As opposed to other superhero movies that have come out this year, X-Men: Apocalypse seems less preoccupied with taking the genre "to the next level" than securing this franchise's future while fixing it's past failure. At one point a character who has walked out of a movie theater showing Return of the Jedi (this X-Men adventure is set in 1983) says "So we can all agree the third one always suck." This might seem like some unfair shade on George Lucas's Ewoks but the diss is clearly aimed at X-Men: The Last Stand.

Having used X-Men: Days of Future Past to reboot the timeline of these films, director Bryan Singer seems to relish paying off things that were set up in X-Men: First Class and course correct the narrative for stronger and more complicated versions of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Psylocke (Olivia Munn) and Angel (Ben Hardy). He mostly succeeds with a very skillfully directed tentpole film that always entertains even when it doesn't manage to be as impressive as it should be.

It doesn't matter how much Singer and screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg try to reconfigure their beloved mutants, they can't break from the mold that dictates that these films end in a epic end of the world climax. Considering the film's subtitle is "Apocalypse" this would seem appropriate, but that is really the film's main antagonist. He is the most powerful mutant in the world (Oscar Isaac doing the best he can under heavy make up) and when he arises in the decade of Ronald Reagan and leg warmers he decides the world must end. For reasons that are not entirely clear, THE MOST POWERFUL MUTANT needs the help of four little helpers - sorry I mean four horsemen who will carry out his doing. This forces Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his young students to unite the X-Men once again.

Singer keeps the pace brisk but it's really obvious the parts of the story that he is invested in and the ones that are just obligatory. Rebooting Magneto (Michael Fassbender) as a truly tragic figure and another stupendous Quicksilver sequence fall in the first category while the old testament rhetoric that pushes Apocalypse's end of the world climax falls in the latter. Fortunately the scope of the film is so big there's enough to keep everyone entertained without noticing where the script falters or certain characters are almost wasted (Oscar Isaac deserves better and Olivia Munn needed way more screen time).

While Fassbender and McAvoy skillfully expand on what they've done in previous films, one who can't be bothered to be excited about being a main part of the plot is Jennifer Lawrence. Apparently the Oscar winning actress might be tired of franchise films or maybe just plain bored with her storyline in this one. That is a shame. In Kinberg's script, her Mystique has become the source of inspiration for the new generation of X-Men. Let's hope the new cast can also learn a lesson from Lawrence and leave a franchise way before you look like you are waiting for your check from the studio to clear.

Anyways, Lawrence's epic boredom and the script's missteps ultimately don't matter thanks to Singer's skills as a director and the promise of much better things to come in the X-Men on screen universe.

X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters May 27.