X-Men Apocalypse - 7/10

I read a review of this film that said it started and finished with great action set pieces, but stalled in the middle with moving characters around the board.  I'd say this is a pretty accurate description of the film.  However, that isn't my problem with the film - it's the problem which a character herself voiced during the film, leaving a screening of Return of the Jedi: "the third film is always the worst."  Apocalypse is definitely the worst of the three "modern" X-Men films, but that's not to say it's on a par with The Last Stand; far from it.  Compared against First Class (great film, really enjoyed the period setting) and Days of Future Past (excellent film, big in scope and ambition), Apocalypse just feels a little underwhelming.  The 80s period setting doesn't really resonate in the way that the 70s setting of DoFP did, and despite having a "world-ending" villain in the form of Apocalypse (who I think is never actually named as such), the scope feels too small.  DoFP did a great job of building the tension of the two timelines, and the stakes felt tangible.  Here, Apocalypse got his "four horsemen/women" together and tore up a city, but there's no sense of the peril he poses.

Despite this, the film does seem to do a good job of showing some character evolution (no pun intended) amongst the core cast.  Mystique/Raven seems to have found a new purpose, Charles Xavier is getting on with his School, and Eric/Magneto has got himself a family.  While it's a well-worn trope used to propel his story along, the events that hang over his family are handled well and don't feel too cheap.  My only complaint with these core cast development is that many of the new characters don't get any kind of development - Angel, Psylocke, and Storm feel like they've been airdropped into the story, and get very little dialogue.  "New" X-Men like Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, and Scott Summers fare a little better.  It did take me a little while to see Jean Grey as opposed to Sansa Stark...

Overall, not a bad film but not on a par with its predecessors.