Clearly trying to capitalize on the “end of an era” marketing that helped propel Avengers: Endgame into the box-office – and favorable-review – stratosphere, but instead making the problems found in X-Men: Apocalypse even worse, this final, quasi-origins installment of the mutant franchise is sorely lacking in heart, humor, depth and, ultimately, viewer satisfaction. It’s …
Set in the year 2029 – when, apparently, nothing (not technology, not clothes, not cars, etc.) really looks any different than it does in 2017 – the film centers on an aging, no-longer-as-sharp-as-he-used-to-be-Logan (Hugh Jackman), who’s traded saving the world for being a glorified Uber driver, drunkenly shuttling newlyweds, coeds and the filthy rich around, …
The X-Men universe keeps on keepin’ on, and going in multiple directions and back again, it seems to have a never-ending universe. Characters first introduced in Bryan Singer’s first X-Men film in 2000, including Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and Ian McKellan’s Magneto, have now morphed (reverted?) into the younger James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, respectively. …
The formula is so simple – great actors playing great characters in a great film with great effects and a really great screenplay – that’s it’s amazing so many films get it wrong at this time of year. But X-Men: Days of Future Past gets it so very very right. Jumping back and forth in time, …
It is with much sadness and regret that I bestow a mere four slices on this latest installment of the X-Men franchise. After the stellar X2: X-Men United, I was so looking forward to another round of action and misadventure from my favorite mutants but, instead, wound up sitting through a flashy, sloppy, hollow spectacle …
I’ll admit that I walked into the press screening—an experience that was complete with a bag search and metal detectors!—a little skeptical. I’d seen the original X-Men movie and was impressed but not blown away, so I wondered if this sequel would live up to the first film, surpass it or leave me mightily disappointed. …
I grew up stealing peeks at my dad’s old X-Men comics, those glory-days of the 1960’s, long before Wolverine came on the scene. In high school, I suppose I became too “grown-up” for comics anymore, and stopped reading X-Men. This may have been a mistake, but at least it allowed me to come into the …
Packed as much with action and special effects as it is rich in story and detail for fans and newbies alike, X-Men: First Class delivers a summer-movie experience more on par with X2 than the muddled and tepid X-Men: The Last Stand. And, as far as origins stories go, this one is pretty great. Set …
Unlike the Origins offering, this movie sets its action in present day and after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, with a bereaved Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) living as a recluse in a mountain cave and tormented by the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who alternates between love and hate when she appears to …
Chronicling, as the title makes clear, the “origins” of Logan/Wolverine and his long-standing love/hate relationship with his increasingly ferocious brother, Victor “Sabretooth” Creed (Liev Schreiber), the film covers all the mythological bases. How the fellas came to discover their abilities. What they did with them from the 1840s through almost-present day. How they came to …