If Only It Were The End... "X-Men: Apocalypse"

X-Men Apocalypse (2016) 

Rated PG-13

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Lucas Till, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, Olivia Munn,

Directed by Bryan Singer

The Story:

En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse (Isaac) was the first mutant, he stole his powers from others like him and made himself powerful and immortal. Buried for centuries in Egypt, he is awakened in the 20th century and begins to find his new horsemen, including Magneto (Fassbender), Storm (Shipp), Angel (Hardy) and Psylocke (Munn).  It's up to Professor Xavier (McAvoy), Mystique (Lawrence) and Beast (Hoult) to recruit and lead a new team of X-Men, including Jean Grey (Turner), Cyclops (Sheridan) and Nightcrawler (Smit-McPhee) into battle to save the world

Boring.

No wait, this is a superhero movie...

Super-boring!

The one exception: the Quicksilver (Peters) scene. That's amazing stuff, and I could watch that anytime. I wish they would have done that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but oh well, too late now.

I'm not trying to pick on Fox and say that the X-Men should move back to Disney so that we can have one cohesive universe...

But if they're listening, they should.

:)

But at least, unlike the Fantastic Four, they've been moderately successful with the movies, especially after rebooting with First Class and Days of Future Past.

I'm not sure what went wrong but I found myself consistently indifferent to this movie.

I wanted to like it, but it seemed to be in a constant state of "there's so much going on, yet nothing's really happening!" for nearly 2 1/2 hours!

So much potential, and instead it's like watching a franchise tread water until they can get to the next movie.

I'm afraid I have to say it, but when I look back on how much I enjoyed this to just about any other film in the X-Men experience, I'm unimpressed.

Plus, take into account how much I love this genre, and what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is doing, so much like Batman vs. Superman, I have to grade accordingly...

Final Grade: D+

The Truth Is Always Stranger Than Fiction..."Elvis & Nixon"

Elvis & Nixon (2016)

Rated R

Starring Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Knoxville, Colin Hanks, Evan Peters

Directed by Liza Johnson

The Story:

December, 1970... That morning, Elvis (Shannon) came up to the White House gates hoping to meet President Nixon (Spacey).  The picture taken at the end of their encounter is the most requested photograph in the National Archives.

This is a story of the meeting that almost didn't happen.

It all begins when Elvis decides he wants to be an undercover Federal Agent.

His idea, see the President, get the credentials, and begin working for the government.

Nixon, on the other hand, was scheduled for his afternoon nap at the time Elvis was to be cleared to see him.

Surreal, of that there is no doubt.

While Shannon doesn't attempt to go full-on Elvis, he gets enough of the speech and mannerisms down that you buy the performance.

Then there is Spacey, possibly the best chameleon actor of this (or any) generation, and again, he becomes Nixon right before your eyes.

While everything you see on screen may not have actually happened, they have enough evidence of the main points to wrap the story together nicely, filling in the dialogue that could have happened to get to that point.

It's fascinating. It's fun.

And in today's political climate, it almost makes you miss the good old days of Nixon.

: )

I watched it on DVD from Netflix, but it is now currently streaming on Amazon Prime as of this writing.

Final Grade: B