film did manage to totally waste the considerable talents of Oscar Isaac in the title role.
As it is, Apocalypse is comfortably the weakest of the First Class trilogy, but it’s certainly better than the worst efforts of the X-Men franchise. Just like Singer seemed happy to aim for, it’s a decent popcorn-muncher and an entertaining enough way to while away a couple of hours. Call it a distinctly mid-level entry into the genre.