X-Men: Apocalypse (2D) [Blu-Ray] 
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence
Release Date: October 4, 2016
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 8.5/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10
Synopsis:
OSCAR® Winner Jennifer Lawrence*, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy lead a powerhouse cast in director Bryan Singer’s extraordinary follow-up to X-Men: Days of Future Past. After thousands of years, Apocalypse – the world’s first and most powerful mutant – has awakened to find a world led by humans. Intent on cleansing the Earth of mankind, he recruits a group of mutants to create a new world order. In a desperate race to save humanity, Professor X (McAvoy) leads the young X-Men in an epic showdown – against an unstoppable enemy – that will determine the fate of the world.
The follow-up to the acclaimed ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’; ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ rejoins the younger versions of Charles Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Beast, and Quicksilver, along with some other returning heroes in addition to some newcomers including Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm and more as the now mostly defunct X-Men have been largely divided and the Xavier Institute now operates solely as a school. But when an immortal mutant known as Apocalypse with powers unlike anything they could have fathomed is accidentally unleashed from his long time prison, our heroes will have to put their differences aside and once again do their best to work together as teammates if they stand any hope of stopping Apocalypse and his four powerful followers including Magneto before they accomplish their intended task and subsequently cause the extinction of our world.
Directed once again by Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2, X-Men: Days of Future Past) from a script penned by Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Days of Future Past), Singer does an outstanding job at the helm of ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ delivering a breathtaking and explosive film that proves he is equally capable at guiding the new franchise cast. The film certainly also owes its share of credit to the talented cast which contains both a number of returning individuals and newcomers to the franchise including James McAvoy (Wanted), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games franchise), Nicholas Hoult (Jack The Giant Slayer), Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Rose Byrne (Insidious), Sophie Turner (TV’s Game of Thrones), Tye Sheridan (Mud), Evan Peters (TV’s American Horror Story), and many more, all of whom deliver solid performances in each of their respective roles.
After flawlessly connecting both the world he introduced in X-Men and X2 and that which was introduced in the Matthew Vaughn directed X-Men: First Class in the spectacular X-Men: Days of Future Past (which is likely the best film in the franchise(s) to date), director Bryan Singer now concentrates his efforts entirely on the younger cast of characters initially introduced in First Class with the latest installment ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ and the result is an explosive, emotionally powerful and visually mesmerizing ride that any X-fan won’t dare to miss out on. Including numerous returning fan favorite characters as well as introducing (and reintroducing) some notable newcomers, the film manages to form together into a fantastic next chapter in the ongoing universe that offers long time franchise director Bryan Singer an opportunity to display his capability at continuing at the helm with the new franchise cast members. Managing to attain an even greater sense of danger and threat than the previous entries and offering no shortage of spectacular sequences filled with destruction and wonder, not to mention some of the most impressive action sequences the franchise has yet to offer, it’s a thrilling treat from start to finish. While you may find some differing opinions on the latest entry in the X-Men universe (primarily from a share of critics), anyone who enjoyed the previous films (especially First Class and Days of Future Past) should have a fantastic time with ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ which marks yet another outstanding entry in the ever impressive ‘X-Men’ film franchise.
Overall, ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ is another fantastic, action-packed and visually spectacular entry in the X-Men franchise that is sure to please the fans, especially those who were particularly fond of ‘X-Men: First Class’ and ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ who should have a great deal of fun with the latest installment. Familiar X-director Bryan Singer once again returns and guides the film along beautifully, delivering in many ways the biggest film in the franchise to date. In short, I definitely give ‘X-Men Apocalypse’ one of my highest recommendations; while those who were never fans of the franchise obviously won’t find it a game changer, anyone who enjoys the X-Men films definitely won’t want to miss out on this one, it’s more than worth the cost of a rental at the very least and most fans who haven’t yet had the pleasure should have no regrets coughing up the cash for a blind purchase.
VIDEO:
The Blu-ray release of ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks fantastic as a whole and delivers a sharp, detailed and colorful presentation from start to finish that suffers no notable faults of any sort throughout. It holds up impressively even during the film’s numerous fast paced, darkly lit and just overall frenetic sequences and never results in anything occurring on screen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, this is an outstanding high definition video presentation that should easily thrill the casual viewers and hardcore franchise fans alike.
AUDIO:
The Blu-ray release features a lossless 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack provides a crisp, clean and wildly aggressive audio presentation throughout. Constantly utilizing all seven available channels in order to fully immerse the viewer within the insane action and sending a plethora of bullets, aircraft, debris, along with suddenly appearing characters and a whole lot more zipping throughout the various speakers with regularity, and never allowing any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted, let alone rendered inaudible. Overall, this is a sensational and hard hitting 7.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that shouldn’t disappoint in the slightest.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-ray release of ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ includes a pretty solid collection of extras. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with Director Bryan Singer and Writer Simon Kinberg’, in addition to a number of a ‘Deleted and Alternate Scenes’ from the film with optional introductions by Bryan Singer (running approximately 23 minutes in length altogether), a Gag Reel’ (running approximately 8 minutes), and a ‘Wrap Party Video’ (approximately 5 minutes). We are also treated to the feature length Behind the Scenes Documentary ‘X-Men: Apocalypse Unearthed’ (running approximately 1 hour, 4 minutes) which includes behind the scenes footage, interviews comments with the cast and crew, plus more. A collection of ‘Theatrical Trailers’ (approximately 7 minutes in total) for the film and ‘2 Still Galleries’: ‘Concept Art’ & ‘Unit Photography’ are also included.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
Film Rating: 8.5/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10
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