When the first trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse hit earlier today we saw a lot of things for the first time. While this included the titular villain, we actually didn’t get the best look at him. Many of the shots from the trailer obscured Apocalypse’s face, or were of the "blink and you’ll miss it" variety. You might chalk this up to some of the negative reaction that the first pictures of the character received, but according to the director, Apocalypse is going to look just great in the final cut.
The initial images of Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse that were released a few months ago were criticized by many fans. Comparisons to Power Ranger villain Ivan Ooze were made. The character was very purple and did not really look like much of the monster that the character is known to be. In some comments made to Empire, director Bryan Singer explains why Apocalypse looked the way he did, and also why it doesn’t matter anyway.
That was a picture, and there were no visual effects. He’s a very powerful and imposing character and Oscar acts the shit out of it.
While there are still few decent images of the character in the trailer, we have to agree that he certainly looks better here than he did in the still images. His costume is more blue than bright purple, and with the digital effects, like the one that turns him into a giant, he certainly does look imposing. Singer is putting a lot of his trust in Oscar Isaac’s performance but from what the trailer shows us that may be a wise bet. His lines in the trailer certainly give the character gravitas, and we found ourselves not even looking at him so much, but, instead, listening to what he says. Even if there are issues with Apocalypse’s physical appearance, Isaac may be able to use his performance to adequately distract people from them. Compare the image below to the one above and see what you think.
Overall it looks like a significant improvement. At the same time, post production is likely not finished yet, which means there’s still plenty of time to make improvements to the character digitally, which sounds like it was the plan all along. Are you happy with the modifications, or does Apocalypse still look wrong to you?
