It’s a bit of bad timing for “X-Men: Apocalypse” to arrive third in this summer’s superhero lineup. While battles between heroes are an X-Men tradition, warring among the ranks is also at the heart of both “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Captain America: Civil War.”
Like similarly dressed beauties in celebrity magazines, it becomes a case of who wears the plot to better effect, even though that’s an unfair burden on a film that ultimately brings a satisfying conclusion to the rebooted X-Men trilogy.
And though its ensemble includes Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and an unrecognizable Oscar Isaac (Poe from “Star Wars”), the new “X-Men” can’t match the magic of the latest Avengers movie, with its multiple characters carefully developed over a dozen films. “Apocalypse” is also a prequel, so we already know who survives.
Still, director Bryan Singer invigorates the new film with vintage 1980s charm in an origin story about how the mutant supergroup unites and divides in response to the awakening of Apocalypse.
And the film is fun in its own right, with its grand scope and great special effects, and it doesn’t require a viewer’s knowledge of its predecessors to be enjoyed, even if those who already know the characters get an even bigger payoff.
As hinted at during the credits for 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” Apocalypse is a super-powered mutant who can transfer his essence from one being to another. He was revered as a god in a prior existence millennia ago.
Resurrected from dormancy in 1983, Apocalypse is disgusted at the state of the world. He wants to wipe out greedy, intolerant humans and restore the mutants to deified status. And he magnifies the power of any mutant who sides with him.
Meanwhile, Professor X (James McAvoy) has renewed his focus on his School for Gifted Children, where Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) are among the students learning to control their powers.
The professor’s friend and rival, Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Fassbender), has put aside his mutant powers to live as a family man in Poland. But when personal tragedy strikes, he goes on a destructive binge.
Magneto and other disillusioned mutants — including Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy) and Psylocke (Olivia Munn) — join forces with Apocalypse. Professor X and his protégés — including Raven/Mystique (Lawrence) and fellow blue person Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) — unite to try to stop them.
A muscular, mutton-chopped X-Man, here referred to as Weapon X, isn’t part of the fight, but provides some thrills in a brief, shirtless cameo.
McAvoy is all charm as Professor X. Fassbender brings gravitas to Magneto. Lawrence, though, comes across as if she might be tired of big franchise fare.
The standouts, in both character and performance, are Jean Gray and Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver (Evan Peters). Gray seems even more confident and powerful here than when Famke Janssen played her in the previous and subsequent chapters in the “X-Men” chronology, and she utters the movie’s best self-referential barb. In speaking of trilogies, she says, “At least we can all agree the third one’s always the worst.”
Peters shines as Quicksilver, a dorky-cool, ultra-’80s Marty McFly who provides playful comedy as well as zippy action sequences. Magneto also inspires awesome special-effects action, imploding and pulverizing historic sites.
Simon Kinberg’s screenplay includes some lame lines at key moments (“He thought that you were going to make a difference in this world, maybe even change it”). But otherwise, his script keeps the story’s movement brisk and its back stories clear.
Even if the Avengers wore their plot a tad better, the X-Men are doing just fine.
‘X-Men: Apocalypse’
* * ½
Rating: PG-13 (sequences of violence, action and destruction, brief strong language, suggestive images)
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Lawrence
Director: Bryan Singer
Running time: 2 hours, 24 minutes