X-Men: Apocalypse Rotten Tomatoes rating off to poor start

Fans hoping for X-Men: Apocalypse to keep the strong year in Marvel-based movies going might be disappointed, according to early reviews.

Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War have made 2016 a good year at the movies for Marvel superheroes so far. Unfortunately, it looks like X-Men: Apocalypse might slow that momentum just a bit.

The first reviews for Fox’s next mutant movie are in, and they aren’t all that good. The X-Men: Apocalypse Rotten Tomatoes score stands at 43 at the time of this post, based on 12 positive reviews and 16 negative. Top Critics have so far liked it even less, with six negative reviews outweighing two positive.

It’s too early for a consensus review summary, but criticism seems to be focused on how little the movie brings to the table in terms of script originality and how little it gives Oscar Isaac to do as the titular villain — kind of a crime if true considering how he won everyone’s hearts as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly says Apocalypse is lacking in “novelty, creativity and fun,” while Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter suggests that the movie “is decidedly a case of more is less.” The X-Men movies have always featured fairly large casts, but perhaps this time Bryan Singer and company simply went a step too far.

A dissenting opinion comes from Bilge Ebiri of The Village Voice, who praises X-Men: Apocalypse for its “cohesion, its storytelling verve.” Ebiri’s full review goes well past that, claiming that it makes comic book movies great again.

So it’s fair to say the early reviews are mixed but trending toward rotten. There are still likely to be about nine times as many reviews still to come, but this poor of a start for the X-Men: Apocalypse Rotten Tomatoes rating has to be making Fox execs come down off their Deadpool high just a bit — not to mention making fans just a tad nervous for its May 27 opening.

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