X-Men Apocalypse
Dir. Bryan Singer
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Counting all the spin-offs, Apocalypse is the ninth entry in the X-Men franchise. At the turn of the new millennium, the original X-Men pretty much changed the game for superhero movies; at a time when Batman and Robin's ice puns were still seared into the public consciousness, Bryan Singer and Co. literally began a comic book film in a concentration camp. Superhero movies were officially ready to be taken seriously. With no bat-butt zoom-ins to be found. Since then, for the last 16 years we've seen the superhero genre balloon into a behemoth that's pretty much taken over the box office, and throughout that time the X-Men franchise has seen its highs (X2, First Class) and abysmal lows (Origins: Wolverine, The Last Stand). In my opinion, X-Men Apocalypse is pretty middle-of-the-road for the series, not the best and not the worst, and has enough fun moments "for the fans" that it's worth catching on the big screen.
X-Men: Apocalypse takes place in the 1980s, ten years after the events of Days of Future Past, with Professor X (James McAvoy) establishing his School for Gifted Youngsters and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) hiding out in a woodsy cabin in Poland under a new identity. Their paths cross yet again at the awakening of Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), a resurrected ancient all-powerful mutant who really hates the way the world has turned out. In order to destroy humanity and start fresh, he recruits a handful of other mutants to be his "Four Horsemen": the weather-controlling Storm (Alexandra Shipp), the energy-conjuring swords-woman Psylocke (Olivia Munn), the brawler with wings Angel (Ben Hardy), and finally Magneto, who's brought (back) to the dark side after a stirring personal tragedy. To take down Apocalypse and his cohorts, Professor X, along with a rag-tag mixture of students and colleagues including Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Jean Grey (Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner) try to track him down and take him out to save the planet from being annihilated.
The plot is pretty much your standard end-of-the-world scenario, and there's really nothing unique or clever brought to the table with the 1980s setting either, other than a few references here and there to 80s pop culture. It's also strange that, though this film is supposed to take place ten years after the events of Days of Future Past, none of the characters really act or appear ten years older (even Quicksilver is still living in his mom's basement). But despite its dull story and its confusing timeline within the franchise, I still had fun with this movie. It's kind of a mess, but for me it was an entertaining mess.
The weakest link in this film is the titular villain. First off, the extent of his powers is ridiculously vague. I feel like the writers said: "Screw it, just give him all the powers!" Also, poor Oscar Isaac is sadly given a one-note role that's a complete waste of his talent; you can barely even tell it's him buried under layers of goofy-looking rubber prosthetics (it seems more apt that the Power Rangers would save the day than the X-Men). His plan for world domination is also really unclear. If he's all powerful, why does he need to recruit Four Horsemen? Is it just tradition? Is bringing four mutants along for the ride Apocalypse's equivalent of decorating a Christmas Tree? He's just one more on a long list of comic book villains whose plan is simply: destroy the world. The only interesting bad guy here is Magneto, though even his story feels too quickly resolved by the end. The other three are more or less just "there," with Munn's Psylocke purely functioning as eye candy (her "sexy" costume looks especially out of place when she travels, of all places, to Auschwitz).
Overall, X-Men: Apocalypse is kind of a mess, with shoehorned in characters, lifeless CGI destruction, a silly, over-the-top villain, and a continuity that will give a headache to those who have actually been following the X-Men franchise, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I had fun watching it. While some of the performances were lacking (Lawrence, Turner), McAvoy and Fassbender add a considerable amount of dramatic gravitas to their roles, Quicksilver (Evan Peters) yet again steals the show with another brilliant and hilarious action set piece, and the addition of a young Cyclops and Nightcrawler first learning to handle their powers provided some nice moments as well. There were enough individual moments and scenes that worked for me, that I'm willing to forget (maybe not forgive) its shortcomings in the plot department.
Rating: B-
The Nice Guys
Dir. Shane Black
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In 1987, film school grad Shane Black famously sold his script for Lethal Weapon to producer Joel Silver for $250,000. The movie was obviously a huge success, spawning three sequels, and made Black a young talent to watch for. Since then he's pretty much stuck with that same familiar noir-ish style, usually with some kind of kidnapping plot and witty dialogue between two central male figures (Last Boy Scout, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). The Nice Guys follows this same formula, and in a way feels like Black's spiritual successor to LA Confidential - it's a pulpy, convoluted Los Angeles detective story set in the 1970s. It doesn't quite live up to the best of Black's previous work, but overall, the Black-ian camaraderie between the two leads makes up for its faults.
Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a private detective, though not a very good one. Like in The Last Boy Scout, his daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice) has no respect for him as he spends more time getting drunk out of his mind and conning old ladies than solving legitimate mysteries. March is hired to track down a girl named Amelia, but is soon threatened to back off by a for-hire tough guy Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe). However, when they meet again, Healy hires March to help him find Amelia, and despite the fact that during their last encounter his arm was broken, March agrees and together they spiral through a 70s Hollywood underworld full of drugs, porn, and air pollution conspiracies.
While the story seems like an easy set-up for fun antics, the plot becomes incredibly difficult to follow and the mystery ultimately doesn't even matter. We literally have no idea who "Amelia" is for the first 3/4s of the film, which makes the urgency of finding her not that interesting. Whether or not the film works for you depends on your pure interest level in watching these two knuckle-headed "detectives" bumble their way from clue to clue. It's a smaller version of the problems I had with Inherent Vice: there's a cool world and interesting characters presented, but the Big Sleep-inspired confusing story makes it a difficult watch at points.
That being said, I really enjoyed seeing these two actors, known primarily for their dramatic roles, do something with a more comedic bent. Gosling especially delivers an almost Keaton-esque physical comedy performance (his timing during the "bathroom stall" scene is priceless), and portrays pretty much the complete opposite of his super cool, super serious character from Drive - here he's kind of a lovable moron. Russell is also fun to watch as the "straight man" to Gosling's schtick, but has no less of a screen presence. The man has an Oscar for a reason. Their duo is what makes the film work for me, and I'd totally see another film with these two in the lead. While it may not be as tightly written as Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, or even Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys is a nice movie that feels like a breath of fresh air in the CGI-heavy summer movie season.
Rating: B-
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Dir. Nicholas Stoller
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In just about every Seth Rogen movie, he starts out as an unprepared-for-life shlubby man-child who learns to grow up and become an adult. We've seen this with Knocked Up, 50/50, The Night Before, and now the sequel to the comedy hit Neighbors, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Mac Radner (Rogen) and his pregnant wife Kelly (Rose Byrne) are moving out soon, but the sale of their home is threatened when an incoming sisterhood of traveling party animals moves in next door, led by Kappa Nu leader Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz). The couple then turns to their ex-neighbor and previous enemy Teddy (Zac Efron) to help drive the wild sorority off their block, but predictably these ladies won't go down without a fight.
While not being quite as funny as the original, Sorority Rising still delivers a consistent amount of chuckles, and is a lot smarter than your typical college-themed comedy. The film has a decidedly feminist bent, presenting an interesting (and completely true) double standard between fraternities and sororities. Sororities apparently can't hold parties in their own houses, as there's some law regarding many women living in one house being associated with brothels (at one point Selena Gomez literally says 'It's true, Google it.' She might as well have been looking directly into the camera and reciting lines for a PSA) - which funnily enough makes the girls' insane desire to party rooted in a righteous gender battle. The script, co-written by Rogen, balances just the right amount of smart stuff and character development with his typical gross-out, "shock" humor us fans love him for. I liked the direction they took with Efron's character, whose post-college life feels meaningless, the idea of the sorority being important to Shelby because she didn't have friends before college, and the couple's fear of being bad parents.
Neighbors 2 isn't a masterpiece by any means, but for a comedy sequel, there's a surprising amount of growth the characters go through. It's funny, but it also has a sweetness that I can only attribute to Rogen getting older in real life. It's amazing to see where the early 2000s "Apatow" crew has gone over the years: Jonah Hill has been nominated for two Academy Awards, Paul Rudd is a Marvel superhero, and Seth Rogen is strangely one of the most endearing on-screen dads we have right now.
Rating: B
High-Rise
Dir. Ben Wheatley
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High-Rise more or less has the same structure as Snowpiercer, one of my favorite movies of 2014, only instead of a high-speed train, it's a high-rise building. Laing (Tom Hiddleston) is a doctor who has moved into a London skyscraper with the upper classes literally positioned on the top floors, and the lower classes on the bottom. The resentment felt on the lower floors eventually reaches a peak, and soon there's mass-scale chaos, with orgies, looting, murder, etc. After introducing the players in this social commentary, the film simply devolves into an abstract montage of dystopic scenes with no real unifying plot.
High-Rise is unabashedly a pretentious arthouse film that makes no sense on purpose. It's beautifully shot, it has a great soundtrack, the acting is solid, but it's impossible to follow. It's also strange that after all these issues, the tenants don't just exit the building and MOVE OUT. I'm sure there's an artistic reason for this (like it's a metaphor saying you can't ever "leave" a capitalist society, yada yada yada), but a surreal movie like Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel at least clearly presents the idea that its characters can't leave the parlor room, which makes for a captivating oddball satire of the upper class doomed by its own lethargy; in High-Rise the "unable to leave for some reason" phenomena is never acknowledged or remarked upon, making whatever point the director might have intended useless. What makes High-Rise look even worse in my eyes is the deluge of similar movies we've seen recently, whether it's Snowpiercer or even the not-so-great Elysium, both of which were more entertaining and thought-provoking. It's a chore to sit through this movie.
Rating: C-
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