X Men-Apocalypse, Review: X-Men, Ex X-Men, ‘To be’ X-Men, and the 4 Horsemen

In the ninth instalment of the X-Man Marvel comics’ series, we are confronted with a devil incarnate villain who lived thousands of years ago in Egypt, and surfaces in the civilised world of 1983. Nobody grovels at his feat in this eon, so he takes great umbrage. He is able to learn English by listening to a TV broadcast just once (if only he would share that technology/software with us humans), and understand how the modern world is governed, by some similar trick. Since he cannot bring back days of ‘past future’, he decides to bring in days of ‘future past’. But there is rider attached: he cannot do what he wants without recruiting four lieutenants, the apocalyptic four horsemen. The film razzles, dazzles and snazzles and its humongous technical spectacle almost casts a spell. A day later, however, it does not remain quite what it appeared to be, you can tell.

Immortal psychic mutant En Sabah Nur rules ancient Egypt, until, when he is in the process of a ritual that will give him immortality, he is betrayed by his worshippers, who now accuse him of being a false God, and cause his huge mansion to collapse, burying him alive. Nur's lieutenants, the Four Horsemen, die protecting and preserving him. A cult continues to worship him in his tomb, and chant before his preserved body, hoping that he will awake one day. He does awake, in 1983, and believing that without his presence humanity has lost its way, he decides to destroy the world, and remake it in his image. He begins by recruiting new Horsemen, starting with the Cairo thief-pickpocket girl, Ororo Munroe.

In East Berlin (cold war days), Raven Darkhölme, investigating an underground fight club, discovers mutant champion Angel, who possesses a pair of large feathered wings on his back, and the Nightcrawler, a tailed mutant who can teleport, engaged in a blood-sport. Raven rescues Nightcrawler, and employs the services of underground black-marketer Caliban, to safely transport him to the US, under a forged passport. When En Sabah Nur then arrives to demand information about strong mutants from Caliban, Caliban's enforcer Psylocke sides with him, and leads him to Angel, whose injured wings Nur replaces with metallic ones. So, he now has three lieutenants.

Meanwhile, Alex Summers takes his teenage younger brother Scott, whose own mutation for shooting optic beams from his eyes is beginning to wreak havoc at school, to Professor Charles Xavier's educational institute, in Westchester County, New York, where Xavier and Hank McCoy will teach him how to control his abilities. Scott meets Xavier's protégé Jean Grey, and the two develop an attraction over the fact that they both cannot fully control their powers. Raven brings Nightcrawler to the institute, and informs Xavier about the threat of En Sabah Nur, leading Xavier and Alex to consult with CIA operative Moira MacTaggert, who has been researching the legend of Nur, in Egypt, to learn more about him.

In Poland, the metal-controlling mutant, Erik Lehnsherr, lives with his new wife and daughter, Nina, but when authorities attempt to capture him for an incident in which he was seen moving metallic objects during earth tremors, his family is killed in the crossfire. En Sabah Nur later approaches the infuriated Erik, and takes him to Auschwitz, Hitler’s concentration camp, where Erik’s parents were killed. There, he upgrades his powers, so that all metal on earth comes under his control. Erik destroys the camp, and joins Sabah Nur, completing his new Four Horsemen.

If anybody knows Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s X-Men X-Men inside out, it must be director Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, Valkyrie, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past). This edition has a story by Singer, Michael Dougherty (X2: X Men United, Superman Returns, Trick ’r Treat), Dan Harris (Dougherty’s writing partner), Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class, Sherlock Holmes) and a screenplay by Simon Kinberg. The four ‘horsemen’ spread this tale far and wide, both in time and space, though Montreal probably doubles for all locations, from East Berlin, to Auschwitz, to Poland to Egypt. And yes, the villain is out to destroy the whole world. Clever little (he turns into a giant towards the end) Nur first ‘Nur’talises the worlds entire nuclear armoury by sending it skywards (was he afraid? Is the devil susceptible to the nukes?) and then begins the decimation of all structures.

The film has too many characters, and settings, and is therefore, just that much long—a solid 144 minutes. There is no sex and hardly any skin show. One word was muted by the Indian censor authorities, who let it pass otherwise untouched. Wolverine gets the expected response he deserves, and his appearance is cleverly restricted. Most characters speak English with British accents (pleasant surprise!), not American, and the departure from the norm, in the shape of Ororo (Egyptian/French/black) and Nightcrawler (German), are good for variety.

A spell-binding beginning sets the pace, but it takes a while to get back to that level. Nur is a villain modelled after the devil, so his need to walk a crowded market upon awakening, as also his need to recruit four mutants to achieve his nefarious goals, is illogical. Climaxes, like all super-hero climaxes, are about a bunch of gifted do-gooders being hurled across the landscape a thousand times and all kind stuff flying around, both solid and as rays. X-Men Apocalypse inventively adds a new dimension of cerebral warfare, with Nur pitted against Charles Xavier’s all penetrative brain. (My own alma mater, (St.) Xavier’s Institute of Communication, might be tickled to find a school for the gifted named Xavier’s School. Some of its alumni are indeed gifted, though not in the manner that Charles’ students are). There is too much dematerialisation/materialisation (Nightcrawler and company), and the visual starbursts cease to surprise you the 50^th time. On the other hand, we see very little of Raven’s ability to acquire shapes and forms.

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X (the men are his men) is both, the most powerful of the lot, as well as the most vulnerable. For a large part, he is wheel-chair bound. McAvoy is a fine actor. Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (War) gets as meaty role and great audience sympathy. His turning over to the other side is not very convincing, but that’s the script. Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique is very easy on the eye. Needed more footage to do justice. Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada (Sucker Punch, Inside Llewyn Davis, Star wars; The Force Awakens) as Nur, the Apocalypse, possesses psiokinesis, super-strength, technopathy. We don’t see him in the flesh, but his eyes and voice are well-used. Major screen time is allotted to Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers/Cyclops, the school student who discovers that he has the power to shoot beams of strong rays from his eyes, and he does well.

Adequate support comes from Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert (CIA agent and Xavier’s former lover), Sophie Turner as Jean Grey/Phoenix, Olivia Munn as Psylocke/Elizabeth Braddock (Pestilence), Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok (Scott’s older brother), Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver (son of Magneto, who doesn’t know he had a son), Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munro /Storm (Famine), Ben Hardy as Warren Worthington III/Angel/Archangel (Death), Lana Condor as Jubilation Lee/Jubilee, Josh Helman as William Stryker, a US military officer who hates mutants and Tómas Lemarquis as Caliban (what’s in a name?), a mutant with the ability to sense and track other mutants. Stan Lee and Joanie Lee make cameo appearances. Hugh Jackman, for the while he is there, if huge Jackman. Kodi-Smit McPhee provides some comic relief. Some of these are X-Men, some were X-Men, and some will X-Men.

Who will they make the next villain? Do villains come bigger than the devil? Who the devil knows?

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COvnHv42T-A