X Men: Apocalypse - The Sequel is dividing critics 

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X-Men Apocalypse review: Civil War or crushing bore? X-Men Apocalypse review: Civil War or crushing bore?

X-Men Apocalypse: The sequel is dividing critics X-Men Apocalypse: The sequel is dividing critics

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​The first reviews for director Bryan Singer\'s

Some critics simply don\'t know what to make of Oscar Isaac\'s towering blue-skinned villain, the young crop of X-Men led by Jennifer Lawrence and a time-travel trip back to the \'80s - as you\'ll see in the reviews below:

, but it has a messy charm all of its own, and maintains the quality set by the post-

films. With a new team of young X-Men standing by, the future\'s still looking bright for the franchise.​"

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"​The big problems lie with the bad guys, Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen. Alexandra Shipp\'s Storm gets far too little to do given how well she does it, Ben Hardy\'s Angel makes no impact at all and Olivia Munn, as Psylocke, is ferocious but entirely without nuance. 

"When we rejoin Michael Fassbender\'s Magneto, he\'s retired from plotting against humanity and lives in a rural idyll where he raises extraordinarily fluffy chickens with his lovely wife and daughter. You can have three guesses what hackneyed development might lead him back to evil-doing. But you\'ll only need one."

"​The idea of an apocalypse means every dial has to be turned up to 11 and this film certainly provides bangs for your buck, although there is less space for the surreal strangeness of the X-Men to breathe, less dialogue interest, and they do not have the looser, wittier joy of the Avengers. 

"But the more playful episodes with Cyclops and Quicksilver are welcome and everything hangs together. But in the future

films have to mutate into something with fewer characters and more characterisation

, but not by an awful lot, and vastly less entertaining than Marvel\'s current

smash, it\'s also curiously more sadistic, and seemingly less bothered about large-scale human fallout, than this once-spirited series used to be. 

also feels disconnected from the time in which it is set. Recent

movies have done a fantastic job of subsuming historical events into their plots, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, so it\'s a real shame

doesn\'t take more advantage of its vibrant 1980s setting. Mullets and leggings, and a couple of songs aside, this story could\'ve played out in any era.

falls somewhat short. It marginalises key relationships in favour of establishing new ones, and lacks the depth and distinctive historical flavour of its immediate predecessors. But taken as the next chapter in the series,

is an undeniably fun and entertaining adventure and does a pretty good job of establishing Xavier\'s next class.

, I really liked that the world wasn\'t at stake. It was refreshing. That\'s what I also liked a lot about

, we are back to the world being at stake. (I mean, it 

in the title.) By the time it\'s over, we are left looking at heaps of CGI destruction. I bet a hundred million people died. But, hey, the good news is Erik Lehnsherr learned a valuable life lesson. And that\'s all that really matters in this movie… and in every X-Men movie, really. Magneto is the human equivalent of a "One to Grow On" PSA.

 in terms of performances isJennifer Lawrence. I\'m in no position to say whether she tried or not, but she is right smack in the middle of an ensemble of actors that are all clearly giving this everything they\'ve got and she feels disconnected from it all – which is especially unfortunate because the 

 script gives her a good deal to work with when it comes to Raven/Mystique building relationships, accepting who she is and figuring out her place within the X-Men

 is a third-tier X-Men movie that arrives at a time when studios and filmmakers who traffic in spandex need to be at the top of their game. We know all of the clichés and all of the tropes too well at this point to settle for place-holding mediocrity. 

"We know the difference between an instant classic and a dog. 

 a movie with way too much of everything except the things that should matter the most—novelty, creativity, and fun."

 falls apart is with its titular villain: He\'s generically evil, setting out essentially to destroy everyone and everything on the planet, a plan that\'s not only difficult to take seriously but also gives screenwriter Simon Kinberg (

 installments used the mutants and their struggles to comment on everything from the civil rights movement to coming-out in the LGBT community, but all we can take from this film is standard-issue superhero battles.

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