X MenApocalypse review: does Bryan Singer's mutant civil war pack a punch?  

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filled us with a bit of trepidation. With a gigantic cast - including many new, young members - a world-ending plot and a heavily made-up villain, would director Bryan Singer\'s fourth

The film avoids that trap - but at times it\'s a close call.

kicks off in 3,600 BC during the reign of Oscar Isaac\'s not-quite-titular villain En Sabah Nur (who unlike in the comics is never gauche enough to call himself \'Apocalypse\'). Things go wrong for the superpowered would-be god, and he finds himself trapped underground until he is finally released into "the horror show" of 1983 (writer Simon Kinberg\'s words, not ours).

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, and we find ourselves in an alternate 1980s where the existence of mutants is a fact of everyday life. James McAvoy\'s Xavier is busy running his school, Michael Fassbender\'s Magneto has a family and is living a \'normal life\', and Jennifer Lawrence\'s Mystique is a long-lost hero who still keeps an eye out for mistreated mutants on the down low.

And of course, when Apocalypse rises, everything goes to hell and mighty mutants must decide whose side they\'re on.

From the outset the film looks beautiful, starting out with the alien and intricately detailed ancient-Egyptian setting and switching to a sharply designed \'80s backdrop. Someone clearly had a whale of a time designing this film and giving it a palpable John Hughes flavour (which surely can never be a bad thing).

is more of a mixed bag, with the first two acts stuffed with multiple narratives. At its best it feels ambitious, and at worst overreaching. Magneto gets a satisfyingly emotional (and bitterly tragic) arc, and Isaac, as Apocalypse, shines as a man trapped in a world he did not make, but other stories are truncated or lost in the wash. A midpoint interlude offers a sweet cameo and character moment, but time could have been better used to develop the huge cast.

that a bumper lineup can work, but they were working with established characters and, of Singer\'s many newbies, the three non-Magneto horsemen Storm, Angel and Psylocke get short shrift and almost no lines after they are introduced.

But all is not lost, as Singer cracks out some great performances to keep things on track (not to mention an effortless gender balance to shame Marvel and DC). Fassbender\'s tortured Magneto is heartbreaking, the 25-year-old Lawrence makes a thoroughly convincing elder mutant statesman, and

\' Sophie Turner rises above her iffy American accent and really comes into her own as Jean Grey in the thoroughly entertaining third act.

Evan Peters puts in another show-stealing performance as Quicksilver (someone give him a solo movie already) and, despite all our fears, Isaac - fresh from his starring turn in the 

universe - overcomes the curse of the heavily made-up comic book villain to inject some personality into Apocalypse, to the point where we found ourselves agreeing with (some of) the (megalomaniacal) things he had to say.

In practical terms, Apocalypse\'s threat works better as a personal than a global one. The finale is set in a strangely empty world - but that does let the heroes\' conflicts play out on a less-cluttered canvas. Throw in some exciting setup for the inevitable future films - including an intriguing new team of young X-Men we\'ll be more than happy to see again - and the movie reaches a nerdgasmic pace that is a gratifying payoff for the chaotic early acts.

, but it has a messy charm all of its own, and maintains the quality set by the post-

films. With a new team of young X-Men standing by, the future\'s still looking bright for the franchise.

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Oscar Isaac, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Olivia Munn; 

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