Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JUNE 15-21, 2016 UCW 19 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Apoca-Licious X-Men: Apocolypse (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS "X-Men: Apocalypse (144 minutes) wasn't as bad as everyone says," my friend Amy helpfully informed me. She got to see the show opening night and was filling me in. "Is there an after credits sequence?" I asked her. "Oh. Yeah," she replied. "It was stupid. It was about some corporation. I can't remember. And it was so short everyone left in the theater was mad." At that point, I started rapid-firing X-Universe names at her while she stared at me, trying to figure out why she was even friends with me. And because I know she reads these, Amy, the name of the corporation gave away a very important clue about a major villain in the next X-Universe movie. So there. I generally don't read reviews until after I write my own, but I somehow always know which films are getting a bad rap before I sit down to watch them. In this case, the bad reviews are most likely a case of haters hating. It isn't easy to condense that much comic book history into a manageable story — but screenwriter Simon Kinberg did a bang-up job. It wasn't the comic's story, but it couldn't be the comic's story and still make sense. For example, Psylocke (Olivia Munn) has the awesome purple costume and psychic knife without the confusing back story of how she is actually a British prep school girl magically turned into a Japanese ninja assassin with bionic eyes. The story begins B.C.E. with the entombment of En Sabah Nur (Oscar Issac). Fast-forward to 1983, and Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is watching an underground mutant cage fight. As it turns out, she is not there to enjoy the show, but to liberate the oppressed. Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is attempting to survive an encounter with Warren Worthington III/Angel (Ben Hardy), so the filmmakers have stopped even trying to reconcile the new trilogy with the original. You might argue that Wolverine's time traveling shifted some things around, but I don't see how that could have resulted in Angel being born about 30 years earlier than his first appearance in X-Men: The One That Shall Not be Named. Elsewhere, Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) is in Egypt, and is basically responsible for awakening Apocalypse. Aside: Remember how creepily inappropriate it was when Charles Xavier/Professor X erased her mind? How it was a total violation of her mental integrity and emotional autonomy? How it removed her agency in the most patriarchal way possible? Yeah, apparently neither of them remembers it that way. When they reunite and she gets her memories back it results, not in a roundhouse punch, but in schmoopy glances. Once awake, Apocalypse starts looking around for the strongest mutants he can find, because "survival of the fittest" is sort of his thing. He finds Ororo Munroe/Storm (Alexandra Shipp). He also recruits Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender). In a move that makes very little sense if he is looking for the strongest mutants, he then recruits Psylocke and Angel. He spends the rest of the movie dressing them up in fitted body armor, reminiscent of classic Chris Claremont-era '80s X-Men fetish uniforms. Overall, there are enough insider references to please die-hard comic book fans, and the story is condensed enough not to confuse those who only follow the X-Universe films. There are more than a few plot holes/script issues, but the main players elevate the material into something really worth watching. Now playing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. C APE FEAR RE GIONAL THEA TRE PRESENTS 2016-2017 PATRON & SEASON TICKETS ON SALE NOW! For Tickets: Visit cfrt.org or Call 910.323.4233 All Seats All Shows All Day $1.50 "Except Holidays & 3D Movies" $1.50 Drink $1.50 Popcorn BUY ONE MOVIE TICKET GET ONE FREE! Expries 7/15/16 MOVIE MONDAYS everyday special Please visit our website for movies and show times HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200.