Apocalypse James McAvoy is Professor Charles Xavier!

[henzINNIT]

McAvoy is pretty much the only actor FOX must resign if they want to continue beyond Apocalypse. Magneto, Mystique, and even Beast can step away from the mansion, but Xavier, his goals, and his relationship with the students are the foundation of this story. I can see him receding a little into the background for future installments. He should still get some meat in every story though. It wouldn't be difficult.

Charles is my favourite character in these prequel films, partially because of the performance McAvoy has put in with every chapter. For all of the problems I have with XM:A (and I have a LOT), it's the moments with Charles and his students that kept me invested. Him guiding the youngsters early on, bumbling with Moira, and his devastation toward the end when Raven is being choked out are still my highlights. He did not come away unscathed though.

I think Xavier is currently suffering from prequel-itis. By that, I mean that we're being shown a character that hasn't yet become the character as we know him, and by now the struggle to keep it fresh is starting to show.

- When First Class ended, we had the roots of Xavier, the X-Men and his school. DOFP came along and clawed him right back. He was alone, without a cause and reluctant to embrace his gift and help people.
- By the time DOFP finished, we see Charles rediscover himself and again we close with Xavier back on mission, ready to reopen the school and get his X-Men back together.
- When we pick up with XM:A, the school is there, but we still need him to learn something before he can be the Professor X we need him to be.

I didn't buy his arc in this film. Charles being reluctant to militarize his kids is an okay angle, but I think the previous film's events were enough to convince him to do it. By the same card, the events of Apocalypse are so random and isolated that I don't see it convinving him if he wasn't there already. It felt like an excuse to give Mystique a valid view that the others could learn from, when I think Xavier should have been there already.

It's not the worst case of prequel-itis ever, not even in the series (Beast has one arc: be blue and cheer up about it for god's sake) but it does urk me a little.

 

[yaellen]

I didn't buy his arc in this film. Charles being reluctant to militarize his kids is an okay angle, but I think the previous film's events were enough to convince him to do it. By the same card, the events of Apocalypse are so random and isolated that I don't see it convinving him if he wasn't there already. It felt like an excuse to give Mystique a valid view that the others could learn from, when I think Xavier should have been there already.

It's not the worst case of prequel-itis ever, not even in the series (Beast has one arc: be blue and cheer up about it for god's sake) but it does urk me a little.

IMO, after DoPF the world finally accepted mutants in some way which was the cause of him not to really considering having a fighting team. His goal was always teaching. I assume he probably seldom using Cerebro so he would not absorb the undercurrent hates much.

By the end of XMA however, he knows that the peace even if it was a false belief is gone. One hand you have normal humans started to be afraid of mutants, humans who have always hated mutants and at the same time tried to utilize stuff from mutants, on the other hand, there might exist unknown powerful mutants like Apocalypse who could threaten the whole world. These are the reason for Charles seriously putting effort training Xmen.

The relationship between mutants and humans is always the theme of X-men, and in Apocalypse such theme was less present because of the DoPF, but by the end of XMA, this theme is back on.

 

[henzINNIT]

IMO, after DoPF the world finally accepted mutants in some way which was the cause of him not to really considering having a fighting team. His goal was always teaching. I assume he probably seldom using Cerebro so he would not absorb the undercurrent hates much.

By the end of XMA however, he knows that the peace even if it was a false belief is gone. One hand you have normal humans started to be afraid of mutants, humans who have always hated mutants and at the same time tried to utilize stuff from mutants, on the other hand, there might exist unknown powerful mutants like Apocalypse who could threaten the whole world. These are the reason for Charles seriously putting effort training Xmen.

The relationship between mutants and humans is always the theme of X-men, and in Apocalypse such theme was less present because of the DoPF, but by the end of XMA, this theme is back on.

Yeah I agree with what you said, but it comes off as a bit too naive of Charles after what he has experienced. He is told the world needs the X-Men in DOFP, and pledges to bring them together. Maybe I would have found it more genuine if we had more of the deleted mall scenes so we'd have a better understanding of how mutants are currently treated.

 

[Smilodon]

The mall scene had Nightcrawler breakdancing with regular people, so that might've helped. But I think just having Charles secretly awaiting for the arrival of Scott and seeking out Storm would've helped. Or at least acknowledge that their meeting was foretold. Logan straight up tells him to search for Jean, Scott and Storm, and it seems weird that he ignores it. He doesn't have to actively prepare for battle, but just having him conscientiously aware of the possibility and then perhaps be in denial after seeing the world improve in the last decade might've made things a bit clearer. Especially since the film positions Charles as the idealist, Mystique the realist and Erik the extremist.

 

[henzINNIT]

The mall scene had Nightcrawler breakdancing with regular people, so that might've helped. But I think just having Charles secretly awaiting for the arrival of Scott and seeking out Storm would've helped. Or at least acknowledge that their meeting was foretold. Logan straight up tells him to search for Jean, Scott and Storm, and it seems weird that he ignores it. He doesn't have to actively prepare for battle, but just having him conscientiously aware of the possibility and then perhaps be in denial after seeing the world improve in the last decade might've made things a bit clearer. Especially since the film positions Charles as the idealist, Mystique the realist and Erik the extremist.

Even weirder when you factor in an epilogue that shows an aged Xavier with those very people. He even refers to them as a promise he had to keep. Odd that he wasn't all that bothered to find them.

This is also why Xavier's arc doesn't work for me. Not only does he come off as naive, he's not proactive either. He's content to sit back and run a school with no interest in the outside world. If you didn't have to fit Mystique into the story, you could have had Hank and Charles themselves off finding/rescuing mutants. Hank believes they should go further and train students to help, while Xavier is reluctant to put his kids in danger. That dynamic seems more streamlined and imediate, and could delve into Charles and Hank's 20 year friendship.

*shrugs* I'm getting off topic lol

 

[GuestStar2004]

Mutants are more accepted in the world by apocalypse and charles was basically on a mission to encourage acceptance and peace rather then going out to find some kids wolverine told him to get so he could create the X-Men and charles may have wanted his students to have a normal life

after all he is running a school, you teach the kids how to live in society and be good people.

 

[Smilodon]

Mutants are more accepted in the world by apocalypse and charles was basically on a mission to encourage acceptance and peace rather then going out to find some kids wolverine told him to get so he could create the X-Men and charles may have wanted his students to have a normal life

after all he is running a school, you teach the kids how to live in society and be good people.

We already know that. The movie makes it quite clear and that's why we have issue with them.

 

[ApophènX]

I didn't buy his arc in this film. Charles being reluctant to militarize his kids is an okay angle, but I think the previous film's events were enough to convince him to do it. By the same card, the events of Apocalypse are so random and isolated that I don't see it convinving him if he wasn't there already. It felt like an excuse to give Mystique a valid view that the others could learn from, when I think Xavier should have been there already.

It's not the worst case of prequel-itis ever, not even in the series (Beast has one arc: be blue and cheer up about it for god's sake) but it does urk me a little.

His house and all his sudent likely die how is this not enough to make him take responsability. In DoFP he was alone, Mystique and Magneto went their ways.

The point of XMA is that Charles goes to the middle and embrace par tof Erik's way, like Mystique did, letting her go and free wasn't enough, she had something to bring to him and he wasn't ready to integrate it.

The point is that Charles did not erase all his problem and still controlled woman (Moira's memory mistake come back). Where we could have think he had accomplished it did not, he still had to free the woman in a cage in his mind. And a big blue guy more radical than Magneto arrive. And he will take it's because of him.


I understand it's frustrating that Charles repeat his mistakes, like Erik, but that's part of the movie, the youth, Jean, will cary on.

Noticed something new!! and it exactly shows the point: Charles finnaly accept that he is like Mangeto, he accept this side of him, he accept to shield himself, his house/head, like Magneto shield his head. This done Magneto no more has an helmet and he calls Charles "Professor" for the first time. Jeez I got the goosbump again