Singer jumps at this second chance to establish the characters he first brought to the screen 16 years ago, unleashing new powers and revisiting old stories with typical invention. This is when he and the film are easily at their strongest, when they’re actually telling a story.

The script is mostly cack. Winces abound from the dialogue and Apocalypse is a fascinating character wasted. His power is awe-inspiring but mostly meaningless for our heroes, and the motivation for his Horsemen to suddenly commit global genocide is flimsy at best.

Apocalypse is so desperate to get your attention it forgets to earn it.

Quicksilver has some fun slo-mo moments, Wolverine has a brief appearance more embarrassing than Origins, and the apocalypse (nearly) happens (again). It’s just another excuse for an X-Men film.

RATING: 2/5

INFORMATION

CAST: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan

DIRECTOR: Bryan Singer

WRITER: Simon Kinberg (screenplay); Bryan Singer, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris (story)

SYNOPSIS: With the re-emergence of the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse (Issac), the X-Men must unite to defeat his extinction-level plan.

A preview screening of X-Men: Apocalypse was kindly provided by 20th Century Fox and FDA Multimedia.