The Daily Record
Movie Review:
‘X-Men Apocalypse’
By EDDY FRIEDFELD
For The Record
“X-Men Apocalypse,” the latest installment of the Marvel franchise, is smart, exciting and pure fun.
For the uninitiated, the X-Men, created in 1963 by Marvel’s Stan Lee at the height of the U.S. Civil Rights movement, is a story about a group of teenagers with strange and special abilities who were secretly gathered and trained by Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a wheelchair-bound telepath, who operates a “school for the gifted” out of a mansion in Westchester, N.Y.
These “mutants,” self-proclaimed “X-Men” were trained to accept their powers and work with each other, to secretly help mankind. Except for occasional bouts with Kryptonite and other brief infirmities, for 76 years, it has been pretty good to be Superman — tall, appealing, admired and virtually indestructible. The “X-Men” are about reluctant heroes whose powers came with flaws and weaknesses, and who battled their own demons as well as the bad guys, while always persecuted by the fearful and by powerful enemies, including the robotic Sentinals.
For any kid who has ever felt different, alone or misunderstood, there were heroes to identify with, and a mentor like Professor X who offered hope and guidance, acceptance and tolerance.
In the current incarnation of the franchise, it is 1983, 10 years since Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) saved the president. The blue skinned shape shifter has become a cult icon for mutants, although she is gone into hiding.
“Mutants are born with extraordinary ability,” Xavier says, “and yet a gift is still a curse. With wings you may fly too close to the sky. With the power of prophecy, you may fear the future.”
Cut to Poland, where Erik Lensher, aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is living a quiet life, happily married with a young daughter. The survivor of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, he has finally found peace, when after saving a colleague at a steel mill from a fatal accident using his power of controlling metal, he is identified by the local police. Trying to arrest him, they inadvertently kill his wife and child.
Magneto and others are recruited by a resurrected demigod, Apolcalypse (Oscar Isaac), who was the first mutant from ancient Egypt, who wants to eliminate superpowers and destroy the world.
Among Professor X’s students were the serious and dutiful Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), whose eyes, protected by special glasses, shoot out destructive rays, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), who has telekinetic and telepathic abilities, the teleporting Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and the ever loyal and brilliant Hank McCoy, aka Beast (Nicholas Hoult).
“Welcome to the school for the gifted,” Xavier tells Scott.
“I doesn’t feel like a gift,” he says.
“It never does at first.”
It has been 15 years since Director Bryan Singer brought the first X-Men film to the screen. The franchise has grown and evolved and through a new cast (other than Hugh Jackman who is almost as amazingly durable as The Wolverine character he has immortalized) is as vibrant and profound as ever.
The film series still belongs to Fassbinder’s Magneto and McAvoy’s Xavier, and the unbreakable connection between them. McAvoy is the passionate, hopeful, loyal mentor and teacher, trying to raise students, not soldiers.
“You need to embrace your powers, we all do,” he tells Jean. And he says to Erik, “I feel a great swell of pity for anyone who comes to my school looking for trouble.”
‘X-Men Apocalypse,’ the latest in the Marvel franchise, opens in theaters today.
Courtesy Photo
