X-Men: Apocalypse is the 9th film in the franchise and the 4th directed by Bryan Singer. Apocalypse picks up 10 years after 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and begins with Professor Charles Xavier, played to perfection by James McAvoy, running his school for mutants in Westchester, New York while Magneto, brilliantly performed by Michael Fassbender, is with his family in a secluded part of the world. The world’s first mutant, Apocalypse (played by Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Oscar Isaac), is then awoken after being asleep for thousands of years in Egypt and immediately sets out to “cleanse” the world of the weak so he can shape it for the strongest. Apocalypse’s prime motivation for killing millions of people is that he believes in the survival of the fittest but, the film fails to fully explain this to the audience. Immediately after awakening, he chooses his “Four Horsemen”, who are his main lieutenants, and these are Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Angel (Ben Hardy), and after a tragedy strikes his family, Magneto. Apocalypse strengthens their powers so that they are at their full potential and this sends Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) back home to Xavier’s school in order to lead the X-Men in the fight. The young versions of classic mutants Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler are introduced in this film, played by Tye Sheridan, Shipp, Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, respectively, and are a joy to behold in the film but were sadly not given enough screen time. Wolverine, performed by franchise stalwart Hugh Jackman, makes a small but memorable cameo in one of the two best action scenes in the movie alongside an amazing action scene that is solely based around Evan Peters’ standout character Quicksilver. The movie runs a little too long in the second half and, without giving anything away, third act fails to explain Apocalypse’s plan and also fail to produce a memorable final action scene. I couldn’t leave the theater without the feeling of disappointment when it comes to the character of Apocalypse himself because I wanted a more powerful villain, in personality not superpower-wise, but felt that Isaac did the best with what screenwriter Simon Kinberg gave to him. X-Men: Apocalypse is not as good as X-Men: Days of Future Past but is still a fun time at the movie and opens the door to more memorable films from the franchise in the future with the introduction of the younger mutants.

X-Men: Apocalypse: 7.5 out of 10