Today, we are going to talk about a movie that introduced us to the most powerful mutant, who was worshipped like the gods. However, his four horsemen were more interesting. This article will discuss X-Men: Apocalypse. This movie had all the ingredients that make an X-Men movie a hit: Quicksilver’s fantastic slow-motion action, Nightcrawler’s teleportation, comic-accurate characters, a very comic-accurate portrayal of Magneto’s hatred for humanity, and even Phoenix. What more could an X-Men fan want? Fans of X-Men desire a thrilling story. However, despite Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse clips being available, the studio managed to pull this off.
Before the release of X-Men: Apocalypse, it felt like a dream come true for any X-Men fan. The studio added all the right ingredients to this magnificent dish but didn’t cook it properly. I mean, the studio took no risks, but it was still a decent way to end another trilogy of X-Men. Let me quickly tell you the story.
In 3600 BC, En Sabah Nur ruled over Ancient Egypt with his four Horsemen. During a ceremony, he was switching bodies with a mutant who had a healing factor. An attack occurs, and after a fierce battle, En Sabah Nur gets buried alive. In 1983, Scott Summers discovers his mutant abilities, and his brother Alex Summers brings him to Charles Xavier’s school, where he meets Jean Grey. In Egypt, En Sabah Nur awakens and learns about humanity. He then makes Storm his first Horseman. On the other hand, Raven brings her son Kurt to the Xavier Institute, and En Sabah Nur adds Psylocke, Angel, and Magneto to his ranks, completing his Four Horsemen.
In modern times, he learns about Charles Xavier and comes to take his telepathic abilities. In the process, the school is blasted, but Quicksilver saves each student with his super speed. Colonel William Stryker then arrives and takes Raven and Peter for interrogation. Scott, Jean, and Kurt free them and encounter Weapon X. Magneto, under En Sabah Nur’s command, starts destroying the Earth, and En Sabah Nur begins to switch his body with Charles’s. But just then, the X-Men arrive to save Charles. A fierce battle ensues in which Angel dies, Psylocke escapes, and Magneto and Storm turn against En Sabah Nur. But that wasn’t enough. Jean’s Phoenix form appears and kills Apocalypse.
Fox had no trouble creating Apocalypse. The entire process went smoothly except for a billboard and a controversy with the Indian government. Besides that, everything was smooth. The writers used this robust film to set up a new X-Men, which was wrong. The movie had a budget of $78 million and earned $430 million worldwide. Those were good numbers. IMDb rated the movie 6.9 out of 10, and its Rotten Tomatoes score is 47. After this movie, the franchise took a different path. Storm was never called by her name, neither Storm nor Ororo Munroe. Apocalypse was not mentioned in the clips.
When the movie trailer came out, it included Apocalypse, and the Indian government raised questions, leading Fox to remove the Krishna reference from the theater cut and replace it with the name of another culture’s deity. Oscar Isaac played Apocalypse and was very excited about the role, but he regretted it somewhere. In an interview, he mentioned that he had come to work with some fantastic actors and had even collected X-Men comics as a child. The Apocalypse suit and prosthetics covered him so much that he couldn’t move or see anyone. Even his dialogues weren’t recorded properly because any slight movement would make his rubber costume make noise, requiring him to add his dialogues through dubbing later. Regarding the voice, according to Bryan Singer, Apocalypse takes on the range and tone of the voices of those whose bodies he has switched.
Initially, the film was called Age of Apocalypse, but it was later changed to simply X-Men: Apocalypse as they didn’t want the movie to be compared to Avengers: Age of Ultron, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and The Age of Adaline. Plus, the story in the comics had a profound impact on the Marvel Universe, where many prominent characters were killed. Apocalypse gains power when in contact with Celestial, giving him god-like powers and enhancing his form. In the movie, only Apocalypse is shown. An in-joke is made where Jean Grey, after watching Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, mentions that the third movie is always the weakest. This applies to X-Men movies as well, particularly X-Men: The Last Stand, which received a lot of criticism. On the other hand, this movie was also the third part of the X-Men: First Class series, which was criticized.
Apocalypse is a villain on the level of Thanos in the comics, and it doesn’t make sense to show and kill him in one movie. Mystique behaves differently in this movie, advocating staying in her mutant form in the first two movies, whereas in major parts of this movie, she is in her human form. Along with this, the second movie in the X-Men franchise has proven to be better: first X2, then in the First Class series, Days of Future Past. When a fan survey was done for Jean Grey, Sophie Turner and even Margot Robbie were considered for the role. However, after being chosen, she received no response from the producer, which was very frustrating for her. But later, she found out that the late response was due to her Game of Thrones contract, which required Bryan Singer to set his shooting schedule according to the Game of Thrones shooting schedule.
Quicksilver’s scene of saving the school children is perhaps considered one of the best moments in cinema history. But while the scene was only 3 minutes long, it took Bryan Singer 20 days to shoot it. Movie writer and producer Simon Kinberg mentioned that because of the time traveling in Days of Future Past, he was able to set the story according to his liking and show new versions of old characters like Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, and Nightcrawler. Along with this, this movie completes a second trilogy set of X-Men, where a new trilogy starts with X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
When Wolverine escapes from his cell and wreaks havoc in the military complex, he meets Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler. These three did not know Wolverine at that time, while in another holding cell, Mystique, Beast, and Quicksilver were also there, who recognized Wolverine because they had met him in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Above all, there remains a confusion: when in Days of Future Past, Mystique saves Wolverine posing as Stryker, how does Wolverine later end up in the real Stryker’s custody? Bryan Singer explained that the X-Men timeline is like a river where even if you throw a stone, the river will still flow. So even though the timeline was reset in Days of Future Past and Mystique saved Wolverine, Wolverine’s fate will lead him to Stryker’s custody, where he will become part of the Weapon X program, receive adamantium claws, and lose his memory. Apocalypse was literally a pestilence and death.
The original X-Men’s powers were not explored as much, but they were responsible for protecting En Sabah Nur until death. On the other hand, the new Horsemen, Storm, and Magneto literally have god-like powers capable of destroying the planet. In the movie, Xavier and Apocalypse conceptualized a battle similar to the one we saw between Emma Frost and Xavier in X-Men: First Class. However, this was not used then because the producers felt that people would start comparing it to Inception. In the movie, it is shown that Apocalypse, where Phoenix will eventually kill herself in the future.
Promoting the movie led to a controversy in Los Angeles and New York City, where a billboard displayed an image of a scene from the movie where Apocalypse is lifting her up. The creators said that the movie promotes violence against women, with actress Rose McGowan raising her voice against it, stating that no one in Fox thought this ad was wrong, which shows that they don’t care about violence against women and that they are stupid. Fox apologized and withdrew the billboard.
At 1 hour and 12 minutes into the movie, Stan Lee and his wife Joan appear. This was Stan Lee’s last cameo in X-Men movies. After this, only Stan Lee’s graffiti is seen in Deadpool 2.
In conclusion, X-Men: Apocalypse brought together a mix of thrilling action, beloved characters, and a storyline that had potential but fell short in execution.
