[5.8/10] This episode was pretty empty. We get it. Apocalypse is big and bad. He needs more in the way of character than just unleashing faux-poetic villain monologues all the time. He’s more of a collection of design choices and a booming voice than a legitimate antagonist thus far.
I do like the idea that in a world divided into mutants and humans, he despises both and wants to wipe them all out, which at least gives him a different rationale than magneto or the other baddies we’ve encountered so far. The fact that even Xavier declares he can't be reasoned with and instead simply must be stopped does differentiate him a little.
But his flavorless, same-y attacks on various international locales did little for me. His horseman looked pretty silly with their green screen and multi-colored horses. Arcangel at least has an interesting backstory and cool looking powers after his transformation, but even he comes off a little generic for most of his mind control.
As with the last episode, the only really interesting thing here is Rogue. I like her tracking down Mystique to get to the bottom of what really happened with Dr. Adler’s “treatment.” ANd likewise, her managing to free Arcangel by absorbing some of the “evil” inside him from fake Adler’s machine is a a character beat that shows her willingness to sacrifice her well-being for the greater good, and have to live with the consequences
There’s something mildly rousing about Apocalypse making his usual bluster about being undefeatable, only for the X-Men to show up en masse and fight him into submission. But him, Mystique, and the other villains simply being able to get away comes off pretty cheesy.
Overall, this is a middling introduction to one of the X-Men’s major antagonists at best, with a lot of homogenized fight scenes and not much in the way of xcitement despite that.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-04-13T22:38:25Z
[5.8/10] This episode was pretty empty. We get it. Apocalypse is big and bad. He needs more in the way of character than just unleashing faux-poetic villain monologues all the time. He’s more of a collection of design choices and a booming voice than a legitimate antagonist thus far.
I do like the idea that in a world divided into mutants and humans, he despises both and wants to wipe them all out, which at least gives him a different rationale than magneto or the other baddies we’ve encountered so far. The fact that even Xavier declares he can't be reasoned with and instead simply must be stopped does differentiate him a little.
But his flavorless, same-y attacks on various international locales did little for me. His horseman looked pretty silly with their green screen and multi-colored horses. Arcangel at least has an interesting backstory and cool looking powers after his transformation, but even he comes off a little generic for most of his mind control.
As with the last episode, the only really interesting thing here is Rogue. I like her tracking down Mystique to get to the bottom of what really happened with Dr. Adler’s “treatment.” ANd likewise, her managing to free Arcangel by absorbing some of the “evil” inside him from fake Adler’s machine is a a character beat that shows her willingness to sacrifice her well-being for the greater good, and have to live with the consequences
There’s something mildly rousing about Apocalypse making his usual bluster about being undefeatable, only for the X-Men to show up en masse and fight him into submission. But him, Mystique, and the other villains simply being able to get away comes off pretty cheesy.
Overall, this is a middling introduction to one of the X-Men’s major antagonists at best, with a lot of homogenized fight scenes and not much in the way of xcitement despite that.