X-Men: Apocalypse

The recursiveness of these movies is starting to take over the whole franchise. Indeed, maybe it has become the entire point of the exercise. The constant back and forth through time; shifting allegiances as characters move from villain to hero and back again--and maybe back again; the neverending origin-izing, of characters, characteristics, relationships; and the inevitable cameo by everyone’s by-far favorite manly X-Man...An actual plot to the movie almost becomes superfluous to the assemblage of all the things that make the franchise the franchise. Oh, yeah, and it also has the now-standard superhero-movie traits of all-life-as-we-know-it in peril and global destruction depicted with almost porn-fetish detail. So is this a bad movie? No, it has its upsides, too: some very, very good actors bringing dimensions to this story cycle that would otherwise be absent (though Oscar Isaac is largely wasted through being buried under his costuming); a certain amount of “cool” factor that remains even after it should have long since played out; and, in particular, one sequence in the movie--Quicksilver’s star turn at Xavier’s school--that is so well done that it almost makes watching this flick worth the effort all by itself. Bottom line: it’s possible that this well is just about dry now, but if this entry shows up on your favorite premium channel, you won’t regret watching it