XMEN: Apocalypse (2016) REVIEW

Bryan Singer brings us his third X-Men prequel with Apocalypse. The film begins in ancient Egypt with some of the first mutants and their mysterious leader Apocalypse (Oscar Issac) is at large, gaining strength from other mutants until his ceremony is ambushed and his minions manage to save him (just) but now he is locked deep in a pyramid and has been for for thousands of years. 

Meanwhile, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is living undercover nowadays with a family, Professor X (James Macavoy) has created his school for his beloved mutants and Mystique (Jennfier Lawrence) is also hiding out in her many guises, helping mutants where she can.
Magneto is a ticking time bomb about to go off and once he does, the X Men must try to get to him before the newly risen Apocalypse does, as he is recruiting his four horseman and aims to 'cleanse the earth.' Throw in the mix of young Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Quicksilver and you have a whole host of stories going on.
The parts that worked best for me were all of the 'human' scenes - the lead actors are still at their A-game as the chemistry between Lawrence, McAvoy, Fassbender, Byrne and Holt is still electric. There are some genuinely touching moments and also funny ones. However the Apocalypse story, despite fronted as the 'A' Story, is the part that I found the most bland and uninteresting. Poor Oscar Issac, they have distorted his face and his voice here so much here that Apocalypse ends up having no real menace or motive!
Despite a dodgy villain (who I genuinely forgot about when we were with our X Men) this is a fun, fast paced popcorn movie. It lacks the integrity of Future Past but just for ambition alone it should be applauded. The scene in the woods with the police and Magneto was painfully raw and heartbreaking. Not to mention the hugely climatic, if not messy, intense finale. 

The strong leads hold it all together and the pacing just about allows us to skip over questionable sections! Almost as much fun as Civil War, with less politics and more mindless pyramid building (seriously WTF was that for?) 7/10