Elements that we've seen before resurface in similar ways. Much like the Bond franchise, convention creeps in and takes the sheen off the gloss. But there is a point in the film where things get a bit too familiar. As a fan boy with a stickler for continuity, this was great to see. We're taken to familiar settings and discover them anew with the characters. Simon Kinberg's script draws heavily from the previous films. As Armageddon becomes a stark reality, Xavier's students are the only mutants powerful enough to face the threat. His plan requires four agents of destruction, the mythical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Leaving a world of only the strongest mutant survivors. His disgust for man's arrogance leads to one conclusion. The detente is shattered when the first mutant, En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), awakens after thousands of years. She crusades to save her kind from the worst exploitation, while Charles Xavier's (James McAvoy) school for mutants has flourished. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) has become an icon to disaffected mutants. The story picks up ten years later in 1983. Everyone has a favorite walking in, but just as he did in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Quicksilver (Evan Peters) runs away with this film. Even though we're introduced to the core X-Men as teenagers, they are supremely familiar to us.

There's a mountain of history on screen for these characters.

Director Bryan Singer and three-time X-Men screenwriter Simon Kinberg do a fantastic job weaving together all of the films into a cohesive storyline. Some parts are excellent, truly magnificent to see, while others fall prey to convention and formula. X-Men: Apocalypse is a solidly entertaining film that doesn't quite reach the lofty heights of Captain America: Civil War.

X men apocalypse film review