Behind the X-Men, there has been (almost) only one man : Bryan Singer. It is he who in the early 2000s, we took a great interest in these stories of mutants, metaphors about racism, nazism or the passage to adulthood for teenagers without landmarks. It was not far from reaching the status of copyright in the field of movies great shows and budgets in the same way that Sam Raimi with Spiderman or Christopher Nolan with Batman.
But after he left reluctantly her baby to another (Brett Ratner) for the final part of his trilogy, the Singer, not finding in its projects following the master ofX-Men 2, has never really established itself as a developer of talent. By knowing a series of failures, more or less rightly (Superman Returns, Valkyrie, Jack the giant slayer). It is finally returning to the X-Men (first as a producer) that he regained some popularity. A saga re-launched in 2011 in the form of a prequel to tell the youth of super-heroes.
With X-MEN : APOCALYPSE, the third installment of this new series of films, Bryan Singer was thus finally able to conclude HIS trilogy, HIS saga. We could expect a proposal rich and original on the part of a man who has regained control over his work, and who has sufficient means. It is not the case. In X-MEN : APOCALYPSE, Singer chooses to depart which made the qualities of the two previous films (use of time), forget any notion of action that is entertaining for the benefit of gossip, without meaning or purpose, and seems to never really assume or understand the evolution of the object he has himself created.
It has been said, Bryan Singer has never really digested to see someone other than him to take over the reins of the X-Men. Already with Days of Future Past (2014) the developer had their settlement for personal account, passing in addition to the events of The last stand (2006, Brett Ratner) and resetting, by time travel, a time line to his liking. At least for the common mortal who would be happy to follow the movies and would not go searched many forums to find the assumptions about worlds and parallel dimensions of time who would be able to justify these “non-sense” story. Rather than make a clean sweep of the past and stay in a line clear directive, X-MEN : APOCALYPSE, loses itself in a catch-all character, present primarily to tickle the fancy of fans, regardless of the inconsistencies. With, for example, the presence of the mutant Diablo or the young colonel Stryker, twenty years before the supposed meeting of the X-Men, we do not know where we’re at.
One could assume that Singer is réappropriait there completely the saga, cutting the ties with the trilogy before. It would be then more only to erase from our memories The final Confrontation, but to go above its own creations (the X-men and X-men 2). Only by multiplying the winks, often clumsy on what we know (the films already made and in which the story happens after the events of this last opus, you always follow ?), the director does not detach and force us to we hang up on these movies and the link between them. All the more sad that rather than redefine the entire saga, Singer only makes the reuse. Not for the new, but rather of the same taste rubbery. Places and events are very similar : the removal of the mutants by a group of military personnel ; the use of Diablo to pass through locked doors in a secret base in the mountains, and humanity is threatened by the use of Cerebro… to the dialogues, everything gives the effect of a large, already-seen, but less good.
“Bryan Singer had his final trilogy, but has not done well.”
One could try to delve into this adventure remaining totally detached from the world around them. But even here, Singer does not convince. Certainly, there are a few scenes of quality moments and awe-inspiring. Like when Magneto returns in an Auschwitz camp that he destroyed at the same time as his past, or when Charles Xavier, while connected to Cerebro, is controlled by Apocalypse, who seeks to destroy all the nuclear weapons of the world powers. Passages able to make us tremble before Apocalypse, which is loose finally : “no More superpower !“. Or of religion, of belief and “false gods ” apparently. This is what lies behind the will of Apocalypse from destroying everything. This first mutant, who considers himself a super-god, straight out of the Bible with its four horsemen, at least it is precisely at the origin of these ancient texts… We would hold something here, but Singer does nothing. This basic storyline that is X-MEN : APOCALYPSE is finally never really developed as it should be.
It’s the same with the use of the Story that serves as backdrops to the film. Unlike the two previous films that dovetail with each other perfectly with their era (the cuban missile crisis of the 1960s, and then the America reactionary and post-Vietnam war 1970s), here, the 1980s and the cold war would lead to nothing. On the contrary, this is only a way to highlight the obvious (suddenly resonating the song The Four Horsemen by Metallica in front of the four warriors of the Apocalypse, normal) or to make jokes, not always sound. As to the output of a projection of the Return of the Jedi where the young mutants are agreed on the fact that the third episode is always the least good. Still stings to Ratner, at least that Singer was aware of the misfire of his own movie. All that in spite of its flaws, the film that suggested Brett Ratner is in compliance with the thematic and dare to at least push the part dramatic, very far, up to remove the iconic characters for one last big show. Quite the opposite of this opus, who, under the leadership of Singer, drags himself with difficulty and plunges to the point of boredom.
Is too long when it comes to reintroducing its main protagonists, is too quick with its new characters, X-MEN : APOCALYPSE, does not even bother to develop actual motivations of the four mutants who will be joining Revelation. A metaphor for a religious manipulation and indoctrination by a prophet that would be overkill ? Not really, since he will have enough to give a little more power on a first come basis (with the exception of Magneto, are given) to get there. We would have liked to see these four riders do something other than the figurative – what good is it to bring Olivia Munn, give him a course of sabre to the limit to three lines of dialogue and two flips ? – up to a final fight, perhaps the only action scene of the film, which will remain almost anecdotal.
And this is not the overall production of Bryan Singer who manages to fill this void. As much as one would apologize almost the kitsch and the bad taste of the director, but see unable to correctly control its setting and some of the camera angles, result in a loss of major super-hero, is hardly acceptable. There is that to take this passage in which are delineated in the distance and in their entirety, Apocalypse and his horsemen. Arms dangling, posed as studs, waiting as us that something is happening. Caught in the middle of an empty space, the actors appear to be necessarily very small and lost in the middle of the part of Singer. Him, which left us astounded before the introduction of’X-men 2 , where a mutant (Diablo) gets into the white house by teleportation successive (re-used rather successfully in Days of Future Past) seems to be a distant memory. Note also that this famous scene, the image of the film, has not taken a ride in over ten years. This is not really the case with these new opus brought about the digital effects to the death – who will resist not a long time for years – that do even more to address the shortcomings of their director. He wanted it, Bryan Singer had his final trilogy, but has not done well. And this famous ” it is always the third one the least good “, to which he did not escape, one would be tempted to respond to him, ” it was better before “.
AGREE ? NOT AGREE ?