With X-Men: Apocalypse receiving a very mixed reaction from critics and audiences alike – it’s either a terrific adaptation that feels like a filmed comic book, or it’s turgid nonsense that lacks structure and has too many characters – the recent announcement by Bryan Singer that he won’t be around for the next X-Men movie may not have come as much of a surprise. Having returned to the franchise with X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), and steered it to nearly three quarters of a billion dollars at the international box office, it seemed certain that Singer – along with writer/producer Simon Kinberg – would be able to repeat that instalment’s success with X-Men: Apocalypse. But it’s a funny thing: maybe Singer isn’t to blame, and maybe it’s not Singer who should step away from the franchise (though he probably does want to make other non-mutant filled movies). No, perhaps it should be Simon Kinberg, the writer of X-Men: Apocalypse, and wait – hang on, the writer of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) (that quote of Jean Grey’s – “At least we can all agree the third one is always the worst” – begins to make sense now). And wait just one second – he wrote Fantastic Four (2015) as well! (WtF?) With this in mind, this week’s question is an easy one:
With the latest X-Men trilogy now completed, is it time for a fresh pair of hands to take control of any further X-Men movies and bring a new perspective on it all, or should we let the same people carry on and potentially devalue the franchise even further?
thedullwoodexperiment 
I think you’re right but the flaws of Apocalypse aren’t just the writing but a combination of both direction and screenplay issues – its always good to inject some new blood (The Russo brothers over at Marvel are a good example) – I do sometimes wonder whether the xmen have had their time if they are already thinking about repeating some previous stories 😦 they should definitely learn something from Deadpool!
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I think you’re right, and the X-Men have had their time, but with the next movie already in the planning stages it looks like they’ll be with us for a while yet. For me it nearly always comes down to the script, and Apocalypse lacked so much of what makes a good screenplay, and particularly its plotting; I still can’t work out why En Sabah Nur had to destroy all the nuclear missiles, and how many times do we have to see Magneto choose to be a bad guy before he has second thoughts and switch sides again? For me it was a movie that promised a lot but didn’t deliver, and it felt as if everyone was going through the motions as well, which, considering the talent involved, is a real shame.
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I could not agree more – I think we are totally on the same lines here! Apparently with singer taking a back seat and a rest for a while the sequel may take some time to come out – a well earned rest is exactly what the franchise needs now – I can imagine we will get a couple of spin offs until then!
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