Beast is terrible, looking like his fur has been bought from the local joke shop and stuck on with sticky back tape, Nightcrawler isn’t great either and the finish for Mystique is way too obvious when she’s in her more natural blue form, so you start to lose faith in the film’s authenticity pretty fast.Ĭredibility takes an even bigger dip during the Wolverine scene, which features a clearly modern day Hugh Jackman playing a much younger version of himself, which just doesn’t work for us. It’s an issue that the X-Men films have been poor at in the post- First Class era, but it’s all the more noticeable in Apocalypse. Painting up his face with a little bit of blue makeup just looks a bit naff without the required facial reconstruction that would have made him look more the part. In all fairness to Oscar Issacs ( Star Wars: The Force Awakens), he does a pretty good job of injecting as much power and weight into his portrayal of Apocalypse, but his acting might doesn’t make up for the poor makeup job he’s given, or the slightly tame confrontation with Professor X and team in the closing section of the film. The back story of his Egyptian domination, subsequent imprisonment and modern day release is pretty cool and it sets things up well for the prospect of an epic battle with the X-Men.
He’s a big character from the comic books and TV cartoon series, and while there are a number of elements that undo the overall impact of the him in the film, he’s still pretty impressive at times. There are a few positives that make it worth a rental though, not least of all the overarching story featuring the age-old mutant and self proclaimed god that is Apocalypse.
These frustrations mean it shouldn’t really get a place in many DVD collections, which is a huge shame after the quality and promise of X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days Of Future Past. There’s so much more wrong with X-Men: Apocalypse than right, which makes the recent home entertainment release a rental option at best with shocking dialogue, woeful makeup and a muddled timeline pulling the Egyptian rug from underneath the potential of the film.