‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ a thinking person’s action movie

Apocalypse’ a thinking person’s action movie Neither resting on formula nor audience goodwill, the “X-Men” series is going deeper and getting better as it goes along. The first title card — 3600 B.C.E. — brings a mild feeling of oh-no-must-we-go-there, but this evaporates virtually from the first shot, as we realize that director Bryan Singer intends to do this for real. Singer illustrates the passage of time from ancient days through the late 20th century by catapulting the viewer through a twisting corridor, in which we see glimpses of the crucifixion, Renaissance art, the rise of Naziism and the emergence of the Cold War. [...] we arrive in the promising era of the 1980s. [...] Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is living happily and anonymously, as a family man and factory worker in Poland. Every action movie needs a villain, but not just any old villain with a vague desire to take over the world, or cause destruction, or take revenge. A villain needs a rationale, a philosophy, a highly-developed conviction that he’s right, as well some twisted logic that lets us understand how he’s thinking. Civil War, we soon have two teams of individuals, each with what could be called super powers, fighting each other. [...] “Civil War” gave us a weak situation in which no one was wrong, little was at stake, and the consequences were mild. In most superhero movies, trying to kill each other would mean scenes of characters throwing each other around. Jennifer Lawrence is such a strong presence that it’s only when the movie is over that one realizes that her character, Mystique, serves a secondary function here. Apocalypse as a thinking person’s action movie.