There’s a lot of destruction in X-Men: Apocalypse. More so than any other X-Men film, in fact. But there’s not a lot of on-screen genocide. Sure, bombs get deployed, landmarks crumble and bridges are destroyed, but only a mere few are seen in direct peril. More than a handful of fans and critics have considered that among the film’s most fatal flaws. According to screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg, however, this was a very deliberate move on director Bryan Singer’s part.
When discussing the film during Empire Podcast‘s Spoiler Special, X-Men veteran Simon Kinberg had the following to say:
We tried to keep it that the things that [Magneto] was destroying felt almost more like monuments or rooftops of buildings rather than a building toppling over and people dying. It’s one of the things that Bryan’s very sensitive to. I may be less sensitive to it. Actually, I’m sort of more of a genre geek where I’m okay if cities are destroyed. Bryan’s very sensitive to collateral damage. If you go back and watch the movie, it’s things like bridges ripping apart and cars floating up in the air, but you don’t see cars dive-bombing into the water. Shipping containers flying through the air, but they don’t smash into any bodies. The top of the Sydney Opera House ripping off, but the base of it remaining intact. We tried to be careful about that collateral damage. It’s something people are very critical about in other movies that we know about.
It’s an understandable concern, to be clear. And very few films have been able to strike that balance between grave danger and lighthearted heroics, especially in an appropriate fashion. Even when they do, like Captain America: Civil War, it’s hard to communicate that level of loss and tragedy and not have it weigh heavy on the presiding. But I understand where Singer is coming from (and, by the way, I did like the movie).
But speaking of lighthearted and Singer’s choices, the X-Men director himself also took this platform to discuss Ally Sheedy’s unexpected cameo, where she Cyclops’ (Tye Sheridan) teacher early in the film, and how she came aboard the franchise builder in such an untraditional manner.
Two identical twin filmmaker friends of mine, Gary and Edmund Entin, who made a film called Sins of Our Youth, that Ally was in and she has an amazing couple of scenes in it. I hadn’t seen her work in a while and she just rocked it in their film. One of them suggested, “It’s that time period, why don’t you put Ally in there?” And I rewatched WarGames, where she plays the obnoxious person in the classroom, and, of course, there’s Breakfast Club. So to switch roles and have her be the annoyed teacher would be such a fun thing to do.
Hey, you won’t find me complaining about bringing Ally back to the big screen. In fact, while you’re at it Hollywood, why not keep a good thing going, huh? You’re bringing back everyone and their mother anyway.
Source: Empire Podcast
