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X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

 
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Custer
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Joined: 22 Aug 2015
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2016 1:07 pm    Post subject: X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Reply with quote



I don't know why Britain has been getting the new movies ahead of the USA recently, but X-Men: Apocalypse is now out here. I read a very negative one-star review in The Times yesterday evening, which put it lower down the scale than Batman versus Superman - but I'd seen it that afternoon, and I rather enjoyed it.

It did strike me as a bit slow, and a bit in love with large-scale CGI-enhanced set pieces, but as a sequel to First Class and the present-day part of Days of Future Past it gave us a lot of the sort of thing fans of those movies would want to see. We get the first appearance of a young Storm, we see Scott Summers have the start of his eye trouble, Psylocke looks excellent in her costume of course, there's Angel, before and after becoming Archangel, and an encouragingly large part for Nightcrawler. Professor Xavier and Magneto have their usual on-again, off-again rivalry/friendship, Havok returns, as does Moira MacTaggert, while Jean Grey develops her psionic powers nicely. And Quicksilver has a larger part this time, including an exhilarating run around a certain well-known school when a bomb is exploding, plucking all the students and teachers to safety just ahead of the blast.

Yes, Stan Lee has his usual cameo, as one of a sequence of people gazing upwards in awe as the nuke-carrying rockets zoom off into the sky - and Hugh Jackman has a cameo too, in his Weapon X costume. I should mention that, if you stay to the very end of the lengthy credits, there is a final sequence, but you may not feel it necessary to wait. The army base where our heroes had a bit of a fight is being cleaned up, and some gentlemen in suits from the Essex Corporation walk in and take a vial of Weapon X serum, in what may well be a lead-in to the next Wolverine tale. I was the only one who stayed that long - the other three people in the audience had departed by then.

The villain, Apocalypse, is a helpful sort of fellow, who usefully boosts the powers of those future X-Men he recruits. True, he is a bit ruthless at times, levelling Cairo and assorted landmarks around the world (I'd recommend avoiding Sydney Opera House, it's always a prime target for such events), so that from the rubble he can build old-style Egyptian monuments. Yes, it's yet another Pyramid Scheme... As in most Hollywood movies, the really evil, ruthless guys are the US military, with Stryker back in charge. The soldiers all get a well-deserved disembowelling, thankfully, except for Stryker himself, whose rallying cry, when things get out of control, is "Be right back..."

Maybe there was a bit much of Apocalypse setting up his plans, and a bit much of Erik's non-Magneto travails, but Mystique was in good form, and Hank McCoy, as himself and as the bouncing Beast, kept things together. Jubilee was around too. Maybe it didn't have to be 144 minutes long, but if you enjoyed X-Men: First Class, you should feel that you are getting value for money here.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2016 8:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Wow, what an excellent review, Custer! I feel prepared to appreciated what the movie is and forgive what it isn't.
Cool
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:05 am; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 3:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I found two very interesting videos about this movie.

Enjoy! Very Happy
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__Go Behind the Scenes of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)


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Watch How the Quicksilver Scene was Filmed in X-Men: Days of Future Past


__________

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____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Good Lord, IMDB has 174 trivia items for this movie! Shocked

Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text. Very Happy
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~ Although not in the movie, Sir Patrick Stewart jokingly informed Bryan Singer that he would be willing to play Mystique, should Jennifer Lawrence "start playing up." He said: "I am so ready to be naked, painted blue, and the world is ready for it too."

Note from me: Frankly this is rather disturbing mental image. I'm certainly glad that Bryan Singer did NOT say, "Make it so!" Shocked

~ (at around 43 mins) When Apocalypse arrives at Storm's home, what is playing on her television is the Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) episode Who Mourns for Adonais?, whose story mirrors Apocalypse's own behavior — a powerful entity who was worshiped as a god on old Earth, then meets modern humans and throws a temper tantrum upon learning that they have no more use for old gods.

Note from me: Boy, somebody was certainly paying attention to the fan-based Easter Eggs in this movie.

~ For the role of Charles Xavier, James McAvoy shaved his head. It was something he had actually done before starting work on X-Men: First Class (2011), before he learned that the producers wanted Xavier to have a full head of hair, forcing him to wear hair extensions.

Note from me: "Well, James, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, you certainly look like a young version of Charles Xavier! Smile The bad news is . . . Xavier had hair when he was young." Sad

~ In the comics, Mystique is the mother of Nightcrawler, and was forced to abandon him, though this is never acknowledged or hinted at in either this film or X2: X-Men United (2003). However, in an outtake, Jennifer Lawrence ad-libbed a line acknowledging Nightcrawler as her son by Azazel; this take is shown in the gag reel.

Note from me: I wonder just how a mutant lady who is a blue shape-shifter managed to have a son who was a teleporter with werewolf-like teeth and a devil's tail? Perhaps the kid took after his father.

And I challenge you folks to try NOT to image what Nightcrawler Sr. and Mystique looked like during their love making! That's a mental image that give me the willies! Shocked

~ This is the first time in the franchise where Mystique's blue body is achieved by other means than applying extensive body paint and prosthetics.

Note from me: "Well, Miss Lawrence, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, we're going turn you blue with CGI instead of using paint. The bad news is . . . we'll have to paint green."
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I picked the items above from the quarter of the list in IMDB. I'll stop here for now and give you folks a chance to add some comments. Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Recently I've been enjoying the Marvel movies I have in my library, in the order they should be watched, and today I made it to this one — the story that comes after X-Man - First Class and Days of Future Past.

The brilliant imagination of all the Marvel movies has always astounded me. The consistency of the story arcs is admirable. While other franchises deteriorate into cheap versions of themselves, the Marvel movies maintain a high standard of quality.

X-Men: Apocalypse, for example, is an example of how the franchise can take the narrative either forward or backward in time and still remain true to the basic principals that the Marvel comics dazzled us with back in the 1960s and 1970.

Somehow, the studio has managed to keep the production standards high and the writing talent fresh — resulting in great movies with budgets in the hundred-million range, and box office takes that exceed a billion dollars!

Imagine what the 1950s would have been like if the clueless studio execs had realized the earning potential of franchises based on great sci-fi films like The Thing from Another World, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This Island Earth, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs the Flying Saucers, and (most of all) Forbidden Planet! Shocked

If only those studio jar heads had known that million-dollar budgets could rakes in billion-dollar profits! Rolling Eyes

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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