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 Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (15)

For those of you that know me, I have a few film rules - any movie that is two words long starting with "The" as the first word and any movies that have a sentence for a title immediately start my alarm bells ringing on the quality of the forthcoming movie. other things that worry me is sequels with the same characters but different casts playing them or a production company I've never heard of. Luckily, the "directed by M. Night Shayamalan" proviso has been removed as you may have seen an earlier post on this blog. In it, I actually thought his last movie, The Visit, wasn't that bad.

So already the film has warning bells ringing as it's practically a sentence for a title. But, unlike She's Having a Baby or The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain (or whatever it was called) the title of the movie sounds actually quite fun. And you know what? The film was fun too.

The film is all about three teenage lads who are all scouts. Ridiculed for still being in the scouts at nearly college age, the trio try to fit in. However when Augie is to be promoted to getting his Condor badge (whatever that is in Scout talk!), the three go camping to celebrate and to be awarded his badge from the rather strange Scout Leader Rodgers (David Koechner) - a man who has all the hallmarks of Ranger Smith from Yogi Bear and a penchant for Dolly Parton. The three lads - Ben, Carter and Augie are basically stereotypical teenagers - think the Goonies without Data. Ben is more of a leader type, wanting the girl and torn between the difficult friendships between the other two. Carter is just a typical teenager desperate to throw away his childhood, and see as much boobies and sex as possible. And Augie, the one who's desperately holding onto the Scouts and his childhood and is the geeky one, and the one who is cramping Carter's style. Along for the ride when things get a bit difficult is Denise, a kick ass blonde lady who works in a strip club called *ahem* Lawrence of Alabia. Her vocation it turns out, as she cocks a shotgun, is that she is a cocktail waitress and not a stripper.

Still there is plenty of body parts and gore and blood in this crazy tale of a town ridden with infected zombies. The start of the movie locks you in for what's in store as a stoner janitor enters a laboratory and accidently reanimates a dead person by falling onto some equipment and starts a zombie infestation. When the town is over run with zombies, its up to the three Scouts to use their uncanny scouting skills to help them save the town.

The violence is bloody and stupid at the same time and the movie itself is like a mish mash of others I'd seen before. If you stuck Shaun of the Dead in a blender with say, the Goonies, Ghostbusters and World War Z and siphoned it through a sieve, you would probably be metaphorically doing something as stupid as this film. It's nowhere near as good as those films mentioned just now but it is a different take on the zombie movie. It's fun, it's stupid and it passes the time. There are some generally laugh out loud bits - like zombie cats and some interesting uses of music in the movie - especially to Britney and Dolly, but it was never going to be a blockbuster. There are some silly moments too - all I'm saying is the trampoline scene - and this pretty much rounds off the whole movie.

Overall it was a fair attempt at the zombie genre - and an enjoyable watch. One for the lads or for some light hearted buffoonery. There's plenty more movies that are way better - but it's just good enough to spend some time with. Check it out and let me know what you think.

The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is out now at all good cinemas.

POPSCORE: 6.5/10

What am I talking about? The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

Where can I find out more? http://scoutsandzombiemovie.com
If you liked this try: The Goonies, World War Z, Shaun of the Dead, This Is The End