Only the strongest will survive. From the large pool of superhero movies, one of them is a little overlooked, and that is X-Men: Apocalypse. Yeah, I know they've disappointed us with two movies already, and their studio really is clingy when it comes to their properties, but let us take time to appreciate director Bryan Singer's efforts to save the franchise from desolation with X-Men: Days of Future Past. Besides, it takes a lot of effort in preventing The Last Stand happen (Goodness gracious it was disappointing), and a lot of commitment to bring the entire franchise back on its feet. Anyway, let's quit praising, and let's see what the new trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse has in store! And no, Deadpool can't be featured in the post. Maybe next time?
Spotted! Hidden Surprises and Trivia (Spoiler Alert!)
5. Frightful Four! (Oh wait...) - Above, we get to see Apocalypse's Four Horsemen. Actually, I'm a little baffled at this version's Horsemen. For those who don't know (strangely), the four horsemen symbolize Death, Famine, Pestilence and War, and are mentioned in the Bible to be the ones to bring forth the end of the world! In the comics, they are various beings chosen by the titular villain to serve his wishes, and he also provided them with enhanced powers. Each time he returns, Apocalypse recruits strictly four individuals.
Spotted! Hidden Surprises and Trivia (Spoiler Alert!)
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From research and some logic, we theorized what each of the members would represent in the movie. It can be said that Magneto would represent war, because obviously as you might have noticed from previous movies, he is at "war" with the humans. Archangel represents death because of the well-known angel of "death". Storm and Psylocke were tricky, especially since Psylocke was Death in the comics. Storm might be representing famine comparing on how a powerful storm would destroy crops, resulting in minimal food supply. That leaves us with Psylocke representing pestilence. It might be because of her telepathic abilities (power to enter minds) might be analogous to a plague which can infect a body. Oh good, Wikipedia just confirmed our theory!
6. Behold, My X-Men - This sure does feel a little a lot like Captain America: Civil War and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice all over again. I mean, the current Four Horsemen are technically heroes in the comics. Anyway, above is the second incarnation of the First Class X-Men. We get to see the entire roster of the movie, from Cyclops, to Jean Grey, to Nightcrawler, to the Beast, to Prof. X in the background and Quicksilver. What's intriguing here is that Mystique is front-and-center in this poster. It seems that Mystique may be leading the team in the field, which is actually new for the character, as Mystique was never a part of the X-Men. Oh wait she did? Well, that's weird. Also, where's Havok? Wasn't he shown alive in Days of Future Past?
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In case you missed it, here's the latest trailer to the movie!
What we saw in the trailer?
7. "Things are better. The world is better." - Charles Xavier
"Just because there's not a war, doesn't mean there's peace. He's coming." - Raven / Mystique - Simply listening to Prof. X's words would automatically help the audience to picture what has happened since the Wolverine meddled with time travel, Terminator Style, and prevented the Sentinels from taking over the world! It's been said that the world is better, meaning that with the existence of Mutants now a public knowledge; people have accepted Mutants as brothers and sisters. We also get to see some glimpses of the fully-functioning Xavier's Institute For Gifted Youngsters. It truly is a better world for the X-Men.
8. "Some call him Apocalypse. He was some kind of god. For thousands of years he has been amassing Mutants, to take their powers. He always has four followers." - Moira MacTaggert
"Like the Four Horsemen." - Alex Summers / Havok - Hey here's Havok! The lines itself are pretty self-explanatory. We later on see Apocalypse merging with highly advanced extraterrestrial technology, which eventually resulted in him enhancing his powers. In the comics, these pieces of technology are crafted by the Celestials, a group of godlike beings (If you've been following on Guardians of The Galaxy, the name would sound familiar.). If we are to follow the comics, wherein he discovered the technology while he was an injured soldier in a cave, we could also get to see Kang The Conqueror, a time-travelling would-be world conqueror and classic Fantastic Four and Avengers enemy who was partially responsible for Apocalypse becoming who he is today. In the comics, Kang knew that Apocalypse would become dangerous, and so he decided to masquerade as a pharaoh to hunt him down before his powers manifest.
For more information on Kang The Conqueror, click here.
9. "Erik, don't join them." - Charles Xavier
"Whatever it is you think you saw in me, I buried it with my family." - Erik Lensherr / Magneto - Here we are again with Magneto being conflicted to join the other side because of his personal problems, and eventually (as we might see) switching sides because he's not entirely a bad guy. According to him, he lost his family. Would that family be Quicksilver's mother? We later on learned that Quicksilver was his son, a plot twist that everyone, even those who don't read the comics, should know by now. Quicksilver's mother might have been murdered by William Stryker, who we also learned later that he was back in the movie as a younger incarnation, who was actually targeting Magneto because of his involvement in Days of Future Past's Sentinel incident. However, we did see Magneto residing in a forest ranch, which signifies probably that he got over his vendetta towards the humans and moved-on to start a family, until Stryker came along.
10. "Together, we will cleanse the Earth. Everything they've built, will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we will build a better one!" - En Saban Nur / Apocalypse - Again, more self-explanatory dialogues. It is clear Apocalypse wants to take over the world, but not just rule upon what is available, he wants to destroy it first, then afterwards, build a new empire from its ashes. Basically, it's like Avengers: Age of Ultron, complete with the Biblical references, but minus the huge meteor allegory. So, it's the Age of Apocalypse then? (Comic readers will get that reference, because it looks like the movie is heading that route.)
11. "I have never felt power like this before." - Charles Xavier
"CHARLES!!!" - Mystique - In this scene, we might get to see a possible psychic battle between Professor X and Apocalypse. As said by Prof. X, his powers are so powerful, that he has not felt anything like that before. We could also assume that this really is a psychic battle as here, Prof. X can walk, and by the looks of it, he lost, because eventually we hear that Prof. X has been taken. But the question remains, if Apocalypse is all powerful, why would he need a psychic Mutant like Charles? Let's figure that out in the next hidden surprise.
12. "They've taken him. Raven, the world needs the X-Men." - Hank McCoy / Beast - Again, why would Apocalypse need Prof. X if he is already powerful enough? What if Apocalypse may be a strong Mutant, but not strong enough to rule an entire planet? If so, then he must be seeking to enhance his abilities, but in order to do that, he must seek-out one man who has a knack for genetics in all of Marvel-dom. A certain mister who is so sinister (Ahem!), that a mere word from his mouth would mean doom for the X-Men. That is none other than Nathaniel Essex, Mister Sinister. (If you still haven't figured out who he was when I gave the obvious hint, then you must have been living under a rock.) In the comics, Nathaniel Essex is an immortal Mutant geneticist, who has been obsessed with the Mutant Genome, that he believes mutation is the next stage in evolution, and was a very terrible father and husband. A frequent partner to Apocalypse, Mister Sinister became a recurring foe, especially to Cyclops, with whom he had an obsession for. Apocalypse might need Prof. X to further enhance with powers through Mister Sinister's experiments, not knowing that a more powerful Mutant is available, and that is Jean Grey.
For more information on Mister Sinister, click here.
13. "I'm not a hero." - Mystique
"Students look up to you." - Beast
"If I'm going to teach your kids something, I'm going to teach them how to fight." - Mystique - It seems that, even with Days of Future Past making her the main reason why the world nearly came to an end in the first place, Mystique's reputation is still predominantly high, as Beast remarks that students see her as a role model. This exchange also cements Mystique's role in the movie as a field leader and instructor to the new recruits of the X-Men.
14. "Follow me." - Mystique
"You're her?" - Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler - After seeing a glimpse of Nightcrawler's past time, and Angel's appearance before having enhanced metallic wings, which is the one we saw when the Four Horsemen assembled (provided by Mister Sinister in the comics.), Mystique and Nightcrawler make their escape, only to hear Nigthcrawler acting excited in front of Mystique, as if he recognizes her. It could be fame, but she could also be his mother. In the comics, Nightcrawler's mother is none other than Mystique, which explains his trademark blue skin (Seriously, is anyone in the movie not wearing blue?). Those teleporting powers are familiar, however, as we saw someone else in red using said abilities in X-Men: First Class. That is Azazel. Again in the comics, Mystique, disguised as a German noblewoman, had an affair with Azazel, eventually giving birth to Nightcrawler. If you might remember from First Class, Mystique and Azazel joined forces with the remainders of the Hellfire Club to form a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for a short time. It is possible that the two had a brief romance in their respective time in the team.
For more information on Azazel, click here.
15. "I'm not afraid of him. Magneto, he's my father." - Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver
"What?" - Mystique
"Y'know, my mom and..." - Quicksilver
"Yeah, I know." - Mystique - And there we have it, Quicksilver really is Magneto's child. It was briefly hinted last time in X-Men: Days of Future Past that Quicksilver's mother knew someone who can move metal. It was possible that, as previously mentioned, that he was motivated to join the team because his mother was killed. This seems somewhat unlikely now that we saw Quicksilver's home totally untouched, and very distant from where Magneto was currently living in.
16. "Not all of us can control our powers." - Scott Summers / Cyclops
"Then don't. This is war." - Mystique - More scenes of Mystique being a leader are presented, and it is very evident that the X-Men are almost inexperienced when it comes to fighting bad guys like Apocalypse. This means that they are not that ready yet to fight the villain. Just a comment. I'm a little disappointed that they decided to discard their trademark yellow outfits that they wore in First Class. I liked the yellow ones better. Besides, dark costumes are getting more and more common place.
17. "Apocalypse means to destroy this world." - Charles Xavier - Yet more exposition. Here, we see some nuclear missiles being launched, which is kind of intriguing. What if the missiles are all part of Apocalypse's plan to rule the world? He might have picked-up some notes from Sebastian Shaw, who was played by Kevin Bacon (Footloose) in First Class, as he might also know that the nuclear strikes would not harm the majority of mutants, but it will harm all the humans. Survival of the fittest, indeed. Unless, this is the governments of the world turning their backs once more against the Mutants in the aftermath of Apocalypse's attacks. It might be possible that the governments became so concerned with Apocalypse's godlike powers that they decided to launch everything they have, and by everything I mean the entire nuclear missile defense. Will Apocalypse win?
18. "It's all of us against a god. The most powerful beings on Earth." - Beast - We get to see some awesome action here. Not much hidden surprises, but there are tons, and I mean tons of slick action sequences. We do, however, get to see Angel receiving his metallic wings, and clearly he is very mad. It might be because of Nightcrawler and Mystique defeating him earlier, or it might be because Stryker experimented on him, forcibly granting him his unwanted wings.
19. "Forget everything you think you know. None of that matters. You're not students anymore..." - Mystique
"I'll take everything from them." - Magneto
"You're X-Men!" - Mystique - We finally see Stryker in full form, and played by the same actor, Josh Helman, who portrayed him in Days of Future Past. Like I said, Apocalypse might seek the aid of Mister Sinister to enhance his powers, but what if he is instead seeking another expert in Mutant genetics? Sure, it might simply be just a government raid on the school, but what if Apocalypse is using Stryker to collect Mutant samples. Obviously, Stryker and Apocalypse would, never in a million years strike a partnership, but what if Stryker is working for Mister Sinister, who he thinks is just an average scientist and who in turn, is working for Apocalypse? If so, who knows what Apocalypse may do with all the Mutants at his disposal.
20. "Well you've been busy." - Mystique
"We had a little help." - Cyclops - And now we come to the last hidden surprise, that is Wolverine's possible involvement in the battle against Apocalypse. I would go into detail how this might play-out, but the post is getting really long again.
So while you wait for the next post to come out, please enjoy Quicksilver's finest moment from Days of Future Past. Also, as you can see, we're posting a lot recently with mostly comicbook movies. That is actually because of the large number of superhero movies that are set to be released this year. You must be getting tired from the superhero scene? Well I recommend watching Birdman, it's a good movie! Speaking of which, I better review that movie! Now is the break that I require, I bid you all farewell.
8. "Some call him Apocalypse. He was some kind of god. For thousands of years he has been amassing Mutants, to take their powers. He always has four followers." - Moira MacTaggert
"Like the Four Horsemen." - Alex Summers / Havok - Hey here's Havok! The lines itself are pretty self-explanatory. We later on see Apocalypse merging with highly advanced extraterrestrial technology, which eventually resulted in him enhancing his powers. In the comics, these pieces of technology are crafted by the Celestials, a group of godlike beings (If you've been following on Guardians of The Galaxy, the name would sound familiar.). If we are to follow the comics, wherein he discovered the technology while he was an injured soldier in a cave, we could also get to see Kang The Conqueror, a time-travelling would-be world conqueror and classic Fantastic Four and Avengers enemy who was partially responsible for Apocalypse becoming who he is today. In the comics, Kang knew that Apocalypse would become dangerous, and so he decided to masquerade as a pharaoh to hunt him down before his powers manifest.
For more information on Kang The Conqueror, click here.
9. "Erik, don't join them." - Charles Xavier
"Whatever it is you think you saw in me, I buried it with my family." - Erik Lensherr / Magneto - Here we are again with Magneto being conflicted to join the other side because of his personal problems, and eventually (as we might see) switching sides because he's not entirely a bad guy. According to him, he lost his family. Would that family be Quicksilver's mother? We later on learned that Quicksilver was his son, a plot twist that everyone, even those who don't read the comics, should know by now. Quicksilver's mother might have been murdered by William Stryker, who we also learned later that he was back in the movie as a younger incarnation, who was actually targeting Magneto because of his involvement in Days of Future Past's Sentinel incident. However, we did see Magneto residing in a forest ranch, which signifies probably that he got over his vendetta towards the humans and moved-on to start a family, until Stryker came along.
10. "Together, we will cleanse the Earth. Everything they've built, will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we will build a better one!" - En Saban Nur / Apocalypse - Again, more self-explanatory dialogues. It is clear Apocalypse wants to take over the world, but not just rule upon what is available, he wants to destroy it first, then afterwards, build a new empire from its ashes. Basically, it's like Avengers: Age of Ultron, complete with the Biblical references, but minus the huge meteor allegory. So, it's the Age of Apocalypse then? (Comic readers will get that reference, because it looks like the movie is heading that route.)
11. "I have never felt power like this before." - Charles Xavier
"CHARLES!!!" - Mystique - In this scene, we might get to see a possible psychic battle between Professor X and Apocalypse. As said by Prof. X, his powers are so powerful, that he has not felt anything like that before. We could also assume that this really is a psychic battle as here, Prof. X can walk, and by the looks of it, he lost, because eventually we hear that Prof. X has been taken. But the question remains, if Apocalypse is all powerful, why would he need a psychic Mutant like Charles? Let's figure that out in the next hidden surprise.
12. "They've taken him. Raven, the world needs the X-Men." - Hank McCoy / Beast - Again, why would Apocalypse need Prof. X if he is already powerful enough? What if Apocalypse may be a strong Mutant, but not strong enough to rule an entire planet? If so, then he must be seeking to enhance his abilities, but in order to do that, he must seek-out one man who has a knack for genetics in all of Marvel-dom. A certain mister who is so sinister (Ahem!), that a mere word from his mouth would mean doom for the X-Men. That is none other than Nathaniel Essex, Mister Sinister. (If you still haven't figured out who he was when I gave the obvious hint, then you must have been living under a rock.) In the comics, Nathaniel Essex is an immortal Mutant geneticist, who has been obsessed with the Mutant Genome, that he believes mutation is the next stage in evolution, and was a very terrible father and husband. A frequent partner to Apocalypse, Mister Sinister became a recurring foe, especially to Cyclops, with whom he had an obsession for. Apocalypse might need Prof. X to further enhance with powers through Mister Sinister's experiments, not knowing that a more powerful Mutant is available, and that is Jean Grey.
For more information on Mister Sinister, click here.
13. "I'm not a hero." - Mystique
"Students look up to you." - Beast
"If I'm going to teach your kids something, I'm going to teach them how to fight." - Mystique - It seems that, even with Days of Future Past making her the main reason why the world nearly came to an end in the first place, Mystique's reputation is still predominantly high, as Beast remarks that students see her as a role model. This exchange also cements Mystique's role in the movie as a field leader and instructor to the new recruits of the X-Men.
14. "Follow me." - Mystique
"You're her?" - Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler - After seeing a glimpse of Nightcrawler's past time, and Angel's appearance before having enhanced metallic wings, which is the one we saw when the Four Horsemen assembled (provided by Mister Sinister in the comics.), Mystique and Nightcrawler make their escape, only to hear Nigthcrawler acting excited in front of Mystique, as if he recognizes her. It could be fame, but she could also be his mother. In the comics, Nightcrawler's mother is none other than Mystique, which explains his trademark blue skin (Seriously, is anyone in the movie not wearing blue?). Those teleporting powers are familiar, however, as we saw someone else in red using said abilities in X-Men: First Class. That is Azazel. Again in the comics, Mystique, disguised as a German noblewoman, had an affair with Azazel, eventually giving birth to Nightcrawler. If you might remember from First Class, Mystique and Azazel joined forces with the remainders of the Hellfire Club to form a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for a short time. It is possible that the two had a brief romance in their respective time in the team.
For more information on Azazel, click here.
15. "I'm not afraid of him. Magneto, he's my father." - Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver
"What?" - Mystique
"Y'know, my mom and..." - Quicksilver
"Yeah, I know." - Mystique - And there we have it, Quicksilver really is Magneto's child. It was briefly hinted last time in X-Men: Days of Future Past that Quicksilver's mother knew someone who can move metal. It was possible that, as previously mentioned, that he was motivated to join the team because his mother was killed. This seems somewhat unlikely now that we saw Quicksilver's home totally untouched, and very distant from where Magneto was currently living in.
16. "Not all of us can control our powers." - Scott Summers / Cyclops
"Then don't. This is war." - Mystique - More scenes of Mystique being a leader are presented, and it is very evident that the X-Men are almost inexperienced when it comes to fighting bad guys like Apocalypse. This means that they are not that ready yet to fight the villain. Just a comment. I'm a little disappointed that they decided to discard their trademark yellow outfits that they wore in First Class. I liked the yellow ones better. Besides, dark costumes are getting more and more common place.
17. "Apocalypse means to destroy this world." - Charles Xavier - Yet more exposition. Here, we see some nuclear missiles being launched, which is kind of intriguing. What if the missiles are all part of Apocalypse's plan to rule the world? He might have picked-up some notes from Sebastian Shaw, who was played by Kevin Bacon (Footloose) in First Class, as he might also know that the nuclear strikes would not harm the majority of mutants, but it will harm all the humans. Survival of the fittest, indeed. Unless, this is the governments of the world turning their backs once more against the Mutants in the aftermath of Apocalypse's attacks. It might be possible that the governments became so concerned with Apocalypse's godlike powers that they decided to launch everything they have, and by everything I mean the entire nuclear missile defense. Will Apocalypse win?
18. "It's all of us against a god. The most powerful beings on Earth." - Beast - We get to see some awesome action here. Not much hidden surprises, but there are tons, and I mean tons of slick action sequences. We do, however, get to see Angel receiving his metallic wings, and clearly he is very mad. It might be because of Nightcrawler and Mystique defeating him earlier, or it might be because Stryker experimented on him, forcibly granting him his unwanted wings.
19. "Forget everything you think you know. None of that matters. You're not students anymore..." - Mystique
"I'll take everything from them." - Magneto
"You're X-Men!" - Mystique - We finally see Stryker in full form, and played by the same actor, Josh Helman, who portrayed him in Days of Future Past. Like I said, Apocalypse might seek the aid of Mister Sinister to enhance his powers, but what if he is instead seeking another expert in Mutant genetics? Sure, it might simply be just a government raid on the school, but what if Apocalypse is using Stryker to collect Mutant samples. Obviously, Stryker and Apocalypse would, never in a million years strike a partnership, but what if Stryker is working for Mister Sinister, who he thinks is just an average scientist and who in turn, is working for Apocalypse? If so, who knows what Apocalypse may do with all the Mutants at his disposal.
20. "Well you've been busy." - Mystique
"We had a little help." - Cyclops - And now we come to the last hidden surprise, that is Wolverine's possible involvement in the battle against Apocalypse. I would go into detail how this might play-out, but the post is getting really long again.
So while you wait for the next post to come out, please enjoy Quicksilver's finest moment from Days of Future Past. Also, as you can see, we're posting a lot recently with mostly comicbook movies. That is actually because of the large number of superhero movies that are set to be released this year. You must be getting tired from the superhero scene? Well I recommend watching Birdman, it's a good movie! Speaking of which, I better review that movie! Now is the break that I require, I bid you all farewell.
