REVIEW: X-Men Apocalypse (12A)

The X-Men reunite for a final foray to conclude the Bryan Singer trilogy started by X-Men First Class and then, by default, meets up almost with the 2000 smash hit X-Men. X-Men (2000) was a movie that redefined superhero movies as genuinely good movies... rather just an exercise in punching baddies and over powered people in brightly coloured suits. Unlike that particular part three, X-Men: The Last Stand, this trilogy's conclusion is well, how shall I put it? First class.

Well balanced with chatty exposition and interspersed with action, this movie continues 10 years on from the 70's to 1983. Various X-Men are doing their thang - Erik Lensherr (aka Magneto) is now earning a living in Poland and is a family man. A number of mutants are still fretting about their place in the world including a girl in Egypt who can control the elements and another lady who sports an amazing latex purple outfit. 

The movie starts though many years before - in fact in Egyptian times - where some dude with powers (we discover is Apocalypse very shortly into the movie) is getting on a bit. In order to keep him living forever he must take the life force of a younger, stronger person - human or mutant, to continue on. Apparently if he snaffled a mutant he also gains their abilities. A suitable host is found - a very unconscious Poe Dameron (Oscar Isacc) who draws the short straw and gets shlucked up by the evil megalomaniac. I'm joking, it's not Poe Dameron but is certainly the same actor. Even back then he has four horsemen and some of the people take umbrage to this shucking of people's souls or whatever it is so end up destroying the place he is performing the ritual and he's buried under rocks until some silly people on 1983 decide to bring him back. Once he returns the quest is on for him to find four powerful mutants to take on the world as his four horsemen.

Meanwhile some lad is having problems at school with his eyesight, goes to the toilet and zaps the wall with his eyes - so his brother Alex, take him to Professor Xavier's school for the gifted to help him control his eye lasers. This is where we meet most of the others including Jean Grey (Sophie Hunter - Sansa from Game of Thrones), Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicolas Hoult reprising his role) and a Chinese girl  I would put money on is Jubilee but is never name checked. 

Mystique returns and is out and about and discovers Angel and Nightcrawler and that is pretty much the main selection of characters. Until Quicksilver appears too. Other mutants are referenced or mentioned with one notable cameo; but the roster, as you can see is huge. For all there are many of the it does a good job of trying to balance them all. Sadly the new additions to the roster - like Storm, Psylocke and Angel aren't very well developed and Storm is never mentioned by name. Nightcrawler is great comic relief but it's hard to take him seriously with a very stereotypical German accent and a jacket right out of a Michael Jackson music video.

Jean Grey is played well by Sophie Turner, at times looking like she's raided Dr Beverly Crusher's wardrobe for inspiration. McAvoy and Fassbender are great as usual and they have settled into their characters well and made the characters as believable in their younger years as Stewart and McKellan have in their later ones.

As the film approaches it climax, it does not disappoint. The film is great and I really enjoyed this one. My only complaint was that some of the dialogue was very predictable. For example there seem to be a lot of sentences with a long pause in the middle of then and you just knew what they were going to say.

Unlike Prometheus, which seemed to shoe horn the aliens reference in within 10 minutes in the end of the film, this movie is different. Singer seems to have really thought out the links to his original movie so it all goes together. This is Singers episodes 1,2,3 and they are all really very good movies. Maybe this one is the worst of the three but saying it like that does not mean it is a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination.  Overall, a strong conclusion to the latest X-Trilogy and will be up there with the best.

X-Men Apocalypse is out now at all good cinemas.

POPSCORE: 8/10

What am I talking about? X-Men: Apocalypse movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/x-men-apocalypse
If you liked this try: Any of the other X Men Movies really

Anything else?

This has the biggest cast of heroes yet.
This movie is not officially part of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) because the movie rights currently belong to Fox.
It's on for quite a long time - nearly 2hrs and 30 minutes!

REVIEW: The Revenant (15)

The Revenant stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and the lad out of The Maze Runner (Will Poulter) in this epic piece of cinematography. As I said in my Twitter tweet, this movie can best be described in three words - gripping, gritty and ... gory.

 Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a legendary explorer who is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by his team. Leaving only his son, fellow officer Fitzgerald (Hardy) and young scout Bridger (Will Poulter) behind to look after him during his final days, Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) promises riches if they look after the supposedly dying Glass. After killing Glass' mixed heritage son in front of him and tricking Bridger, he leaves Glass partially buried in a shallow grave to die in the wilderness and to claim his riches. However, what he didn't bank on was the indomitable human spirit that burns within and gives Glass the strength to carry on and try to avenge his son's death.

The movie is an epic one, and you need to be strapped in for the long haul at a run time of 156 minutes you definitely need to stock up on the popcorn. Two parts Lord of the Rings, one part Castaway and a sprinkling of The Grey, the movie features some delicious scenery and some amazing cinematography. The brutalness of the movie is both proving a point and hard hitting. The animals are wither needlessly slaughtered or are killing each other in earnest, or the humans are doing the same thing too. Everything is dangerous in the movie and the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, puts the camera right in the middle of the action which sometimes feels a little too real. In this movie alone I see two horses killed - one by a man shooting it and another when it plunges off a cliff, and the bear attack on Glass which I've mentioned above. the bear attack is very graphic and sustained and is one of those things that will be etched on my memory as a memorable scene in a movie.

The cast is strong here - Tom Hardy is a fantastic character in this. Hardy's Fitzgerald is suitably ruthless and has no morals whatsoever, and even his final line in the movie is just as heartless as his actions have been. DiCaprio's Glass spends much of the film injured and trying to survive - mostly this brings tensions and a "how will he escape this?" but the movie is on for so long that sometimes the crawling and limping get a bit too much and you wish they skip a few days until he gets better so he can walk properly again. There is actually one sequence where DiCaprio has fallen into a freezing river and is holding onto a piece of wood, and I briefly worried for him after what happened in Titanic, but luckily Rose wasn't there and he got safely to the shore.

Overall the film is well made, has a fantastic cast and the scenery is fantastic. The music is effective but the story is not clear. I only knew that Glass was an explorer by reading the blurb for the movie, the movie just gets right into it form the get go without going too much into back story. The only other grumble is that it's on for a long time and feels a little drawn out in places. Other than that it's a solid movie that is deserving the plaudits it's getting.

The Revenant comes out on 15th January 2016 and is on at all good cinemas.

POPSCORE: 7.5/10 

What am I talking about? The Revenant film

Where can I find out more? http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-revenant

If I you liked this try: The Grey, The Patriot, Whiteout, Lord of the Rings (if you like nice scenery and lots of roaming about) 

Anything else?

This movie has already won Golden Globe awards and is gunning for some Oscar goodness too - but will it glean Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar?
This movie is apparently based on a true story - well some of it anyway.
Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio have been in a movie together before - in Christopher Nolan's awesome movie Inception.