Okay, while I liked Apocalypse, flaws and all, after listening to the commentary between Singer and Kinberg, as well as seeing all of the deleted scenes, I now have a greater appreciation for it.
First off, Singer. I do hope that even if he doesn't direct another of these films, he's involved in some capacity. He's not a comics guy, sure, but he does know how to work with the actors and it was interesting to learn how upset he was about having to cut scenes, particularly the longer forest sequence due to a moment that Fassbender came up after Erik's wife and daughter were killed. Watching it, I see why it was cut for time, and given how much Erik's story has been rooted in tragedy, it might have just been pouring on more emotion than we already had.
He says that First Class is Erik's film, DoFP was Charles' from an emotional standpoint, and Apocalypse is Raven's. I don't entirely agree with that last one, but I do see what he meant by this trilogy being anchored by them. They are arguably the bigger names of this younger cast, but I also think, like First Class, the new team we get at the end of Apocalypse can have a chance to shine in future installments.
He mentioned that he's been criticized for not going comic book with the costumes, and I can agree with that, but I think the landscape of comic book adaptations today isn't what it was in 2000. He says that you can do bright and colorful with Spider-Man, Captain America, but the mutants are trying to blend in and not stick out. But with Deadpool, the MCU, the DCCW shows, audiences nowadays are more accepting of colorful costumes, so in hindsight, it feels like Singer had to build to this, even though we did get a taste of the comic costumes in First Class.
Then there's the character stuff- apparently, Sophie Turner's casting as Jean Grey was Singer's call since he's a big Game of Thrones fan, and he liked the chemistry on reads between her, Tye Sheridan, and Alexandra Shipp, and I do wish more of that shined on-screen.
Which gets me to the deleted scenes. Like the Rogue Cut, it's nice that Fox let Singer shoot as much as he did, but for the scenes themselves, I'm of two minds about them. A lot of them are minor, but character building, like Alex first going to Scott and saying they're a lot more alike than Scott realizes. That, plus Scott and Jean introducing themselves to each other by name help give them small moments that allow us to see their chemistry.
I'm of two minds about the extended mall scene: on one hand, I don't know if it fits tonally, but at the same time, this allows the kids to bond, it was funny, and it did add to Nightcrawler's character when he's surprised that most humans aren't afraid of mutants walking around in public. That and Jubilee actually used her powers.
If anything, to save time, the movie could have trimmed the opening Apocalypse sequence, left out the Return of the Jedi conversation, and maybe trimmed down SOME of the Weapon X sequence (since in hindsight, it did help set up Logan instead of Deadpool, as as apparently the intention) and then put in those deleted scenes to slowly flesh out the new characters.
So while I have minor issues on Apocalypse, I did like listening to what Singer intended to do, wanting to do Phoenix right, the deleted scenes that would've been good character moments that had to be cut for time, and though I'm interested to see what a new director can do with the main series, I still enjoyed this film, flaws and all.
