Opening on May 18 nationwide directed by Bryan Singer, “X-Men: Apocalypse” stars James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique/Raven, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr/Magneto, Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse, Olivia Munn as Psylocke, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Ben Hardy as Angel, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Nicholas Hoult Hank McCoy/Beast, Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler, Lana Condor as Jubilee and Rose Byrne as Moira McTaggert.
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Oscar-winner Lawrence returns as the blue, shape-shifting Mystique, while McAvoy plays the younger, mind-reading Professor Charles Xavier, a role portrayed by Patrick Stewart in the franchise’s first films. This was followed by a second confirmation from Bryan Singer (director). Borrowing a bit of scientific theory and dialogue from the last X-Men movie, Kinberg explained that the idea is that Wolverine was always going to end up in the Weapon X program despite all of the events that changed in his life due to time-travel antics. Its true that the X-Men franchise has never really been about hard science, but it would have been nice to have a better story come out of things than “it happens because its supposed to happen”. “He’s truly Weapon X. Not just the guy coming out of the tank, but the weapon”. The upcoming “X-Men: Apocalypse“, on the other hand is set in the 1980s.
The mysterious character presumed to be Mr. Sinister has also been teased to show up in Gambit, The Wolverine 3, and the next X-men Movie, according to an interview by Simon for Collider. It seems like Hugh Jackman’s cameo would involve a “full on, out of control, animalistic, stripped down Wolverine”. Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with X-Men franchise producer and X-Men: Days of Future Past/Apocalypse screenwriter Simon Kinberg, and among the topics that I brought up was the path of Wolverine after the events of 1973.
After its mind-bending predecessor, X-Men: Apocalypse pares down the plot and ups the ante, but the lack of narrative ambition renders it somewhat unengaging, and it feels a long way down the line to be meeting characters we’re already familiar with.
If you thought Days of Future Past was as epic and nightmarish as it could get for Marvel’s mutant superheroes, then think again.
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“X-Men: Apocalypse” is set in 1983 when an ancient mutant, Apocalypse, awakens and sets out to dominate the world.
