The early reviews for Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse are pretty, well, apocalyptic. The latest film in the X-Men mutant universe is sporting a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer as of this writing, and garnering quite a bit of negativity. Among the most scathing negativity is a review by Forbes reviewer Scott Mendelson, who labels the film a “franchise-killing disaster” right on the title.
Scott blames the lack of character development and weak story for the movie’s poor rating, saying that the other three Horsemen not named Magneto “are walking action figures, with no character development and no substantive screen time.” His most vicious blurb, however, is a low blow even by my standards: “It is the nadir of the franchise, determined to make you apologize for every mean thing you’ve ever said about Brett Ratner’s rushed X-Men trilogy capper a decade ago. X-Men: The Last Stand is X2: X-Men United compared to X-Men: Apocalypse.” If anyone ever says a film makes X-Men: The Last Stand look good, you have to wonder.
I personally have my own reservations with the choices made for the Horsemen, but continuity changes for cinematic purposes are acceptable, in my opinion, so long as they’re done well. Scott’s take on the movie suggests that this was not the case.
X-Men: Apocalypse opens overseas on May 18th; it will not open in the U.S. until March 27th, the start of Memorial Day weekend.
